Tag: veterans home visits

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Carrying on a Tradition of Compassion: Nursing Home Visits with Mays Mission

Images of Mays Mission Veterans Home visits and Nursing Home visits

At Mays Mission for the Handicapped, one of our most cherished traditions is visiting residents at Veterans Homes and nursing facilities—a mission that began many years ago with our founder, Ewing Mays.

Ewing Mays, a double amputee and World War II veteran, lost both legs during a mortar explosion in Sicily. But he never lost his spirit. Throughout his life, Ewing remained committed to uplifting others, especially wounded soldiers and disabled veterans. He believed deeply in the power of human connection, compassion, and hope. His visits to veterans hospitals and nursing homes were more than just acts of kindness—they were powerful reminders that no one is forgotten.

Today, we are proud to continue that tradition.

This year, Mays Mission has sent out countless ‘Gift Paks’—hand-assembled by our employees with disabilities—to volunteers across the country to distribute to nursing home and veterans home residents. Each Gift Pak includes thoughtful items like stationery and writing supplies, created with care by individuals in our on-the-job training program. These small tokens of kindness often spark big smiles and meaningful conversations.

Closer to home, our team members, Vince and David, have made it a regular practice to visit veterans at a local nursing home every few weeks. These visits are filled with laughter, shared stories, and a genuine bond formed over topics like fishing and baseball. For David, who is also part of our job training program, these visits are especially fulfilling. “It just makes me feel good,” he says. “You can tell they appreciate it, and I always leave feeling better myself.”

We believe that everyone has the power to brighten someone’s day. Even a short visit or a friendly conversation can make a lasting difference to someone who may be feeling lonely or forgotten.

We encourage you—yes, you—to consider reaching out in your own community. If you’re interested in learning more about volunteering, we’d be happy to send you a free copy of our brochure, The Spirit of Giving. And if you’d like to join us in distributing ‘Gift Paks’ to residents in your area, we’d love to hear from you.

You can reach us at info@maysmission.org or give us a call. Together, we can continue this beautiful tradition of compassion, connection, and care—just as Ewing Mays intended.

Thank you for your support, and for helping us share hope, one visit at a time.

Mays Mission volunteers visiting a disabled veteran in a veterans home

Visiting nursing homes will bring smiles to the faces of some lonely people. 

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Just Say Thank You

photos of Mays Mission founder Ewing Mays visiting wounded soldiers

Ewing Mays began his “mission” by visiting his fellow veterans with whom he shared a common bond.  All of them had been wounded in the war and many of them, like Mr. Mays, had lost a leg or an arm in the service of their country.  He knew what they were going through.  He had been there.  And he was determined to help as many as he could.  He wanted to help them to understand that life could still be worthwhile and he wanted to share with them what he had learned and what he had done to overcome his disability.

But his visits did more.  Each time he visited a veteran’s home or hospital he was also letting the veterans know they were not forgotten and what they had done in the service of their nation was important.  By his mere presence he was letting them know they had done something noble, something which deserved the gratitude of us all.  He was saying “thank you, thank you for your service to your country.”

We all like to hear someone say thank you to us.  It is a phrase which makes us feel good.  The two words give us a sense of accomplishment, a sense of worthiness and the knowledge that someone else believes we did something good. 

Memorial Day is a day for saying thank you.  We remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice and we say thank you to them by placing wreaths of flowers, by parades, by speeches, by moments of silence, by fly-overs of jet fighters and by simply saying “thank you.”  This is our national day of saying thank you to all those who served and sacrificed to keep our nation free.  Ewing Mays said thank you each time he visited with a group of his fellow veterans.  He celebrated Memorial Day each time he made a visit.

  Let us all celebrate Memorial Day as Ewing Mays did.  Whenever you meet a veteran, remember to say thank you. Take the opportunity to let a living veteran know you appreciate what they did for our nation. What better way to memorialize those who are gone than by honoring those who are still here.

  For more information email us at info@maysmission.org and feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section. Thank you and God bless your kind heart!

A photo of a disabled veteran and his daughter, and a photo of Mays Mission founder Ewing Mays returning home from World War II a double amputee

Do not assume that a person with a disability is disabled in all areas of life

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Mission Gift Paks

Photo of disabled veterans from a Mays Mission Veterans home visit

  Mays Mission likes to call our employees with disabilities “handicapable” employees.

  One exciting and rewarding project for the employees of Mays Mission for the Handicapped is the Gift Pak program. This program helps our employees with disabilities help themselves.

  The Gift Paks are put together from items produced at the Mission. Each Gift Pak contains a pen, postcards, personal notepads, bookmarks, and our New Hope Newsletter. They are designed, printed, and assembled by the Handicapable employees of Mays Mission.

  Each year our representatives make tours across the United States visiting some of our handicapped friends and stopping at nursing care facilities to distribute these Gift Paks. We also ship our Gift Paks out to interested nursing homes.

  When we began this program we had no idea it would receive such a favorable response. We received many letters from nursing home directors expressing how much each resident enjoyed the Gift Pak. We are certainly proud of them!

  It is through the generosity of our donors that we are able to help others. For more information, or for gift paks that you can help distribute, please call us at 888-503-7955 or email us at info@maysmission.org today and please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section.

Photos of Mays Mission volunteers visiting with disabled veterans during a Veterans Home Tour
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Programs

Our founder’s dream and his mission

The late Ewing W. Mays founded Mays Mission, a non-profit organization…


…in order to give help, encouragement and guidance to the physically and mentally disabled.
As a double amputee (he lost both of his legs during World War II), Ewing knew all to well the anguish and heartache of being disabled. He was only 25 years old when he lost his legs.


For two years he lay in a hospital bed at McCloskey General Hospital in Temple, Texas undergoing one operation after another before being fitted for artificial legs.


Not once did a person with a similar disability ever visit him. No effort was made to offer him encouragement or to help him understand how to overcome his disability.


He found himself wishing for a peaceful death.


He just couldn’t stand the torture, pain and worry of being a burden to his family – of never being able to live as a whole person again.


But God knew his needs better than he did, and He answered Ewing’s prayers with a vocation and a dream…


…to use his disability as a way to help others like him to build a place where disabled people could rebuild their lives. Ewing worked hard at his spiritual and physical therapy, and, with the help of two artificial limbs, was soon able to walk as well as anyone.


In 1951, God opened new doors to him and, as National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans, he toured the military hospitals of Korea and Japan.


His mission was simple – to visit the wounded servicemen, both American and South Korean…
…more than 80,000 men who were facing amputations and had no one to understand their grief or despair.


As he moved from bed to bed, his mind began recording things that seemed to impress those young men with crippled bodies.


And this set the course God had planned for the rest of Ewing Mays’ life.


Year after year, he toured military hospitals across America giving encouragement and stressing back in 1967:


“It’s ability, not disability, that counts.”


During one hospital visit, Gerald D. Schroeder, another young double amputee, asked Ewing how much pressure he could take on the stumps of his legs.


Ewing simply lifted the soldier from his wheelchair, held him for a few minutes and replied, “That’s how much!”


Letters soon began pouring in from hospitals he had visited, requesting that he return…


…newspapers featured articles on the effectiveness of his special brand of therapy and explained how it was changing the lives of “hopeless” young people.


That’s when he started dreaming about building the New Hope Center – a facility where, in addition to offering physical, emotional and spiritual support, training could be provided in various types of work. And we’ve been able to do just that since our opening in 1982.

Unemployment is one of the most profound issues facing the disability community. Only 17% of people with disabilities report being in the labor force, compared to 64% of non-disabled adults. People with disabilities remain twice as likely to drop out of high school, henceforth no skills. In fact, the employment rate for all people with disabilities has remained relatively constant since 1986.


That is why our on-the-job training is so important.

If you would like more information on our On-The-Job Training program call us or email us at info@maysmission.org and we will be glad to provide you with some of our free brochures to hand out to employers in your area and let them know that hiring the disabled is smart business! Thank you for your support!