President's Message
Stanley D. Brown
Welcome to the website of the Gateway Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. We are one of 34 chapters nationally and have no association with any organizations with similar names in the St. Louis area. In 2011we earned the St. Louis area Better Business Bureau status of an Honor Roll Charity, meeting all 20 of their governance and financial standards. As indicated on our last tax return (Federal Form 990), and audit for 2010,
82% of our expenditures went to programs. The return can be found on the St. Louis Better Business Bureau website and guidestar.com. The chapter remained a 501(c)(3) non-profit veterans organization serving honorably discharged veterans of the armed forces of the United States who have sustained spinal cord injury or disease. Spinal cord injuries often result from wounds in combat, automobile accidents and recreational activities. Spinal cord disease and dysfunction include Multiple Sclerosis (MS), ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and other diseases affecting the central nervous system of the spinal cord. We receive no Federal government funding. We are governed by a 12-member volunteer board of veterans like myself, paralyzed in an automobile accident in 1996 while on active duty in the U.S. Army. The vision statement of the Gateway Chapter is “Veterans with spinal cord injury or disease, living life to the fullest.”
The Gateway Chapter has made a remarkable financial turnaround the last several years. Concerted and successful efforts to reduce our expenditures have offset the decline in the charitable giving market. We have also experienced a decline in our in-house telemarketing revenue. We do not use a paid telemarketing firm that would take 80-90% of your donations. In January 2007, our board voted to discontinue the telemarketing sales of products. In good conscience we could no longer accept the fundraising costs/gross revenue ratio for the sale and delivery of products. In November 2005, the Chapter restructured to reduce overhead; we reduced five paid staff positions to 1 1/2. In May 2006, we sold our building and eight weeks later moved into a small rental space. After careful saving for three years, we purchased a building at a good price in today's depressed real estate market. We closed on January 15, 2010, and we have a three-year lease with a tenant who occupies half the building. The lease provides us a good revenue stream and the building will enhance our delivery of programs to our membership. As always, service to our members remains paramount.
This last year saw our PVA chapter continue its tradition of service to the membership. We helped sponsor members attend the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in the summer, the winter sports clinic, and participate in the PVA Bass Fishing Tournament. Participation in our chapter trapshoot program in East Alton, Illinois, continued to expand to include members in VA retirement facilities, our members in nursing homes, and new members who had not previously been involved in any events. The chapter previously provided bimonthly luncheons and catered holiday dinners to hospitalized patients at the spinal cord injury unit of the Jefferson Barracks VA complex in Louis County. With the start of fiscal year 2008, we now provide monthly lunches. Our transportation program has also expanded to be available five days per week and weekends with sufficient notice. We transport outpatient paralyzed veterans to and from the two St. Louis area VA Medical centers for appointments and recreation events. We have also expanded to picking up our members who reside in Missouri and Illinois nursing homes, enabling them to get out in the community as well as make needed visits to VA facilities. The last few years, I personally was persistent in trying to persuade the City of St. Louis to make the Soldiers’ Memorial in downtown St. Louis accessible to wheelchairs. That persistence, and an ADA lawsuit, resulted in the Memorial finally (3 ½ years after breaking down) being made accessible on Veterans Day 2007. In addition, when the city of Overland planted trees in the middle of the sidewalk on the street where we were renting space, I pointed out potential hazards. Those trees had low hanging branches that made wheelchair traffic impossible, as well as dangerous for sight-impaired persons walking. Our disability advocacy with the city of Overland got the trees replaced with ADA compliant foliage.
Most importantly, our Board of Directors remains vigilant in monitoring the care our members receive at the two medical facilities, specifically the John Cochran Hospital Care at that hospital remains problematic with the VA's own patient satisfaction survey for the last five fiscal years of the survey, showing John Cochran Hospital arguably having the worst patient satisfaction scores of all 132 VA medical centers surveyed.
Our membership continues to grow, as well as our commitment to help our members live life to the fullest. We are rethinking our fundraising and operating paradigms for today's economic climate, becoming stronger and even more determined to serve those who answered our nation's call.
We would welcome your support and interest. We need volunteer office workers and volunteers for our luncheons and other events. Donations are, of course, always accepted and should be tax-deductible. Please call with any questions on our local line (314) 427-0393 or toll-free (1-800-426-4058). Please also feel free to stop by and see us. Join us at one of our monthly luncheons for hospitalized members; see in person who we help and what we do!