Remembering their sacrifice

Local residents, veterans and politicians gathered for an array of ceremonies marking Veterans Day during the past week in the northwest Bronx, while New York officials offered congratulations and praised advances in providing housing for homeless veterans and tax breaks for others. 

At Van Cortlandt Park’s memorial grove, where 18 plaques installed amid the trees planted in 1949 to honor Bronx men who served in World War II and Korea, girl scouts joined Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Council Member Andrew Cohen on Nov. 7 to honor men and women in service. 

At Riverdale’s Bell Tower monument, current and past commanders of local veterans’ posts gathered for a ceremony honoring veterans. 

Official honors

New York officials also offered well wishes and words of gratitude to the veterans. 

“For generations, these brave individuals have put their lives and their families on hold to ensure that we can enjoy our basic freedoms and safety,” Public Advocate Letitia James said in a statement. “On behalf of all of New York City, I express my deepest gratitude to all of our past and present service members.”

Congressman Charles B. Rangel, himself a veteran, represents the 13th Congressional District of New York,  including Van Cortlandt Village, Marble Hill and parts of Kingsbridge in the Bronx, said Veterans Day was a reminder to honor all men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. “Let us remember that these men and women represent less than one percent of the population who are disproportionately bearing the burden for all of America,” he said. 

Toy drive at the zoo

A toy drive to benefit Bronx military families kicked off at the Bronx Zoo on Nov. 10, with school children presenting the first toys of the season. The toy drive, an annual event organized by the zoo and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., aims to collect new, unwrapped toys, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement. Toys will be collected through the end of December and will be distributed by the borough president’s office to local veterans and active-duty members of the military and their families, the statement said. Those who make a donation at any of Wildlife Conservation Society wildlife parks by Dec. 31 will receive a free ticket to the Bronx Zoo or New York Aquarium.

Homeless vets

Some 200,000 veterans live in New York City, according to figures cited by Mayor Bill de Blasio in an address to the opening ceremony at America’s Parade on Nov. 11. New York State is home to more than 500,000 veterans. 

Since Veterans Day a year ago, the city has placed more than 1,600 homeless veterans into permanent housing, Mr. de Blasio told another festive gathering earlier that day, Veterans Day breakfast. 

“I’m very proud to say in this city we have ended chronic veteran homelessness,” the mayor said, according to a transcript released by his office. “But there are still veterans who become homeless and we will not rest until each and every one of them have a home.” 

Tax credits

The state’s Department of Taxation and Finance urged veterans to take tax exemptions and credits available to them. 

Wartime veterans can receive a 15-percent reduction in property taxes, while veterans who served in combat zones can see their property taxes reduced by 25 percent, the Tax Department said in a statement. Veterans who were disabled as a result of their military service can qualify for an additional 50 percent reduction in taxes, the statement said. 

Employers that hired veterans may also receive business tax credits for every veteran who began working between Jan. 1, 2014 and Jan. 1, 2016, the Tax Department said. 

The credit stands at 15 percent of the total wages paid to a disabled veteran during their first full year of employment, or up to $15,000 per disabled veteran, the statement said. For veterans who are not disabled, the credit is equal to 10 percent of the total wages up to a total of $5,000.

Shady ‘charity’

Amid the efforts to help veterans, attempts to collect money under the guise of supporting veterans have also abounded. 

New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his office has reached settlements with a charity that sought to “fleece” donors and “exploit” veterans, by spending the money it raised to pay for hotels, nightclubs and junkets for its executives.

The group, the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, which also operated as the American Veteran Support Foundation, began soliciting in New York around 2008, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.  By 2014, the group was collecting nearly $9 million nationwide from fundraising, soliciting small dollar donations from the public through direct mail and phone calls — purportedly to help Vietnam Veterans, the statement said. 

The group’s founder and former president, John Thomas Burch, Jr., admitted that his group had paid 90 percent of its donations to its fundraisers, while misrepresenting its plans on how solicited money would be spent, the statement said. 

Mr. Burch supposedly used the group’s fund “to pay for foreign and domestic travel, frequenting night clubs in the Baltimore area on a nearly weekly basis, ordering excessive and expensive food and drink at the country’s top restaurants and lavishing gifts on women,” the statement by the attorney general’s office said.

Free fishing

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation marked Veterans Day by designating Nov. 11 as an “annual free fishing day” around the state. No license was required to fish in any of the state’s 7,500 lakes and ponds or 70,000 miles of rivers and streams on that date, the department said in a statement.