A Community Built on Nearly 100 Years of Hope

🏡 A Community Built on Nearly 100 Years of Hope

The VFW National Home began with a promise made in 1925: “Honor the Dead by Helping the Living.” What started as a single donated farmhouse on 472 acres near Eaton Rapids, Michigan, has grown into a thriving community where veterans and military families can rebuild their lives with dignity, stability, and hope. The first residents—a widowed mother and her six children—set the tone for what the Home would become: a place where no veteran’s family faces hardship alone. Today, the Home continues that legacy by offering a peaceful rural environment designed to support healing, growth, and long-term success.

🌟 A Campus Designed for Stability, Healing, and Opportunity

Life at the National Home is more than housing, it’s a full ecosystem of support. Families live in 43 single-family homes while accessing a wide range of services: a Child Development Center, a Veteran Resource Center, a gymnasium, library, computer and science labs, playgrounds, walking trails, and community gathering spaces. Every part of the campus is intentionally built to help families prepare for independent futures.

Programs continue to expand each year, offering veterans meaningful opportunities for personal development, career growth, and therapeutic engagement. These include Employment Services, Educational Support, On-site Veteran Service Officers, Veteran Navigator Assistance, Heroes to Hives, Guitars for Vets, Regenerative Agriculture for Veterans (RAVE), and the beloved 4-H Youth Program, where children raise pigs and rabbits for the county fair. Each initiative strengthens families and reinforces the Home’s mission of providing a safe, nurturing community.

📣 How You Can Help Share the Story

This year’s goal is to expand awareness so more families know help is available. Auxiliaries, Posts, and Districts can support this mission by promoting the National Home in newsletters, monthly mailings, social media, and community events. Creative activities—open houses, history displays, themed fundraisers, or educational presentations—help show what the National Home is, where it is, and who is eligible. You can also encourage members to become Life Members, share the newest edition of Home Front Heroes, and update Life Member records. Every act of outreach strengthens the future of this century-old promise. Here’s one idea to get you started: have a Heroes to Hives Honey Tasting where you highlight the beekeeping program at the Home, provide samples of local honey, and have a “Meet the Beekeeper” guest. Don’t forget to report how your organization is promoting the Home by submitting the report form either online or by mail or email. Include pictures and descriptions, too! Be sure to check MALTA for more information and for the National Home Program entry form for your creative event.

Through the Power of One, we can continue Serving America’s Heroes by promoting the VFW National Home.

Visit www.vfwnationalhome.org

In friendship and service,

Jamie Newton

VFW National Home Chairman