CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This Veterans Day is one Aaron Harper won’t soon forget. He got an early start commemorating the special day this year by leading an early morning workout for vets at Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte on Saturday.

What You Need To Know

  • Veterans Bridge Home kicked off Veterans Day commemorations in Charlotte with a Saturday group workout and festival

  • Volunteers with the organization ramped up support for veterans in the Asheville area after Helene hit

  • Once a week, they travel to Arden, N.C. to pack and distribute boxes of food and resources to hundreds of military families in the area

“As much as people don’t realize this is a fitness event, it’s actually more about mental wellness,” Harper said.

As an executive for Veterans Bridge Home, he provides wraparound services for veterans across North Carolina, offering everything from employment opportunities to most recently supporting their partnering organization, Veterans Services of the Carolinas, which helps about 130 unhoused veterans in the Asheville area who are displaced once again because of Helene. 

“Normally they’re providing holistic veteran services in the community,” he said. “And now, all of a sudden, they are personally impacted by the storm. So, we wanted to be up there to be of good support for them.”

This Veterans Day, Harper’s team sent volunteers to pack and distribute boxes of food and resources to hundreds of military families in the area. They’ve done this once a week since the storm hit.

“They shifted them to a Quality Inn, which is basically across the street — it’s maybe 1,000 feet away. They had to cross a bridge, which goes over the Swannanoa River,” he said. “So, that bridge is now impassable.”

He said this bridge collapse on Tunnel Road turned that 1,000-foot distance from Veterans Restoration Quarters where vets were housed into an eight-mile alternate route — making going the extra mile for them a no-brainer. He added the veterans they’re helping even turn around and volunteer themselves. 

“Some of the veterans that were unhoused that are being cared for there will come over to the warehouse where donations and supplies are being dropped off, and they’ll help volunteer for the day, which is great,” he said.

Harper said that constant sense of community is how Veterans Bridge Home reaches so many vets.

“Then, as we find out that these folks may have needs, we can connect with them. And then, as we have needs as well, then we can reach back out to this population and ask them if they can come help us.”

About 100 people came out for the early morning workout on Saturday. It was followed by a Veterans Day festival in Romare Bearden Park. 

Harper said as they’re helping in the short term, their long-term priority is restoring the VRQ, so vets can return there as soon as possible.