Almost a thousand volunteers from 125 different organizations have donated more than 16,200 hours of volunteer service at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home in Vineland this year. The Veterans Home held a Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on Thursday, April 25 to honor those volunteers.

"The companionship and camaraderie between the volunteers and the veteran residents is the best gift," said home CEO Joseph Romano. In the last decade there has been a dramatic shift in the life at the Vineland Veterans Home. With more emphasis on home health care and assisted living, veterans are able to stay at home longer. They are coming to the veterans home older (mean age 79), in need of more medical care and much more dependant on wheelchairs and other ambulatory devices. "One on one personal interaction is replacing the large-scale events of a decade ago."

"Volunteers become like family," said Daniel McCole, American Legion state commander. "Happiness and love are good for the soul." The American Legion was awarded the Project of the Year for the wheelchair-accessible van and the treadmill they donated. 

"We sit down with the veterans one on one," said Daniel Weiss, Executive Director, Jewish War Veterans. "We ask what can we do and then we do it whether it is reading a story, buying pajamas or helping them purchase a larger screen TV. We just go out and buy it." The Group of the Year was awarded to the Jewish War Veterans Post 126 of Cherry Hill. The post donated physical therapy equipment as well as holding many activities and functions for the veterans at the home. "The home is most often the last place the veterans go. They count on the volunteers to make their last days as comfortable as possible."

"Our staff provides the services and amenities the veterans need, but the volunteers are the ones who provide the niceties that make our facilities a home," said BG Glenn K. Rieth, The Adjutant General of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland, the oldest veteran home still in operation in the country, celebrated its centennial birthday in January 2000. On January 2, 1900, The New Jersey Soldiers Home for Disabled Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and their Wives and Widows (the home's original name) opened its doors in Vineland. The original residents worked on the home's farm and helped prepare their own meals. During the last century, the home's first DC electric lights were installed in 1908 and converted to AC power in 1944; the first motored vehicle was purchased in 1909; a "cold storage plant" (refrigerator and freezer) was installed in 1916; boilers were installed for heat and hot water in 1919; an elevator was installed in 1922; window aerials (radio antenna) were introduced in 1924; a moving picture machine was obtained in 1943; and the first television was donated to the home (by the American Legion) in 1947.

Today the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland is one of three veteran nursing homes operated by the New Jersey Department of Military Veterans Affairs (NJDMVA). The almost 300 current residents receive state-of-the-art, around-the-clock medical and nursing care, rehabilitative and recreational services, special dietary service and other amenities. 

New Jersey, the first state to establish a facility for disabled war veterans, opened the New Jersey Solider Home in Newark on July 4, 1866, to care for disabled Civil War veterans. The Department of Military Veterans Affairs currently operates three veteran homes with a total of 950 beds. The facilities, all located near major roadways, are in Menlo Park, Paramus and Vineland. NJDMVA encourages qualified veterans in need of long-term care to apply now.