DONOR SPOTLIGHT: MEET LINDA VINCENT

In honor of our 15-year anniversary, we’re interviewing individuals who have been involved with Warriors & Quiet Waters Foundation (WQW) in different capacities, some of whom have been involved since the inception of the Foundation in 2007. Today, we’re interviewing Linda Vincent, a committed past volunteer and proud donor.

WQW: Linda, could you tell us about yourself?

Linda: One of the important things to know is that my father was a Pearl Harbor survivor. He got to Pearl Harbor just a day or two before the attack and had just transferred back to his regular ship. They went to Guam, got back, and then within 48 hours, they were bombed, and his ship took two hits. They lost about 20 guys on his ship, and he was quite badly burned. After repairing the ship, he spent the rest of the war in the south Pacific. I grew up not knowing a lot about what happened. In some ways, the military has always been a bit of a tangential thing for me, and I’ve done quite a bit of volunteering.

WQW: Can you talk about your early volunteering experience with WQW?

Linda: My former daughter-in-law worked at Simms, and she made a comment to me that Simms was working with a great organization. She sent me a link and I happened to be at the event where Simms was outfitting a new group of veterans, and I helped pass things out and was part of the whole milieu of that excitement, of people showing up and getting waders. I contacted WQW directly and asked to volunteer, and I was picked. I became a Companion. I spent the week with a guy who had post-traumatic stress like I’d never seen before. It pushed me to reflect on my own upbringing with a father who had some effects of post-traumatic stress.

WQW: What are you most proud about in terms of your service with WQW?

Linda: It would be how WQW opened my eyes. I don’t think of myself as being naive by any means, but I lived a somewhat privileged life and I live a privileged life now. WQW, along with two other volunteering roles, opened my eyes to the circumstances and situations of other people, and I think it particularly opened my eyes to the hidden wounds. I was shocked at how much medication they had to take for physical pain, emotional pain, anxiety, depression, for everything else, and then how much it affected their families, and not only affected their families but affected their relationships with their families, with their wives, with their kids, with their partner

“WQW opened my eyes.”

Linda Vincent, WQW donor and volunteer

WQW: You’ve been a monthly donor every month since 2013. Do you have any reason for your inspiration as to why you donate in such a continuous manner?

Linda: One, it’s easy for me.

Two, I really do have a commitment to the veterans, and supporting WQW is my own little way of doing it.

We just don’t do enough for our veterans. We like to send them off and then they come home, and we forget them. In my generation, not only did we want to forget them, but we wanted to treat them very badly as well — as if they had somehow started the war in Vietnam. Whether our veterans joined for reasons like my father, who enlisted for “three hots and a cot,” or any other reason, it is our job to support them when they come home.

To celebrate our 15th Anniversary with us, please consider making a difference in the lives of the veterans we serve. Interested in supporting Warriors similar to how Linda has? Join our monthly giving program, The Mend. By joining The Mend you will know that your goodness is impacting Warriors and their loved ones every month of the year.