EDITOR’S NOTE: The Air Force Assistance Fund is an annual effort to raise funds for the charitable affiliates that provide support to our Air Force family in need (active duty, retirees, reservists, guard and our dependents, including surviving spouses). The charitable affiliate organizations provide support in an emergency, with educational needs or a secure retirement home for widows or widowers of our Air Force members in need of financial assistance. Hill’s Air Force Assistance Fund campaign runs through April 10. Contact your unit representative to donate.

Air Force Village opened its doors in San Antonio, Texas, in 1970 with a core charitable mission to care for retired Air Force officers’ widowed spouses who need financial assistance.

This meaningful cause benefits an average of 50-plus individuals annually at a cost of more than $1 million per year. Air Force Villages Charitable Foundation honors these spouses for the sacrifices they made while serving their country, side by side with their loved ones. We provide a safe, comfortable environment where surviving spouses are surrounded by friends in a home they cannot provide for themselves.

Since 1970, with generous support from active-duty and retired military, more than $17.5 million has been applied to the confidential assistance and care of surviving spouses. Often, catastrophic illness depleted their savings, or they outlived the money put aside for retirement. In today’s economy, the need for help continues. Thanks to your support, these individuals live a modest lifestyle with access to long-term health care and are able to spend their final years with dignity and peace of mind.

When you give to AFAF, you build a safety net for the widowed spouses of real American heroes and fulfill the vision of the women and men who founded the Air Force Village 50 years ago to “take care of our own.” We can proudly say 100 percent of Air Force Assistance Fund gifts to the Air Force Villages Charitable Foundation support this mission.