The former ROTC manager at UMass will be participating in the Run to Home Base that is being coordinated by the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital.
David Vacchi, of Belchertown, plans to participate in the Run for Home Base road race in Boston May 22 to help veterans. He is seen on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.BELCHERTOWN – As a veteran who’s been there, David Vacchi says he knows support for military families is just as important as for the individual soldiers.
He’s among several Western Massachusetts residents with a passion for helping returning veterans and their families who are gearing up for the second annual Run to Home Base.
The May 22 fund-raiser in Boston will jointly benefit the Home Base Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Red Sox Foundation.
Proceeds from the event will aid programs to support clinical treatment for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from combat stress and traumatic brain injuries. The funds also assist the families of those deployed overseas.
Vacchi, a retired Army officer who managed the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the University of Massachusetts, is participating in the event for the first time.
Vacchi, along with UMass graduate and fellow runner Jon Zagami, helped a group of student veterans establish the first student veterans’ organization on campus since Vietnam. Vacchi is now a doctoral student studying veterans’ transitions to higher education.
“We have focused on the military person deploying and coming back, but I think we’re just starting to understand it’s just as difficult, if not more so, on the spouse and the family than it is on the one going to war,” Vacchi said. “For me personally, getting that support for the whole family is just as critical as the treatment for individual veterans.”
While many soldiers returning from deployment don’t suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, they and their families still need help, Vacchi said.
“They may not have a problem adjusting themselves, but it’s people with families where this normalizing process makes it more difficult,” he said.
Vacchi’s running of the 9K Run to Home Base will also be a personal victory for him.
“As a result of my 20 years in the Army, I’m 50 percent disabled,” he said. “The major components are the ankle, knee and lower back.”
Vacchi, 45, said the U.S. Veterans Administration helped him get into the shape necessary to participate in this fund-raiser.
Zagami’s cousin, Allie Paquette, of Ludlow, is also running in the Run to Home Base. Paquette said Zagami suffered a traumatic brain injury during his service. He has been a participant in the Home Base program, and also ran in the event last year.
“I was inspired seeing them and others run last year, and I decided to join them,” Paquette said. “Jon began college upon his return (from deployment). He found it very difficult due to lack of resources and lack of understanding about what these young veterans were going through to try to adjust.”
Zagami receives treatment and counseling through Massachusetts General under the program, according to Paquette. In addition to the clinical treatment, the program sponsors social activities for participating veterans and their families.
“Overall, the program allows young veterans to receive the care they need while they work to become re-acclimated to society through socialization with other veterans,” Paquette said.
Jonathan Schnauber, of Springfield, a graduate student studying social work at Springfield College and an Air Force veteran, has been deployed numerous times since he enlisted in 1990. He said services like those provided by the Home Base program are vital to the future of veterans.
“When we return, we are never the same people that left just several months before,” he said. “We need a voice, support, understanding and a place to feel all right.”
Schnauber said the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are already showing up in homeless shelters throughout the United States.
“In the past, it took an average of 10 years to see Vietnam veterans show up in these shelters, so the veterans of today’s wars are setting a new and sad precedent here,” he said. “We need organizations like this one if veterans are to return to a sense of normalcy after being exposed to war.”
The Run to Home Base will travel through Boston and finishes at home plate at Fenway Park. Friends, family and supporters can watch the runners complete the run and cheer them on from the stands at Fenway. The day will include other activities such as a Family Fun Zone and a Military Appreciation Zone, where supporters are encouraged to send care packages to deployed service members.