Two vets log 15,000 hours driving other vets to appointments

At 85 and 70 years old, Mel Ortega and Bernardo Jaramill might be content to stay home and relax. Not these two retired army vets. They volunteer their time with Disabled American Veterans, driving disabled vets to appointments near their home in northern New Mexico. Both men remember the camaraderie and mutual support they received from their fellow soldiers, and they see this as a way to continue to serve.  

Since starting to drive for DAV in 2002, Ortega has logged over 10,000 hours - an amazing 200,000 miles. Jaramillo joined the effort a year later, driving over 5,000 hours and bringing the pair's total volunteer driving miles to 300,000.   
“When I was wounded in Vietnam, my brothers in arms, they never left me or the other guys behind,” Jaramillo said. “I don’t intend to let ’em down. I don’t care from what war, we gotta serve them, because they served us.”

93-year-old Italian nonna travels to Kenya to volunteer at an orphanage

Italian grandmothers have a reputation for, shall we stay, sturdiness. Norma Irma is no exception. The 93-year-old has given financial support to an Italian-founded orphanage in Kenya for many years. Last week, she left her home in Noventa Vicentina, Italy with her daughter. The pair flew to Kenya for a three week volunteer stint at that orphanage. Norma's proud granddaughter, Elisa Coltro, shared the story and photos on social media and with the Italian press. 

Elisa wants others to know her grandmother chose to go, "...not to some tourist resort to be waited on hand and foot, but to go to a village of children, in an orphanage. I'm showing her to you because I believe that all of us should always keep a dash of recklessness in order to live and not just survive. Look at her... Who's stopping her? I love her."

She adds, "Perhaps my grandma will decide to stay. It's entirely possible, knowing her big heart and her energy."