The Island News
A few years ago, Beaufort’s Holly Vega, through personal experience, as well as the stories of others, became painfully aware that we were neglecting our veterans in a way we had failed to realize.
Vega, a military spouse, married to a Marine, realized we were neglecting their hearts.
Service members – Marines, soldiers, airmen, sailors – face a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and related conditions, both during and after their military careers.
The U.S. military does not properly test for heart disease when recruits enter the service. It screens for physical deformities, but the heart remains a mystery. A simple EKG could be a solution.
Then, when that service member separates, often times those heart issues have gotten worse and are exacerbated by the stresses of returning to a civilian life.
In 2020, Vega founded Military Hearts Matter, a nonprofit focused on heart health for service members and their families, as well as support for families with health issues.
“My nonprofit began because I saw a need in the military that was not being met nor taking care of,” Vega said. “I am a heart advocate. In our military we do not have any support in this area.”
Just this past year, Vega said the nonprofit had supported 16 kids.
“Tri-Care does not cover everything,” Vega said. “Nothing is funded, we’re all volunteers.”
Now, Military Hearts Matter has partnered with the S.C. Department of Veterans Affairs to join the South Carolina Veteran Coalition.
In a signing ceremony held Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce, Military Hearts Matter founder Holly Vega and S.C. Department of Veterans Affairs Operations Division Director Col. David M. Rozelle, U.S. Army (Ret.) signed a Memorandum of Understanding officially making the nonprofit a member of the South Carolina Veteran Coalition.
The Coalition is a state-wide referral system that helps connect veterans and their families to a network of resources across South Carolina.
“It’s more than just the veteran,” Rozelle said. “We spend a lot of time focused on the uniformed soldier, but it’s also the family members.”
Becoming a partner is free and allows Military Hearts Matter to receive referrals and help easily and directly connect veterans it is working with to other veteran resources in the Coalition.
Now the nonprofit effectively serves all of South Carolina, not just the immediate Beaufort area.
“South Carolina is the only one doing it,” Rozelle said. “What we’re doing, no one else is doing. There are a couple of other states that are ready to kick off some programming, but their first call is to us to say, ‘How did you convince your statehouse to support this?’ And it’s easy, because it’s about veterans and their families.”
“To be honest, for me this is a great honor. South Carolina is my home state and my nonprofit is just moving into its third year of operations,” Vega said. “I started this journey by creating a movement in the Marine Corps, having events and sharing information at each base, that all our military hearts matter, but we need to focus on cardio issues. We only have one heart, right?”
For more about the South Carolina Veteran Coalition, visit https://scdva.sc.gov/south-carolina-veteran-coalition.
For more about Military Hearts Matter, visit https://www.militaryheartsmatter.org.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
