New website makes it simple to offer help – and connect that help to the families who need it
ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt., September 7, 2026, The Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation (VTNGCF) today announced the launch of its new Community Support website, an online tool that connects Vermonters who want to help Vermont National Guard families navigating the challenges of deployment and reintegration.
Through a simple form at www.vtguardsupport.org, community members can offer goods, services, or professional expertise; from meals, child care, and snowplowing to counseling, tax preparation, and transportation. Volunteer coordinators are working with the Foundation to review each offer and match it directly to a current family need, ensuring that support reaches households at the moment it matters most.
“Behind every deployed service member is a family managing meals, child care, plumbing issues, and a hundred other things,” said Colonel Brent Zeigler, Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation president. “This website lets these families know they are loved and cared for by allowing the community to carry some of that weight, and it makes sure no offer of help goes to waste for lack of coordination.”
The tool arrives as hundreds of Vermont National Guard members and their families manage the demands of ongoing overseas deployments. These demands will persist as Airmen and Soldiers return home in the months ahead. Rather than placing the burden on these Guard members and their families to seek out help on their own, the new system lets the community come to them: every offer is logged, reviewed, and matched by a coordinator, and donors receive a reference code they can use to update or withdraw their offer at any time.
“We want to make it easy for Guard members and show these brave Vermonters how much we appreciate their service and care about their well-being,” said Neale Lunderville, a Vermont Air National Guard Honorary Commander who helped design the platform. “It can be difficult for service members and their families to ask for help, or even know what they need to get settled, after such a long deployment, and while juggling so many demands at work and home. Our hope is that Guard members will even access services they didn’t know they needed as they navigate reentry.”
Vermonters who prefer to give financially can contribute as well through the Foundation at vtngcharitable.org/donate. All contributions to the Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, are tax-deductible and go towards efforts to support service members and their families year-round.
“The strength of the Vermont National Guard has always come from the community our service members call home,” said Major General Hank Harder, Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard. “When our Guard members deploy, their families carry a heavy load, I’m grateful to the Charitable Foundation for building a bridge between neighbors who want to help and families who could use a hand. This new tool gives Vermonters a direct, practical way to help carry it.”
The Community Support tool is operated by volunteers in coordination with the Vermont National Guard. It is not an official U.S. Government website, and no government endorsement is implied.
About the Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation
The Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supporting Vermont National Guard service members and their families through grants when faced with financial crisis. Guard families in need of assistance can learn more at vtngcharitable.org.
Media Contact:
Scott Detweiler, Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation Secretary, info@vtngcharitable.org.
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