New grant looks to help central Indiana veterans INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A partnership focused on improving wellness, mobility, and access to care for veterans and families across central Indiana is making moves. OrthoIndy Foundation is investing in the Pike Township OrthoIndy YMCA, 5315 Lafa yette Rd., with a new $250,000 grant to be distributed over three years through 2028. Dr. John Dietz, founder of the OrthoIndy Foundation, and Monic Hills, executive director of the OrthoIndy Foundation, joined Daybreak on Wednesday to talk about the grant. Dietz says that while some of central Indiana’s thousands of veterans receive care for their injuries at the YMCA, others still struggle but are functioning well in their lives. “You can’t help those people by going and saying, ‘Well, what do you need?’, because they’ll always say they’re OK. But you can help them by going to the veteran and saying, ‘Will you come help us help these other people?’ That’s what our dream was with building the YMCA, bringing the veterans into the YMCA community and the Pike Township community, helping the veterans and helping the community.” Hills says about a thousand veterans a month come to the health clinic at the YMCA, several hundred more than they initially anticipated. “We want to make sure that we help them on their wellness journey, so we offer programs that assist them with that, and non-traditional programs such as virtual reality classes. We want to expand creative art classes and music classes as well.” The $250,000 grant will go toward existing and new programs at the YMCA. “This funding will support some of the programs that we already offer for our veterans, such as walking classes, yoga classes, and classes or programs for pain management. This money will also help with our families that have children and need support for our camp program and all of our other sports programs,” Hills explained. Click here to learn more about the Pike Township OrthoIndy YMCA. ...read more read less