The Toyota “100 Cars for Good” program is awarding 100 vehicles over the course of 100 days to 100 deserving nonprofit organizations based on votes from the public. 100 Cars for Good engages the public to help determine how corporate philanthropic donations will be awarded.

Vets4Vets (www.vets4vets.us) is a Tucson-based nonprofit 501C3 organization established in 2005. Vets4Vets enables veterans to interact with one another and provides an atmosphere for healing, camaraderie, and fulfilling actions to be taken.  This positive environment promotes recovery through the interactions between fellow veterans who have served.

According to Abel Moreno, Executive Director of Vets4Vets, and the Tucson 2011 40 under 40 Man of the Year, “This vehicle will be used to help assist veterans nationally by being able to drive to workshop venues.  Vets4Vets hold national workshops and this fuel efficient Prius will make the events easier to get to.  We will be able to cut travel cost to provide more peer-support workshops through out United States because of Toyota.  This car will allow us to pick–up our volunteers in the various locations around the country.  It is a privilege and an honor to accept this vehicle on behalf of the staff and the nationwide veterans we serve.”

In recognizing Vets4Vets, Precision Toyota wanted to further support their positive impact on the community.
“Precision Toyota has been proud to be a part of the Tucson community since 1954,” said Brett Maxwell, General Manager of Precision Toyota. “Throughout that time, we’ve supported the community in many ways.”

The Toyota “100 Cars for Good” program enables 100 organizations to receive a Toyota vehicle to make a greater impact on the community. Since 1991, Toyota has contributed more than $500 million to non-profit organizations, and has always been guided by a strong belief in serving the communities where it does business.  If you’d like to learn more, please visit http://www.toyota.com/about/philanthropy/.

WHAT:
Precision Toyota to present a 2011 Prius to Vets4Vets as part of the Toyota “100 Cars for Good” program. The first Toyota initiative that engages the public to determine how corporate philanthropic donations will be awarded, the Toyota “100 Cars for Good” program is awarding 100 vehicles to 100 deserving nonprofit organizations based on votes from the public.

WHEN:
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
1:00 pm
SUGGESTED ARRIVAL TIME FOR MEDIA: 12:45pm

WHERE:
Precision Toyota
700 West Wetmore at Auto Mall Drive
Tucson, AZ  86705
Park in front of the new car building

WHO:
Jason Scott, New Vehicle Sales Director, Precision Toyota
Abel Moreno, Executive Director, Vets4Vets

Photo Opportunity:
October 26th from 1:15-1:30pm

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE: TM) established operations in the United States in 1957 and currently operates 10 manufacturing plants, including one under construction.  Toyota directly employs nearly
30,000 in the U.S. and its investment here is currently valued at more than $18 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design.
Toyota is committed to being a good corporate citizen in the communities where it does business and believes in supporting programs with long-term sustainable results. Toyota supports numerous organizations across the country, focusing on education, the environment and safety. Since 1991, Toyota has contributed more than $500 million to philanthropic programs in the U.S.

For more information on Toyota’s commitment to improving communities nationwide, visit http://www.toyota.com/community.

About Vets4Vets
Mission: Vets4Vets enables and cultivates a dynamic support community of, for, & by Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans that provides an atmosphere for healing, camaraderie, and fulfilling actions to be taken.
Workshops: Workshops create the environment for Vets4Vets’ mission to be accomplished. Frequent activities are held throughout the weekend to create a setting for healing to begin camaraderie to be experienced, and set the ground-work for fulfilling actions to be taken by veterans. Participating veterans initiate long lasting bonds as they experience a weekend full of camaraderie, respect, insight, inspiration, practical education, fun, relaxation, and invigoration.
Background: Vets4Vets was founded in 2005 by a Vietnam Veteran and an Afghanistan/Iraq Veteran. The program was created to utilize a simple model of peer support and enable veterans to heal from war experiences, experience camaraderie with fellow vets, and take positive actions in our lives.

For more information on Vets4Vets visit http://www.vets4vets.us

The annual awards recognize young leaders in the Old Pueblo based on professional accomplishments, leadership qualities and community impact.

This year’s two top honorees were announced, too:

• Man of the Year Abel R. Moreno, 34, co-founder and executive director of Vets4Vets, a Tucson-based nonprofit that provides peer support and trains peer counselors nationwide to help the new generation of vets.

• Woman of the Year Katie Dabney, 33, principal of Vail School District’s Mesquite Elementary School, which has earned the highest attainable “excelling” label from the state for seven years, as well as an A+ rating twice from the Arizona Education Foundation.

All 40 honorees will be showcased in a special section in Sunday’s Arizona Daily Star, along with Mentor of the Year Linda Wojtowicz, senior vice president and chief operations officer at Tucson Medical Center.

The awards breakfast was held Thursday at the Doubletree Reid Park.

The Arizona Daily Star sponsors the 40 Under 40 awards along with the law office of Snell & Wilmer. The Star received 250 nominations for this year’s awards, which were judged by a community panel.

The University of Phoenix sponsors the Mentor of the Year award.

On StarNet: See photos and video at azstarnet.com/40under40

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_744d98f3-eb34-5d6b-8ca1-ce999b084a15.html#ixzz1aVr53XTF

Since 2005, Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans have been making a difference for one another utilizing Vets4Vets peer support model. It is a model that James W. Driscoll, Vets4Vets Founder, utilized to begin his own healing when he returned from Vietnam as a Marine Infantry Platoon Commander. He saw its promise and effectiveness in empowering a new generation of vets to deal with their war experiences.

We commend Jim for his vision and dedication in realizing his dream in having returning vets actively share war experiences with one another to promote healing, facilitate re-integration at the home-front, and take actions in their lives that positively impact what’s important to them (e.g. family, career, education, health, etc…).

We dutifully inform you that Abel Moreno has succeeded Jim Driscoll as Executive Director of Vets4Vets. Abel R. Moreno embodies the leadership of a Sergeant who honorably served two combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and seven years as an Army Paratrooper.

Vets4Vets is fulfilling on its vision of become a common name amongst veterans as a place where we can begin the healing process around war experiences and make positive connections with fellow vets.
All programmatic operations within Vets4Vets remain consistent and continue to grow. Logistically, our new mailing address and number is 596 N. Arizona Estates Loop, Tucson, AZ 85748, 520-370-2883.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Vets4Vets Staff

The lifelong Valley resident even considered suicide.

After struggling with a prescription drug and alcohol addiction, a failed marriage, and unemployment, Canzonieri realized he needed help.

That’s when he learned about Vets4Vets, a non-partisan peer support organization for veterans dedicated to helping Iraq and Afghanistan-era vets support one another in healing from the negative effects of service and war.

After spending an all-expenses paid weekend at a Vets4Vets sponsored retreat in San Diego, Canzonieri realized for the first time since returning home he wasn’t alone.

He bonded with other veterans who were dealing with the same symptoms of adjustment disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“Everyone has these issues when they come back. Don’t feel that you are the only person having nightmares or sleeping with a weapon under your pillow,” Canzonieri said. “I still jump every time I hear a door slam. Talking about it is the beginning of healing.”

His experience with Vets4Vets also opened the door for a full-time position as director of the organization’s southwestern Pennsylvania division.

He now gets to share his stories and struggles with other men and women experiencing the same emotions.

Canzonieri shared his story with WQED-TV for a local documentary called, “The Long Road Home.”

It will premiere at 8 p.m. Thursday. The documentary, produced by Monongahela native David Solomon, features area war veterans and their ongoing struggles with PTSD.

For Canzonieri, sharing his stories with Vets4Vets and for the documentary also helped him heal from his early years growing up in a broken home.

One of four children to a single mother, he bounced between homes. He dropped out high school in ninth grade.

He wanted to do better for himself, so he got his General Equivalency Diploma and went to the Westmoreland County Community College, where he received an associate’s degree in business and finance.

He was 18 when he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army.

“I wish I could say I joined the military because I was hugely patriotic, but the truth is, I was a poor kid from a poor family,” Canzonieri said. “I just came out of WCCC with $5,000 student debt before I could even get a job.”

He conducted his basic training in Fort Jackson, S.C. as an intelligence analyst.

He joined the 1st Cavalry Division. His highest rank was sergeant.

Canzonieri said he immediately knew he made the right decision for himself when he got to basic training.

“When I got there it was amazing how I changed from an individual only worried about myself to a selfless individual,” he said. “Everything you do is for the people on your left and right. Everything is for the betterment of the team and your country.”

And for the first time, he felt like he belonged to a family.

He thrived in the army, and moved his way up the ranks. He also took advantage of the military’s tuition assistance program and earned two bachelors degrees. He is currently working on his masters in business administration from California University of Pennsylvania.

His unit deployed in July 2006, spending a month in Kuwait before going to Iraq.

When he got to Iraq, there was a need for soldiers with military clearances that could train Iraqi men to become police officers.

He was assigned to a police unit in Mosul as a liaison between American and Iraqi police.

He lived in the field with the Iraqi police officers. He was part of a team of eight soldiers who rotated shifts.

Canzonieri said he saw his share of violence.

“I saw more than anyone wants to see in their lifetime,” he said. “My unit had casualties. Every unit had casualties.”

Canzonieri remembers the first casualty from their company was a soldier who committed suicide. At the time, he, and other soldiers, though the man was weak and selfish.

“It’s amazing based on what I do now, how unfairly I felt toward that soldier,” he said. “What you can imagine in such a machismo environment, is the ‘suck it up and drive’ on attitude, and ‘we don’t have these problems.’

“I feel much differently now. Unfortunately it takes time to go through experiences yourself to really appreciate where they were at,” he said.

He was in Mosul for six months before suffering a severe non-combat injury that required surgery and months of physical therapy. He was transferred back to Pittsburgh in 2007.

He was given a medical discharge in 2008.

Once he returned home, Canzonieri’s life began to spiral out of control.

“I was happy to be home, but then I was ashamed to be happy,” he said. “Then I had bad guilt. I felt like a failure because I didn’t set out what I wanted to do and left those guys behind.”

It was during that time he became dependent on drugs and alcohol to get through his days and long, sleepless nights.

“I would wake up in cold sweats because I couldn’t find my weapon. I was having nightmares,” he said.

He eventually quit drinking, but then replaced that addition with food. He gained nearly 100 pounds in one year.

“I was doing one destructive behavior to another, not really taking care of the reality of losing friends, of seeing dead bodies, and of feeling guilty and shameful for being home when everyone was still fighting,” Canzonieri said.

In April 2008, he got a job as a correctional officer at the state prison in Greensburg.

But, he was released before his one year probationary period was over. He said his supervisor recognized he was dealing with many problems and encouraged him to seek help.

“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best environment for someone trying to deal with war issues,” he said. “I now realize he (the supervisor) saved me.”

He said he saw a psychiatrist, but after a brief, 15-minute consultation, he left the appointment with prescriptions for more medications. He realized that wasn’t the right course for treatment for him.

He began doing research online and found the Wounded Warriors Project, and the Vets4Vets organization.

The soldier admits when he first arrived at the San Diego retreat, he had no intention of talking about his problems with strangers.

He was put into a small group with decorated veterans of all ages who shared their emotional stories.

“These were all strong men. This guy I’m looking up to is hugely decorated, and had this really emotional session,” he said. “I get to my turn, and I talk about things that no one else knows.

It was a life changing moment for him.

“At the end of the weekend, I had 42 new best friends,” he said.

He has a 2-year-old son, Dominic.

When he returned home a few weeks later, he went to the Pa. Career Link for job assistance.

As it turned out, the Vets4Vets program was looking to begin a branch in this area.

He now hosts retreats in this area for veterans. He said the retreats are free for all veterans.

For Canzonieri, he now has a new lease on life.

“I’ve come to realize I’m never going to be the same person I was when I left (Iraq),” he said. “And that’s OK. It’s a new normal.

He now sees a new psychiatrist every three months.

He wants other veterans to not be ashamed of seeking help. He feels there is still a stigma among veterans to not talk about the emotional toll war has on them, but feels Vets4Vets is helping break down those barriers.

“I’ve been the alcoholic veteran. I’ve been the homeless veteran. I’ve been the divorced veteran. I can talk to them because I’ve been there,” he said.

Canzonieri said his journey has also led him to be a better father to his 2 ? year old son, Dominic.

“I want him to have the stable environment I never had,” he said.

For more information about the Vets4Vets, go to www.vets4vets.us, or call (724) 219-3948 .

Read more: Charleroi veteran heals while helping fellow soldiers – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/s_738866.html#ixzz1NZlenezw

Dear Friend,

You are one of the people who “gets it” about veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, most people in the U.S. do not.

By most estimates, the war directly affects only about one family in a hundred.

But, boy, does it affect that one in a hundred!

Of the 2.2 million who have deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan, 800,000 have deployed more
than once. Five hundred and fifty thousand have deployed more than three times.

Those deployed more than once are three times more likely to experience severe mental health
problems.

Vets4Vets, the peer support community for returning veterans which I set up five years ago,
continues to provide the crucial resource of peer support, most would say, the single most
important resource to these returning vets and their families.

In the last couple of months we have been invited to the White House (a picture with First
Lady Michelle Obama attached), cited by the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE) as one of
the “Best Practices” for returning vets and evaluated positively in a before-and-after study by
Arizona State University on “11 out of 12 outcome measures,” an unusually positive evaluation.

On this Memorial Day, when most people are planning a picnic or a weekend get-
away, would you consider continuing your track record for “getting it” about the
needs of returning veterans and their families and make a tax-deductible contribution
to “Vets4Vets? Just click on the Donate button.

Those figures I cited are all taken from an important new policy paper from the Center for
New American Security written by Nancy Berglass. She brings together a number of studies
on the needs of this new generation of veterans and points out the importance of non-profit
organizations like Vets4Vets to supplement the role of government agencies in meeting those
needs. Her study is available on line at (http://www.cnas.org/node/5297).

This is the same Nancy Berglass, who, after a careful review process with her staff at the Iraq-

Vets4Vets ● 4192 E Boulder Springs Way ● Tucson ● AZ ● 85712 ● 520-319-5500 ● www.Vets4Vets.US

Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund, selected Vets4Vets as one of the top fifty nonprofits in
the U.S. helping returning veterans.

The statistics on returning veterans are not good—and getting worse. Already 7,000 returning
veterans have become homeless—joining the army of as many as 250,000 veterans from all our
wars who are already homeless each night. Tragically, 89% of these homeless veterans were
discharged honorably from their military service.

One in three returning veteran reports “problematic drinking”.

Their suicide rate is a national tragedy.

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates calls these the “dilemmas and consequences that go
with having so FEW (emphasis added) fight our wars for so long.”

So what should we do for these returning veterans?

According to leading military and veterans’ psychiatrists and psychologists on the Vets4Vets
Advisory Committee, the single most important resource we can make available to these
returning veterans is “peer support.”

And that is what Vets4Vets does. Already, we have trained over 2,000 returning veterans in
one of our 76 free, residential weekend workshops. They learn to listen to each other without
interrupting, even when they express strong emotions. They enjoy the camaraderie and respect
of other veterans which so many of them miss so deeply. They find out that they are not “crazy,”
that they “are not the only one,” that many of their symptoms are what our experts call “the
normal reactions to the abnormal situation of combat.” Hyper-vigilance, distrust and violence are
required in combat, but they do fit well with civilian society.

Most veterans stay in touch with their “workshop buddies” from our Vets4Vets workshops
and continue to do these “listening turns.” Many continue to meet face-to-face in one of our
over forty local support groups across the country. At each workshop, they set personal goals
for themselves and share them with a “reference person,” another returning veteran with more
experience in Vets4Vets, who, like a “sponsor” in other peer support programs, will hold them
accountable to these goals and give them the encouragement they need.

The results of participation in Vets4Vets have by now been widely recognized.

In February, the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE), the Pentagon’s agency in charge of
identifying and spreading the best ways for the nation’s military communities, warriors and
families to deal with the stress of war featured Vets4Vets as one of three organizations as “Best
Practices in Peer Support Groups, as resources that effectively encourage veterans to share
experiences with each other, manage psychological challenges, and ease reintegration.”

Just this month, researchers at Arizona State University completed a year-long assessment
of Vets4Vets. They examined surveys from over 200 returning veterans taken before and

after each of a dozen peer support workshops we offered during 2010. These surveys utilized
standard measures of psychological functioning and dysfunction from the professional literature,
including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These measures are both reliable and valid
from a variety of other studies.

Their conclusion: “In sum, 11 of 12 outcome expectations were observed: lessening PTSD
intensity and of 2 of 3 Negative Thoughts, increasing Resiliency, Social Connectedness,
Expression of Feelings, Optimism, Progress on Goals, Optimism about Potential and further
involvement with Vets4Vets.” According to the researchers, this is an unusually high percentage
of positive outcomes for a program evaluation. The full report is available on our website at
www.Vets4Vets.US.

Last month, we were invited to the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden,
the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, the parents of an Iraq veteran. We were asked to join them
in the launch of their new initiative, “Joining Forces,” to help military families.

Indeed, thanks to funding from the State of Texas (their lottery funding Fund for Veterans
Assistance in the Texas Veterans Commission), Vets4Vets is expanding our programs to include
not just peer support for the returning veterans, but for the partners and spouses of these veterans,
especially those who are parents. Just as the veterans need to talk with “somebody who has been
there,” their partners need the same—someone else who knows what it means to run the family
for a year, not once but several times, someone else who knows what those “normal reactions to
combat” look like–in the living room!

We at Vets4Vets are proud of what we have done for these returning veterans. We have
spearheaded this movement for peer support for returning veterans—and now their families.

However, we can only do it with your help.

It costs us about $250 to send a veteran or family members to one of those “free” weekend
workshops.

It costs $12,000 in total for each of those workshops.

It costs us $100,000 to add a new metropolitan area to the eight where we now have staff.
We hire a local returning veteran for a year, train him or her in peer support and local project
leadership, hold two of those $12,000 workshops and set up several ongoing local groups. The
difference one veteran working full time to build these peer support communities makes is
enormous. Sometimes we are lucky and find a retiree who can make a large time commitment,
like Tim Bahr up in Wisconsin or Duane Haney in Chicago. These local staff–or volunteers
able to work like staff–go at this job 24/7—reaching out to returning veterans wherever they
gather, on campuses, at veterans’ agencies, in the Guard and Reserve units which lack the
same access to services as do those veterans on active duty who return to a supportive military
base environment. Our staff members find places for our workshops, run the workshops, find
places for ongoing local groups to meet, lead the groups, at least at the beginning, train their
replacements in those groups, suggest other services as needed and, again and again, just listen to

another returning vet—as only another returning veteran can.

Will you help us keep expanding this crucial resource? Will you reach out to your friends and
ask them to help you help us help these veterans and their families?

On this Memorial Day, we honor men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice–and
these brave men and women who were willing to do the same. Those who return deserve help in
dealing with the stresses of fitting back into civilian society. Thank you for supporting them.

Sincerely,

Jim Driscoll, Vietnam Vet and Founder, Vets4Vets

P.S. We will send you a Vets4Vets “Honor Coin” if you contribute $250 or more to help these
veterans.