Our Bastion veteran community is thrilled to be returning to The National WWII Museum on Friday, November 15! We invite you to join us for an evening of music, food, and guest speakers while learning about the transformative impacts created by our intentional veteran community. Guests will have the opportunity to bid on luxury vacations with all proceeds benefiting our veterans, and our sponsors and VIP ticket holders will enjoy a special reception featuring artwork from veteran artists in our Headway brain injury program.
Bastion’s Gala of Resilience is a testament to the power of our community and the proven success of our community-based care model. This fundraising event will allow us to continue growing our supportive community, expanding our programs, and increasing our capacity to serve even more of the 15,000+ veterans who proudly call New Orleans home.
With your support, we will continue to transform the lives of veterans and their families by building communities of care and connection that prioritize person-centric care while promoting healing, growth, and functional independence. We will empower more veterans to achieve resilience and whole health, veterans who will in turn be able to serve as supportive community members for other veterans and families in need. This model of support is captured by our “Community as the Intervention” motto which recognizes that among the many resources and programs our veterans have access to, the greatest tool they have is each other.
We are so grateful to be able to showcase our impact in the museum’s US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center. This space includes the George H. W. Bush Aviation Gallery, a powerful tribute to our former president featuring six fully restored iconic WWII warbirds, including a General Motors TBM Avenger like Bush flew as the youngest pilot in the Navy at that time. Bastion is making history with its innovative, boundary-breaking approach to veteran care, and it is only fitting that we share our story and the stories of our veterans in this historic space honoring our nation’s heroes.
Thanks to our longtime supporters, major donors, and attendees of last year’s Gala, construction is underway for our new Veteran Wellness Center. This building will serve as a physical resource hub for New Orleans veterans and create space for social connection, relationship building, and self exploration in a supportive space. Our partners in veteran care will have space to share their knowledge and resources, and Bastion will have the long overdue space we need to expand our successful wellness programming.
One major program that will benefit from this expansion is our signature Headway program, which serves post-9/11 veterans living with traumatic brain injuries and other neurological conditions. Headway helps veterans build functional skills, maximize independence, and increase social connections through various artistic therapies, occupational therapy, community outings, educational sessions, and so much more. We will soon be expanding this program to serve the veterans of San Antonio and will have the opportunity to serve more veterans here in New Orleans at our Veteran Wellness Center.
Guests of the Gala of Resilience will have a special first-look at our new Headway promotional video sharing the life-changing power of this program for veterans, their family members, and their caretakers!