By Hannah O’Brien
Staff Reporter
Hearts United is a service club at Sacred Heart University formed to help the United States veterans and active duty military personnel.
The club’s members aid veterans by joining programs and activities catering to the their personal needs. Beyond this, Hearts United helps with providing services to active members stationed abroad. This club gives back to the men and women who have fought for our country.
“I would like to see as many students as possible become involved because military personnel and our nation’s veterans need all the support they can get,” said professor Gary Rose, advisor for Hearts United. “By raising awareness of veterans issues and how difficult it can be for members of military to be deployed, then I’m sure the club will continue to thrive,”
As of 2014, U.S. News’s website reported there are 21.8 million veterans of the armed forces in the United States. Census.gov had a statistic proving 3.8 million veterans had disabilities connected with serving our country. These disabilities included injuries or diseases related to or brought upon during active military service.
“Vets have multiple needs that go far beyond those of most people who have never served in the military. Plus, helping veterans is the honorable thing for a country to do,” said Rose.
“The framework and vision I have for Hearts United is for our club members to introduce their own new idea to raise funds and volunteer for the assistance of veterans,” said junior and president of Hearts United Nick Cavallone.
In previous years, Hearts United has worked solely with the veterans side and post-service status of military personnel.
“One of our main goals was to connect with veterans here on campus and this year we were able to, under Nick Quinzi’s leadership as President of the SHU Vets Club. Working together with them have produced great results for both of our clubs, and we are so glad to be able to help these vets in our school community,” said Cavallone.
Hearts United started this past year sending care packages to active duty personnel. The club’s members are also in the process of sponsoring military reserve united when they deploy overseas.
This club, alongside the SHU Vets Club, a club established to educate students on life as a veteran as well as how to help out with student veterans, created a new program called SHU’s Own Deployed. The purpose of this program is to denote care packages to Sacred Heart’s own students and alumni deployed overseas.
“We just sent out our first set of boxes last week and we are looking forward to getting together more supplies and support to assist our deployed Pioneers,” said Cavallone.
The members continue to strive to complete various goals they have planned for the year as they honor their motto: united by love, divided by duty.
