How about we abolish $80M in Veteran debt - $1M per year for each of the 80 years that have passed since June 6, 1945, which Americans know as “D-Day.” 

After storming the beach at Normandy, the liberation of Europe was accomplished within the year. Our troops came home and were treated like royalty: the GI Scholarship alone was equivalent to a full four-year education at Harvard. Our nation put Veterans into a home with little or no credit and at a low rate of interest. Today, not so much.

The Veteran community leads in almost every category of social ill that puts people at risk, such as homelessness, addictions, incarceration, divorce, and PTSD. We are fully aware that the Veteran and active-duty population on Staten Island and neighboring boroughs has been sharply impacted by these problems.

In partnership with End Veteran Debt, we intend to do something about it. The mission of SI PPS and the Staten Island Veterans Task Force, co-led by SI PPS and AmeriCorps Seniors, through this campaign will be to co-fundraise $50,000 to fund our work locally and extinguish $1M in Veteran debt nationally.

Unpaid and unpayable debt (be it a debt of necessity like putting food on the table, predatory payday loans and high-interest rate credit cards, or burdensome medical debt) is acknowledged to be a social determinant for suicidal ideation and the act itself (PubMed 2011, PubMed 2021, The Lancet 2024). Our nation loses upwards of 22 Veterans per day to suicide. Our goal of forgiving $1,000,000 in this kind of Veteran debt will bring local and national attention to this plight affecting our Veterans and help reduce terrible and needless acts of suicide in the Veteran community.

As you can see from the fundraising thermometer, we’re already on our way to success. We are giving a special shout-out and recognition to organizations that are members of our "Five-Percenters-Plus Club" – donating 5% ($2,500 or more) towards the $50,000 goal.

Our inaugural member of the Five-Percenters is the Road Home Foundation for Injured Warriors and Families, Inc., an organization with a deep history of improving the lives of these men and women and their loved ones.”

Eighty years ago, our troops liberated our European friends. Now, it’s time to liberate our Veterans, and even those on active duty, from the scourge of debt and all the suffering that follows that condition.

We’re pitching in to bring the first $1M debt-relief into existence. Please join us in creating this landmark tribute.