91 years young and vet continues making a difference

At 91 years young, WWII vet Jaime “Jimmy” Pesongco, along with almost two dozen of his fellow veterans, volunteered to perform a number of property renovation tasks as part of United Relief Foundation's cook-out to officially kick-off the Foundation's Project Restoring Hope House 348.

Jimmy will be celebrating his 92nd birthday on June 29th and he plans to continue doing whatever he can to make a difference in the lives of veterans in need.

Located in the Chicago neighborhood of Greater Grand Crossing, House 348 is part of the United Relief Foundation's Project Restoring Hope efforts to provide the long term, positive life changing opportunities for veterans that comes from home ownership.

In January 2011, the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported 15% of Illinois homeless are veterans and while circumstantial factors vary, homelessness occurs when people or households are unable to acquire and/or maintain housing they can afford.

United Relief Foundation's actions to purchase and renovate distressed houses for the specific purpose of being occupied by veterans in need, tangibly deals with the scarcity of affordable housing identified in the National Alliance to End Homelessness “State of Homelessness report”.

“Veterans certainly deserve much more than just our respect and Mr. Pesongco still giving of himself at 91 because he is able, amplifies why all veterans deserve our unwavering gratitude”, commented United Relief Foundation president Frank Salato. “My experience has been veterans in need don't want a hand-out, they are just hoping for a helping hand-up. We only planned tasks for ten volunteers, but it was an added bonus when we started out with ten and it grew into twenty. You could say the United Relief Foundation now has its own Armed Forces branch of volunteers.”

Another unique aspect of Project Restoring Hope is United Relief Foundation's Caring through Sharing to engage and reward veterans support organizations in the Foundation's efforts to provide hope and help to veterans.

Vet-Net Chicago, a peer-support organization for veterans by veterans and the Coalition of Veterans Organizations, which educates and serves as an information clearing house on veterans' issues, are United Relief Foundation Hope and Help Partners engaged in the House 348 project.

Deerfield-based United Relief Foundation is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) humanitarian aid organization organized in 2006 to provide compassion, comfort and care to ease human suffering anywhere within the United States.

For information regarding the United Relief Foundation, to volunteer your time or make a donation, call (847) 580-4250 or visit www.UnitedReliefFoundation.org.