When we were in the planning stages of the American Hero Award, we decided it would be perfect to have our theme be “Honor Your Hero.” We called on visitors to the site to honor their heroes by nominating them for the award. Nominations came flooding in and with each story we read, we knew our task of choosing ten finalists would be a difficult one. Not only were the nominees’ stories inspiring, but so was the support and pride shown by those who had nominated them. Some soldiers were nominated by friends and families, others by people they had never met in person.

After a lot of reading, thought and discussion, we selected our ten finalists. Our staff can’t express enough how hard this part was. In the end, we chose ten Veterans whose stories, deeds, and courage stood out to us. Here is a quick recap of our finalists:

• Gregory Anton – an Iraq Veteran raising a family, working full time, and completing college
• Daniel Ashe – an Iraq Veteran who now cares for his young children while his wife is away at basic training
• Steve Clark – an Iraq Veteran who has spearheaded grassroots efforts to arrange a “Small Town Send-Off” for troops and sends 15-20 packages a month to the troops
• CJ Grisham – an Iraq Veteran who runs the blog “A Soldier’s Perspective” as well as the site “They Have Names,” which is devoted to honoring fallen soldiers
• Brian Horn – an Iraq Veteran who started the site “Any Solider.com,” which has provided support for nearly 1 million troops in 4 years
• Todd Parisi – an Iraq Veteran who is the youngest Sniper Instructor in the history of the Marine Corps and has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service to the Marine Corps and country.
• Brandon Rork – an Iraq Veteran who disarmed an attempted suicide bomber planning to detonate a dump truck filled with enough explosives to blow up his entire base
• Eddie Ryan – an Iraq Veteran who survived two gunshot wounds to the head and continues to defy the odds with his amazing recovery
• Steve Stephens – an Iraq Veteran who founded “Soldiers Helping those in Need,” who, along with Blankets.com, provided Iraqis with over 3,000 blankets
• Richard Tibbetts, Jr. – an Iraq Veteran with more than 25 years of military service to the United States through the Marine Corps

It’s clear that we had ten remarkable finalists on our hands and each was awarded a finalist prize of $500. There have been few personal or professional situations that can compare to the wonderful experience we had contacting the soldier’s and those who had nominated them.

Individuals who submitted nominations were thrilled to hear their heroes were being honored and each were ready to heap more praise on their nominees. Even though they were not receiving a prize, it was clear that having the Veterans they knew recognized was a prize in and of itself. As for the Veterans themselves, their stories were touching and their gratitude and humility was the most genuine we’ve ever witnessed.

These men, many who had no idea they had been nominated, expressed surprise that they had been chosen. One even called our offices to see if it was a joke. No, we assured him, no joke. Each of them deserves this prize more than they will know and we hope this inspires others to honor their heroes.

As wonderful as all of our finalists are, only one could be named the VA Mortgage Center.com American Hero. Visitors to the site voted once per day online from December 21, 2007 – January 11, 2008. We are proud to announce the $5,000 winner as…

Brian Horn
Founder of AnySoldier.com
Congratulations to Brian and all of our finalists! Thank you to all who participated.

Keeping with our “Honor Your Hero” theme of the American Hero Award Contest, we are profiling Veteran organizations and their heroic work. If you’re interested in having your organization featured, please contact Katherine@vamortgagecenter.com

Veterans For Peace is a 22-year-old organization with 7,000 members. Veterans For Peace delivered 24,000 phone cards to patients in 149 VA hospitals last Christmas. This year the organization is planning a larger effort, raising $90,000 to do so. Veterans for Peace also helps 80,000 Iraqis get safe drinking water, supports orphanages in Vietnam and Afghanistan, and has an NGO seat in the United Nations. As part of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, Veterans for Peace shares a part of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Northern New York chapter of Veterans for Peace helped pass the New York State depleted uranium (the “new Agent Orange”) GI/vet coverage law, which has served as a legal precedent for other states. The chapter also informed the VA headquarters of 4,000 nationwide free support groups that provide help for individuals suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The chapter has also begun assisting the Gandhi Institute on how to help America heal after the conflict in Iraq, including ensuring that troops aren’t passively blamed by neglecting their needs.

We would like to offer our thanks to Roland Van Deusen, US Navy 1967-8, Naval Reserve 1962-72, a Vietnam era Veteran who provided us with information about the achievements of Veterans for Peace, nationwide and in New York. To learn more about the Northern NY Chapter (Chapter 121) please visit www.vfp-northcountry.org or contact info@vfp-northcountry.org. To learn more about Veterans for Peace nationwide, please visit http://www.veteransforpeace.org.

VA Mortgage Center.com has launched a contest for honoring veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Hero Award, which comes with a prize of $5,000, will be awarded to the veteran who receives the most votes on the company’s website.

This year’s theme calls on citizens to “Honor Your Hero” by nominating friends and family members they think deserve to be recognized. Nominations will be accepted on the website until December 14, 2007. All nominations should explain why the nominee deserves to be recognized in 300 words or less.

Ten finalists will be selected and an open online vote will be used to determine the winner. Finalists will have their photograph and bios featured on the VA Mortgage Center.com voting page. Along with the $5,000 donation to the winning Veteran, VA Mortgage Center.com will be awarding $500 to each of the ten finalists.

Visit our Honor Your Hero page now to nominate a Veteran!

The second installment of our Military Education Scholarship Program here at VAMC launches today. After the overwhelming response we received last May (read about the winners here), we decided to keep the scholarship offerings coming each semester.

This round of scholarships includes more awards and more money to be had - we are offering 5 scholarships worth $1500 each.

We will be accepting submissions to our essay prompt: “How do you project that your military experience will prepare you for your career?” between October 1st and November 12th. For more details on how to apply, view our submission guidelines.

It was incredible to read about all the lives and stories we received back in May and we look forward to much of the same. Working day in and day out with Veterans and their families has proven a rewarding experience for all of those involved with our company, and this scholarship program was conceived to allow us to give back in some small way to the lives of those who serve. With the cost of higher education being what it is today, there’s no shortage of need for financial aid and assistance. Best of luck to all those who apply!

You Served and VA Mortgage Center.com are proud to announce the winners of our “Outstanding VFW Website Award” for 2007. 20 posts from around the nation have been chosen, after over a month of evaluations, as those that we feel represent the best of the best of VFW websites.

Each post will be receiving a $50 donation check from You Served, all of which is funded by the employees of VA Mortgage Center.com. It’s our salute to the VFW and all the great services they provide for the mil/vet community.

Read more about the winners the details of the awards here.

How many push ups can you do? C’mon, if you’re a military guy or gal we know you’ve had to do your fair share. Now’s your chance to bring home some money for it.

That’s right, show You Served your push up prowess through our new Push Up Contest and you can win prizes totalling $300.

The rules are simple: make a video of yourself doing the most push ups you can muster and submit it to our contest here. The person who can complete the most full push ups without stopping wins the big prize!

This isn’t a race either - it’s not “push ups per minute”, it’s total push ups without stopping. Most push ups receives $200, 2nd place will get $100.

You can upload your video directly or by using YouTube, iFilm, or any other online video source below. Submit to You Served before July 20th and we’ll announce the winner on July 24th.

You can contact us with any questions at blog@vamortgagecenter.com.

Good luck,
You Served Editorial Staff

Sgt Hook, one of the winners of our best blog contest, has been posting a recap of the Milblogging conference held last weekend (Post 1, 2, 3, and 4).

We have also announced the winners of our scholarship contest in which 3 individuals were awarded $1,000 scholarships. You can read the winning essays. We congratulate the winners and thank all of the entrants (over 120 people applied).

We are continually looking for guest blog submissions, please contact us if you are interested. And the employees at the VA Mortgage Center.com donate money for every loan they close. They have allowed You Served to help decide what charities/organizations will get the money. So if you know of a deserving charity/organization that supports those in the military community, let us know.

VA Mortgage Center.com and ‘You Served‘ are proud to publicly announce the winners of our Military Education Scholarship Program today. the 3 winners will each receive a $1,000 for educational purposes.

And the Winners are: (Drumroll please..)

Stacey Lang, Ann Marie Little, and John Parker (on behalf of his daughter Emily)

These very deserving winners were chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants that sent in essays in response to our prompt “Why I Choose to Serve”. Each will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship from VA Mortgage Center.com through a fund that is 100% funded by the employees of the company.

We are proud to work with current and former members of the armed forces every day, and the scholarship program was established to say ‘thank you’ to all of you who have given so much for our country.

With the costs of higher education continuing to rise, we hope the Military Education Scholarship Program helps propel these students (and future winners) towards their academic goals.

You can read more about our winners and get a chance to read their essay submissions here on VAMC.

Thank you to all that participated and please check back with us in the fall for future installments of the program. To each winner, ‘You Served’ salutes you! ‘You Served’ would also like to thank the employees of the VA Mortgage Center.com.

The VA Mortgage Center.com is announcing its Military Education Scholarship program for this semester. Beginning today and running through May 1st, they are accepting submissions for our essay prompt “Why I Choose to Serve”. On May 10th, we will be awarding three $1,000 scholarships to the winning students to be used towards the ever-increasing costs of higher education.

As you can see from the program details listed here, this initiative is being fully funded by the employees of VA Mortgage Center.com (this is not a “You Served” program, though we will help facilitate it). It was their decision to sponsor a program that would help benefit the very people we happily work with every day - veterans and military servicemembers (and their families).

We encourage all eligible parties to apply for our Scholarship Program. If you know someone who is currently enrolled or looking to enroll in a higher education program and has military affiliation please pass this along.

As always, thanks to all of you who have served our country. We all owe you a collective debt of gratitude - so let us help you towards getting that college degree.

Who is Eligible?

All ROTC program students or active duty military looking to return to college are eligible for these scholarships.

Get more information or apply for the scholarship.

VA Joe is hosting a free NCAA contest that will give out $3,000 in prizes. To win, you must be members of the military or a veteran (family members can also play).