Walkin' and a Rollin' 2023-VA2K

The thirteenth annual VA2k took place on May 17, 2023, at USS Bullhead Park under partly cloudy skies with perfect springtime temps, making this the ideal outdoor event of the year. The theme for this year’s event was festive Hawaiian attire and many who participated wore their favorite aloha shirts, hulas, and lei’s.

The New Mexico VA’s event was just one of approximately 200 VA2K events that took place at VA facilities across the country on the same day. The event’s short 2 kilometer (1.24 mile) walk, which circles around the park’s two field goal posts, encouraged some exercise, fun and the enjoyment of beautiful weather. The walk was open to VA staff and the public.

Participation was not required and those who wanted to help in other ways could do so with a donation. This was an excellent opportunity to support VA and its initiative help to end homelessness among Veterans.

More than $3,000 in monetary and non-monetary funds were raised this year. Some of the items donated this year included clothing, toiletries, packaged food, and bottled water. These donations were collected and will be distributed to local homeless Veterans in the next coming days.

Leading up to the event, NMVAHCS departments were encouraged to put together teams and compete for the “Top Group” award. Teams were judged based on best dressed, most enthusiastic and originality.

Michelle Lenz, a member of OIT’s Catch Spam Not Phish team, looks forward to the VA2k event every year.

“We try to put together something original each year and we couldn’t make this happen without our great leadership support! Our department met as a group to collaborate on our team name, attire and what we wanted to display. Last year our department won with “Drop it like a Laptop” and this year we won again with “Catch Spam not Phish” taking home the trophy,” said Lenz.

The winners of the 2023 NMVAHCS VA2k Team Awards, as voted on by the vendors, were:

• First Place: OIT Department, Team name: “Catch Spam Not Phish”
• Second Place: HR Department, Team name: “Good Vibes”
• Honorable Mention:  HCHV / HUD VASH, Team name: “The KOA Warriors”  

One positive takeaway from this year’s VA2k event was the amount of empathy and desire VA employees want to help and they feel for homeless veterans. 

VA2k organizer, Roberto Christian, received good positive feedback prior to the event and was pleasantly pleased to see that there was so much interest regarding VA2k.

“In the months leading up to this event, I was stopped by VA employees several times while at the Patriot Store or in the Canteen, and they would ask “Are you going to host the VA2k event this year? or “When is it going to be? or How can I help or donate? In my opinion those random encounters were key to the success of this year’s event. Just listening to people talk about how they were helped by our program, or that they know someone who was helped by our program gave me the impetus to do whatever was necessary to host the event,” said Christian.

Multiple community service organizations throughout Bernalillo, Valencia, and Sandoval counties also participated. These organizations provide support services to homeless individuals, and individuals dealing with mental/emotional issues, and/or substance use issues.

Christian knows that it sometimes takes a village for something like this to be successful and there are many to thank this year.

“I could not have done any of this without the support and encouragement from my supervisors and leadership (Mark Mariglia and Jill Turner) in Social Work Services”, said Christian. 

The following individuals were key to the success of the event:

• Mark Martinez, Engineering Grounds Maintenance Foreman: provided the power generator, fire extinguishers, manpower, etc.  
• Dustin Cook, Occupational Health and Safety Specialist: provided equipment such as the canopies and platform for the Master of Ceremonies. He also transported equipment to/from the venue
• Tara Wigge, FIS Financial Analyst, negotiated a contract with a local tent company to provide additional tents, tables, and chairs for the event

• Joshua Gingerich: Social Worker, HCHV Program, served as the Master of Ceremonies 
• Rene Carrillo, Peer Support Specialist, provided shuttle service to/from the event.