JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Earlier this week, Wounded Warrior Project honored a Vietnam era veteran who has made it his mission to help others. After many years of raising money, Tom Cocchiarella recently raised and donated his $1 millionth to Wounded Warrior Project.
Cocchiarella is from Minnesota, but flew to Jacksonville for the honor. He also recently battled cancer, but still raised money for veterans charities and said that he was inspired to help when he saw troops being deployed for the War on Terror.
"When we saw what was happening we were pretty sure it was going to be a fairly long battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, which meant a lot of people were going to serve and there were going to be a lot of casualties,” said Tom Cocchiarella, “and we wanted to try to do something to help when there was no help for us at all."
"When you see someone like Tom, who is a Vietnam era veteran himself, raise awareness and resources to help today's era of veterans heal mind body and spirit I think it encourages our Warriors today to know that somebody cares about them,” said Wounded Warrior Project CEO Mike Linnington.
For more information on Wounded Warrior Project, click here.