April is Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Month

Paralyzed Veterans' National President will Travel Around the Country to Raise Awareness for Veterans with Disabilities

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Paralyzed Veterans of America is marking the 66th anniversary of its founding this April by encouraging all Americans to take a stand and commit to helping veterans as part of their life's mission.

With the theme Building a Nation Fit for Heroes and events across the country, Paralyzed Veterans Awareness Month highlights the unique challenges facing veterans with spinal cord injury/dysfunction.  It spotlights the work of Paralyzed Veterans to empower seriously wounded heroes and their families with everything they need to thrive.

"Take a minute during April to think about the challenges facing paralyzed veterans every day and then please do something good for veterans in your community," said U.S. Army veteran Bill Lawson, national president of Paralyzed Veterans.  "Everyone can do something to change lives and build independent futures for those who have worn the uniform — from a school kid saying thanks to a paralyzed veteran who has just come home from Afghanistan to an employer hiring more veterans with disabilities."

Lawson will be traveling around the country throughout the month of April to raise awareness for Mission: ABLE — Paralyzed Veterans' campaign to help veterans with disabilities fully live the lives they deserve and to get them what they need most: care, benefits and jobs. The campaign aims to enlist all Americans — citizens, communities and companies — in this effort to give paralyzed veterans and their families the opportunity to live full and productive lives.

Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters across the nation:

• Fight for quality VA health care and veterans benefits.
• Promote and provide wheelchair sports and recreational activities.
• Lead the charge to make America more accessible.
• Empower paralyzed veterans with the tools they need to secure good careers, at a time when the unemployment rate for veterans with severe disabilities is 85 percent.
• Invest in research to find new treatments and a cure for paralysis.
• Provide their services to all veterans and their families free of charge.

For more information about Paralyzed Veterans Awareness Month, please visit www.pvaawareness.org.

About Paralyzed Veterans of America:
Paralyzed Veterans was founded by a group of seriously injured American heroes from the "Greatest Generation" of World War II. They created a non-profit organization to meet the challenges that they faced back in the 1940s — from a medical community not ready to treat them, to an inaccessible world. For more than 65 years, Paralyzed Veterans national office and 34 chapters across the nation have been making America a better place for all veterans and people with disabilities.

SOURCE Paralyzed Veterans of America