Volunteer or donate

In addition to supporting Veterans in your area, you'll enjoy the following benefits as a VA volunteer: 

• Free canteen meals ($9 value) during shifts of 4 or more hours
• Free canteen meals ($18 value) during shifts of 8 or more hours
• Education opportunities, such as CPR training
• Free annual tuberculosis test
• Free annual flu shot

Whatever your interests, VA Salisbury Healthcare System has volunteer opportunities for you. Below are just some of the ways you can help.  All volunteers must complete a background check.  

Patient care 

• Adult day health care: Help with patient escort, arts and crafts, exercise programs, and other recreational patient activities.
• Coffee program: Prepare and serve refreshments.
• Escort: Escort patients to medical clinics, chapel, barber shop, recreation, and programs.
• Food and nutrition: Help patients complete or select menus. Open containers, cut food into bite-size portions, and feed patients during meal times.
• Front desk: Greet outpatients, guests, visitors, and patients' families, answer phones, and transfer calls at the information desk.
• Library: Help the librarian, help patients use special visual aid equipment, deliver books to patient rooms, and stock book racks.
• Medical clinics: Visit with patients and run errands.
• Musicians and guest speakers: Share your talents with our patients
• Nursing: Help the nursing staff with patient care.
• Recreation: Help with arts and crafts projects, play bedside games, help on field trips, show bedside movies, and help therapists with activities.
• Speech and audiology (hearing): Motivate and encourage patients with their assignments.
• Surgical waiting room: Greet families, serve coffee, meet with medical staff, and provide information to families.

Administrative 

• Canteen: Work in retail store and cafeteria, washing dishes, wiping tables, and filling condiments.
• Grounds crew: Help groundskeeper wash equipment, trim landscape, and sweep area.
• Office assistance: Type, file, answer phones, keep records, enter data, and call patients to remind them about appointments.
• Radiation therapy: Run errands and escort patients.
• Transportation: Drive patients from their homes to VA medical centers.

Donating is just a click away now that VA medical centers accept donations online. You just need a major credit card, debit card, checking account, or savings account.
Make a donation online 

If you'd like to donate to Salisbury health care, please send a check (payable to Salisbury VA Medical Center) to:

W. G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center
CDCE Office (001-V)
Building 6, Room 1010
1601 Brenner Avenue
Salisbury, NC 28144

Coffee Donations: We always need coffee, creamer, sugar, and sweetener. 

Art supplies: These donations are used for the Expressive Arts Program:  canvas, drawing pencils, charcoal, pastels, water color sets & paper, artists’ clay, paint brushes.

Final Salute quilts: Handmade red-white-and blue quilts made specifically for our hospice patients and given to Veterans families upon death of their loved one.  Quilts should be 50 inches by 100 inches.

Craft kits: Kits are distributed to veteran patients to help relieve stress.  Wood and leather kits, beading, models, yarn and painting kits, dream catchers, and sun catchers.

Healing gardens: Healing garden is in need of potting soil, compost and mulch.  Donations of approved plants in the memory of a veteran are very special and will be planted with care. 

Shelter belt: The VA is accepting donations of live trees for our shelter belt.  These donations may also be given in the memory of a veteran.

Recreation therapy: Baking supplies and baking mixes.

Other donations accepted:

• Games with plastic playing pieces
• Grocery or Walmart gift cards for $20 each
• Postage stamps
• Sewing kits
• Sweatpants and sweatshirts (sizes medium and large in new or in good condition)
• T-shirts, socks, and underwear (must be new)
• Word search and puzzle books

Sometimes it’s nice knowing where your money is being spent. Now you can. Simply choose a special fund, write the fund number in the memo section on your check, and we'll do the rest.  If you don’t designate a special fund, your money will be put to good use in our general-purpose account.

Thank you for supporting our Veterans.

Canteen Book Fund—used to purchase canteen books from the VA Canteen for patient bingo prizes and other recreational activities.

General Purpose—used to purchase patient personal care items and to fund other projects including cable television, aviary and aquarium maintenance and special events for the veterans in our nursing home.

Community Living Center (Nursing Home)—for purchases to benefit the nursing home residents such as lost clothing and other personal items.

Recreation Therapy—for the provision of supplies and activities related to the therapy of recreational and learning pursuits of all hospitalized veterans.

Social Work Fund—to assist indigent patients in emergent situations.

Homeless/Mental Health—used to help with food cards, gas cards, expenses such as fees and school books.

Healing Garden—supports the construction of a new healing and meditation garden in the medical center courtyard.

OEF/OIF/OND—targets the rehabilitation of our Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Operation New Dawn veterans.

Vets Center—for emergency situations veterans and their families.

Transportation Program—used to support the accessibility needs of wheelchair dependent veterans.

Hospice—used to secure comfort items for patients in the last stages of life.

Women Veterans 

Golden Age Games—supports veterans who compete in various sports in their golden years; similar to the Olympic Games.

Chaplain Funds—support the religious needs of all hospitalized veterans.

National Salute

Caregiver Support

Vet Community Outreach