6 Ways You Can Celebrate Veterans This Weekend

Folks, many of you know that I’m a big supporter of service members, veterans, and their families. They're the people who help protect our country and they deserve a big thank you for all of their sacrifices. The thing is, we should be supporting our troops and their families year round, not just celebrating their contributions one or two days a year.

Veterans are everywhere, and even if you don’t think you know anyone, you probably do. They might be your neighbors, your coworkers, or the people you see every week at the grocery store. Many veteran families have a tough time assimilating back to civilian life. We need to rally together to help them out as much as we can.

If you want to support and thank veterans today you can:

• Attend the America’s Parade in New York City
• Attend L.A.’s first ever America’s Parade
• Head to the Greater Manassas Veteran’s Day Parade
• Go to the National Veterans Day Ceremony at the Arlington Cemetery
• Visit the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago
• Participate in Penn State’s Military Appreciation week

While it’s important to support service members every day, if you’re looking for a way to do so on Veterans Day, I’d encourage everyone who’s able to reach out and donate what you can to help out veterans, service members, and their families. Here are a few orgs I support and they could really use your support too:

• Swords to Plowshares
• Vets in Tech
• Blue Star Families
• City College of San Francisco
• The SF Veterans Resource Center
• The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
• Disabled American Veterans
• Bob Woodruff Foundation
• San Francisco 311—Veterans Services
• National Military Family Association
• Joining Forces

How are you going to help celebrate our veterans and their families this weekend? And why are you thankful for our service members?