INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — June 14 is the anniversary of the United States Army. It is also Founder’s Day for Nexstar Broadcasting, the company that owns WISH-TV. 

Every year around Founder’s Day, more than 100 TV stations in the Nexstar Nation volunteer at local charities. 

This year, WISH-TV spent the day cleaning, working and organizing at Helping Veterans and Families in Indianapolis. 

Meet Pam Coleman, she has been a client of HVAF since Jan. 9, 2019.

“This place here has been wonderful they give you a second chance on looking for jobs, helping with your disabilities or giving you a place to be established until you can get to the next phase in your life,” said Pam Coleman. 

Coleman is one of about 1,100 veterans and their families that come through the doors of HVAF every year for food, clothing and a place to get life back on track.

“The next six months is to have my income coming in and to be in my own residence, so I can get my grandkids over all the time” said Coleman. 

This is where the WISH-TV family comes in. HVAF has 17 properties in Indianapolis, including one building with 50 small apartments in constant need of maintenance, according to retired Army Brigadier General and current HVAF President CEO Brian Copes.

“It is a tremendous help we have a number of properties through Indianapolis HVAF Helping Veterans and Families could not properly serve our veteran clients, we could not fulfill our mission without an army of volunteers to come and help us maintain the properties and come and fulfill the functions in our food and clothing pantry,” said Copes. 

There is no question our staff had a good time painting some of the apartments, sorting through the dozens of bags of donated clothes, cleaning the kitchen and stocking the food pantry.

Vice President and General Manager of WISH-TV Randy Ingram helped organize this year’s Nexstar Day of Caring volunteer event.

“It is a way for our company to give back to the community, we are all about localism and being involved in the community so, this is our way to get people from work to come out and help different organizations that are in need of help and extra bodies,” said Ingram.