Ice Cream for Veterans
"Ice Cream is Duct Tape for the Soul"

The charity, "Ice Cream for Veterans" is a registered 509 (a)(2) nonprofit organization under EIN 83-3540407, and was created in honor of my dad, Dick Poore.   He was a Marine pilot who did two tours in Vietnam.  His service to our country left him with fourteen different combat related disabilities.  He flew 300 combat missions and was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor, and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism. He also served in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East during his career, and as a pilot flew 30 different types of aircraft.

Dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2010.  We helped him manage it for many years until that, combined with PTSD and other combat related issues caught up with him and we were no longer able to care for him at home.

He spent the last year of his life at the Community Living Center in the Charles George VA Hospital in Asheville, NC.  

Our family visited him at the VA as often as possible.  If we didn't bring him ice cream, we weren't welcome to stay!  We did not visit empty handed.  He began offering his fellow veterans in the Community Living Center ice cream as well.  He made sure all the veterans in long term care and hospice were taken care of.  He made it his mission to visit, talk with, and comfort every veteran going through the same trauma of old age, loneliness, and disability.

After a fall, Dad was placed in hospice.  Ice cream sustained him for a few weeks.  It was all he wanted or would eat.  It had to be either Breyers Vanilla or Whit's Custard.  Sharing stories and having an ice cream bar brought a sense of peace to our family, while sitting in a hospital room with a dying loved one.

After Dad passed, I knew that he would want us to continue to bring ice cream to his fellow veterans.  So we bought a cooler, wrapped it in camouflage and called it "Dick Poore's Open Door Ice Cream Cooler".  We purchase nutty buddy's, orange cream sickles, fudge bars, Klondike bars, popsicles, etc., and supply them for free to every Veteran and care giver that lives in and works for the Community Living Center and Hospice in the Asheville VA.

 

Ice cream has been a staple in the military diet for years.  It was provided to troops in combat to give them a feeling of "home".  Ice cream brings comfort to veterans during all stages of life.  

 

Many of our older veterans don't have family close by.  Anger, frustration, and loneliness are a large part of a veteran’s day, especially those who reside in long-term care. The simple act of offering them an ice cream bar can elevate their mood and redirect their behavior. Sometimes a novelty ice cream bar will even trigger a good memory and bring a smile to a veteran's face.

 

Hospice patients have trouble eating solid food in their final days, and an ice cream bar is a perfect way for them to relieve mouth dryness and to enjoy a treat at the same time.  So much better than sucking on ice chips!  Families who are able to visit with their veteran while in hospice, find that sitting with the veteran while eating ice cream brings some normalcy back into their lives - if for only a moment. It's a time to reminisce about special times spent in the past.

Our long-term objective is to have a "Dick Poore's Open Door Ice Cream Cooler" in every Community Living Center and hospice in all of the 170 VA Hospitals in the United States.  And, of course, in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.  Please help us reach this goal!

Thank you!!

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Carolyn Rice

Founder of Ice Cream for Veterans