Operation Veteran Update: The Momentum is Building

The last edition of Kudos! featured a story about Montréal periodontist Dr. Paul Kavanagh, who donated a life insurance policy to support in perpetuity the program he founded in 2009, Operation Veteran.

Dr. Kavanagh founded Operation Veteran to ensure that no veteran would lack the funds for a meal at the War Museum. In 2009, the program gave meal vouchers at the Museum’s cafeteria to 66 veterans on November 11, Remembrance Day. In 2010, the program was extended to every day the Museum is open and to date more than 3,500 veterans have benefited from the vouchers.

The program has expanded so quickly thanks to ever-increasing financial support. Operation Veteran raised $7,000 in 2009, $18,000 in 2010 and $35,000 in 2011, for a total so far of $60,000. Donations have come from companies and foundations, from individual Canadians and especially from schools across the country.

Paul Kavanagh, founder Operation Veteran, CWM2011-0087-0066-Dm

Paul Kavanagh greeting veterans Jerry Bowen, Second World War and Korean War veteran (centre) and Nelson Langevin, Second World War veteran (right), CWM2011-0087-0013-Dm

Connecting with Canada’s Schools

Students from Laval Junior High School, presenting a cheque to Dr. Paul Kavanagh, CWM2011-0087-0045-Dm

Dr. Kavanagh is continually enlisting private and public schools to raise funds and awareness for Operation Veteran. He invites these schools to come to Ottawa on November 11 to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies, tour the War Museum, meet veterans and present their fundraising cheques to Operation Veteran. All expenses of these visits are covered by the participating schools. In 2009, 60 Montréal and Ottawa students participated; in 2011, 200 students from Newfoundland to British Columbia took part. Last November 11, Dr. Kavanagh gave the students and their teachers hand-held flags of their provinces, which made them highly visible to veterans. “It was our way of saying to vets: Thank you from every part of Canada.”

An Ideal Partnership

“Operation Veteran is clearly resonating with Canadians,” says Claude Drouin, Director of Philanthropy for the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. “We’re delighted to be able to support Dr. Kavanagh in channelling his passion for honouring veterans and helping to perpetuate the memory of their sacrifices and their invaluable contribution to younger and future generations into an organization with a truly national impact.”

Join Operation Veteran with an online donation, click here.