The holidays can be complicated for military families.
While everyone else is celebrating traditions and gathering around tables, many veteran families are navigating a different reality. Dad might be dealing with physical pain that makes it hard to play with the kids. Mom might be struggling to bridge the gap between who her spouse was before deployment and who came home. The kids might not understand why family gatherings feel different now.
This December, we’re inviting you to give a gift that truly matters: the gift of healing through Project New Hope.
What Project New Hope Really Is
Project New Hope isn’t a program. It’s a weekend retreat where disabled veterans and their families get space to just… breathe. To reconnect. To remember what it feels like to be a team again.
We provide the place — 583 acres of peaceful Pennsylvania mountains along the Juniata River. We provide the activities — adaptive outdoor experiences that work for every family member, regardless of physical limitations. We provide the support — a community of people who understand that coming home from service is its own kind of deployment.
But here’s what we can’t provide on our own: the funding to make these retreats free for every veteran family who needs one.
That’s where you come in.
The Real Cost of Healing
When we say a weekend retreat is “free” for veteran families, what we really mean is: someone else believed their healing mattered enough to pay for it.
- $150 covers a full day of retreat activities — the archery lesson where Dad realizes he can still teach his daughter something new, the nature walk where the whole family slows down together, the campfire where stories get shared instead of staying buried.
- $400 provides meals and lodging for half the retreat — the comfortable beds, the food they don’t have to cook, the absence of everyday stress that creates space for real conversation.
- $750 sponsors one veteran family for the complete weekend experience — every meal, every activity, every quiet moment by the river, every breakthrough.
- $1,500 sponsors two families or supports a family with additional accessibility needs.
Why This Holiday Season?
Americans are incredibly generous when it comes to supporting veterans. We say “thank you for your service” with genuine gratitude. But what happens after we say thank you?
For many disabled veterans and their families, the real battle begins when the deployment ends. The adjustment to civilian life. The physical limitations that change family dynamics. The feeling of being forgotten once the uniform comes off.
Project New Hope says: You’re not forgotten. Your family matters. Your healing matters.
And this holiday season — when everyone’s thinking about family, connection, and what really matters — is the perfect time to help a military family rediscover all three.
What Your Gift Actually Does
Let’s be honest about what happens when you sponsor a veteran family’s retreat:
You give a dad the chance to zip-line with his kids even though his legs don’t work the way they used to. You give him the memory of his daughter’s face — pure joy — as she cheers him on.
You give a mom a weekend where she doesn’t have to be the strong one holding everything together. You give her space to be vulnerable, to connect with other spouses who get it, to remember she’s not alone in this.
You give kids the gift of seeing their parents laugh again. Of doing something adventurous as a family. Of normal — whatever that looks like now.
You give an entire family the reminder that they’re still a team. That love adapts. That healing is possible.
How to Give the Gift of Healing
Sponsor a veteran family’s retreat:
- Visit our website at beaconlodge.org
- Choose your sponsorship level ($150, $400, $750, or $1,500)
- Know that 100% of your donation goes directly to providing free retreats for Pennsylvania’s disabled veterans and their families
Share this opportunity:
- Forward this newsletter to someone who cares about veteran families
- Share on social media using #GiveTheGiftOfHealing and #ProjectNewHope
- Connect us with veteran organizations in your community
Talk to your Lions Club:
- Bring this program to your next club meeting
- Consider a club sponsorship of a veteran family retreat
- Help us reach more Pennsylvania veterans who need this
The Gift That Keeps Giving
Here’s something beautiful about sponsoring a veteran family’s retreat: you’re not just giving them one weekend.
You’re giving them tools they’ll use long after they leave camp. Communication strategies. Shared memories to build on. The knowledge that asking for help isn’t weakness — it’s wisdom. Connection to other military families who become lifelong friends and support systems.
One weekend plants seeds that grow into months and years of stronger family bonds.
This December, Choose Impact
You could buy another sweater that’ll end up in the back of someone’s closet. Another gadget that’ll be forgotten by February. Another gift card that feels… safe.
Or you could give healing. Connection. Hope. A family weekend that changes the trajectory of a disabled veteran’s journey home.
This December, we’re asking the Lions of Pennsylvania — and anyone who believes our veterans deserve support beyond “thank you for your service” — to give differently.
Give the gift of healing. Sponsor a veteran family’s retreat at Beacon Lodge Camp.
Because the best gifts aren’t things. They’re the space to breathe, the chance to reconnect, and the reminder that someone cares enough to say: Your healing matters. Your family matters. You matter.