 Good morning. I'm here with DAV, National Director of Voluntary Services, John Cline-Dease. Some big news coming late after, yesterday afternoon from the VA, John, what can you tell us about that? Yeah. First, thanks for having me this morning, Tom. Yesterday, Secretary Wilkie put out an announcement that they're going to start welcoming volunteers back in the VAs across the country in a phased approach. This is really exciting. DAV obviously has a very large volunteer network inside of the co-located or inside VAs, and our volunteers provide essential services to the men and women who've served and we're keeping our promises to them by volunteering at those facilities and filling in those roles. So it's really, really cool. Yeah. So, you know, what does this mean for veterans at such a trying time like this that we're in right now with this pandemic? Well, it's an opportunity for them to get back to the face-to-face activities or get back to those appointments that they need to get to that maybe are better served in person versus telehealth or telemed, which is a great way to receive care as well. But it's an opportunity for them to get back to some sense of normalcy that we were all accustomed to prior to March of 2020. So it's exciting to see everybody return to their original capacities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yeah. And a sense of normalcy is definitely nice to see at least as far as helping our veterans. You know, let's talk about what volunteers can expect now. Well, volunteers can expect to go through the same screening process patients will let those facilities. The volunteers are going to have to go through the health screenings. They're going to have to do the pre-screen for the COVID-19. There's probably going to be some significant retraining because we haven't had people working in that capacity for some time. And it's going to be a phased approach. Don't expect to return right back to work to whatever job or volunteer part that you had in the facility. They may assign you as a greeter or as a screener. I mean, there's going to be a variety of things that are going to take place. So it's going to be a slow-paced approach, exercise a lot of patients and be willing to participate through the screening just to keep everybody safe including health care providers, patients, volunteers, everybody alike. You know, safety is at the utmost. Yeah. Safety is really important right now. And you know, I think with some of these volunteers coming back, there's going to be some new roles, correct? So can you tell us about what some of these new roles will be for volunteers? Yeah, obviously you're going to have people that are going to serve as a screener that are going to check people as they come in. You're going to have people that are just going to be greeters, possibly patient escort that are going to serve in a different capacity. We're still going to have a need for volunteer drivers and other volunteer opportunities inside the hospital. There are so many to list. But obviously things are going to change. So don't expect if you did something specific before, maybe that job is going to be reassigned to something else. You know, only time is going to tell us what those new assignments are going to be. But this is a great opportunity for people to get out and volunteer again, get back active doing what they're doing as well as an opportunity for people to begin volunteering who have never done it before. So this is a great call to anybody interested in helping the men and women who are more uniform in facilities across the country. Yeah, and this is great for our dedicated volunteers who have stuck with the VA and DAV. But for anybody who is looking for something to do or feeling like a call of duty, how can people sign up to help these veterans? Well, it's easy. If you do have an interest, you can reach out to us electronically at VABS at DAV.org. Or you can contact your local VA hospital and ask to speak to the DAV office there, the DAV HSC, that's hospital service coordinator, our voluntary services department and let them know you're interested in volunteering. How can you become a volunteer? And most importantly, that you want to volunteer for DAV. It's important that we continue to bring in new people into our volunteer programs. We recognize them for their time and talents. It's your most precious commodity that you have is your time. And if you're willing to donate that in the name of DAV, we want to recognize people for that. So I would encourage folks to reach out and ask to volunteer. Just be able to be committed to at least one day a week. That's really our call. And this is a great time. If you're interested in becoming a volunteer driver, we always have a need for this. Volunteerism prior to the start of COVID-19 was down across everything. So if you are over the age of 21, you have a valid driver's license, you can pass a physical and you're insurable. You can become a volunteer driver. You just need to let the DAV volunteers department know that you're interested in that. Okay. Well, I think this is great news. Exciting stuff happening. Hopefully this is going to really help our veterans during this really difficult time. I thank you, John, for sitting down with me this morning. Is there anything else you want to let people know? Tom, thank you. I do agree with you. If this is exciting and great news, please, if you're interested, consider becoming a volunteer, more specifically a volunteer driver. We always have a need for that. You don't have to be a veteran of volunteer. I think that's a big misnomer there. Anybody who has a sense or an obligation to serve veterans can become a volunteer. Again, you just have to be able to pass those basic requirements. So thanks for your time, Tom. This is great and exciting news. I look forward to all of our volunteers getting back in the facility. New volunteers coming to the facility. Thank you for your commitment and your dedication to DAV and the men and women we serve.