The Veterans Guest House says it's been operating beyond capacity for more than a month.
The nonprofit is dedicated to ensuring the veteran community has access to the medical care they need.
“Veterans Guest House is bursting at the seams," said Sylvia Froslie, the CEO of Veterans Guest House. "We have 33 beds, 33 individuals we can serve a night, and we are exceeding that practically every single day. We’re expecting over 700 people here in June. We just served 700 people here in May.”
They expect June to be the highest capacity month on record for them, and with the high number of people staying there, it's impacting their house operations like food, drinks and housekeeping.
The group is also looking for more volunteers, donations and letters of support for the guests at the house.
Froslie lists some things they need donated.
“Gas cards, and food cards and gift cards," she said. "Those go directly to our veterans in need. If you have the time, helping us make beds and with laundry for 33 individuals a night. When it comes to supplies, that water, Gatorade, sugar free drinks, crackers, chips, snacks, toilet paper anything that’s easy to prepare for our veterans who aren’t cooks.”
As for the letter writing initiative, which is when the community writes letters to veterans thanking them for their service or showing support for them, Froslie explains “We get a lot of letters from elementary aged children so it’s always nice when we can get it from a community as a whole.”
She explains that 30% of their veterans live alone, so when they come to the resource center and see the extra note it makes them feel honored and appreciated.
She also says because of the increase in people using their services, donations are top of mind and she told us why they think they're seeing the increase.
“There is a higher awareness of the resources we offer," she said. "The number of services make accessing health care that much easier but it also means greater demand.”
“Veterans Guest House is 100% philanthropically funded," said Froslie. "we don’t have any government funding here which means that we rely completely on the community to serve the individuals here at the house, but it also means that support is directly benefiting veterans in every way that you can imagine.”
If you'd like to drop of donations to the Veterans Guest house you can do so by visiting their location at 880 Locust St. in Reno or you can call them at 775-324-6958. If you'd like to check out the Veterans Guest House wish list you can click the link here.
