Corporal Diffie Veteran's Fund Pancake Breakfast 2024

ABOUT:

All breakfast sales support the Corporal Diffie Veterans Fund (a non-profit fund of the American Legion Milwaukie Post 180). The Corporal Diffie Veterans Fund was established in 2019 and provides sponsoring police agency patrol officers immediate access to funds to help veterans or their dependents with emergency assistance during times of crisis, or when experiencing the ‘GAP’ to services. The Corporal Diffie Veterans Fund provides assistance at the front end of the problem, curtailing the crisis and closing the gap to services by providing food, clothing, temporary shelter assistance or other basic needs until veteran resources at the Federal, State or County level can respond, approve, and provide the long-term solutions the veteran has earned and qualifies for.

The CDVF Pancake breakfast has more than just breakfast. Every teenager/adult breakfast ticket purchased has a chance to win from a large selection of awesome prizes (hand/power tools, gift baskets, collectibles, and more). All prizes donated by local businesses and friends of the Corporal Diffie Veterans Fund. Thanks to our friends at the Military Vehicle Collectors Club of Oregon, this year’s breakfast will have an M3 STUART TANK in the parking lot. Don't miss the chance to see one of these bad boys up close and personal! Returning for a second year, Mr. Buckles Vietnam Veteran & POW/MIA themed HUMVEE and Strike a pose! Don't miss out on the PHOTO BOOTH with military props for the kids to put on - free photos you'll treasure for a lifetime!

Buy Tickets here: https://go.rallyup.com/cdvfbreakfast2024/Campaign/Details

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What is the CDVF?

Milwaukie resident – U.S. Marine Corps Combat Veteran Samuel Diffie, served two tours in Afghanistan as a rifleman (SAW Gunner) and came from a family history of military service dating back to the birth and formation of our great country. Samuel felt a deep desire to continue that selfless tradition of service by joining the U.S. Marine Corps in his early twenties. After completing his training, Samuel was deployed to Afghanistan (1st tour) with 3/2 (3rd Battalion – 2nd Marines). He would return home from that deployment finding himself driven by an inner sense of duty and desire to mentor fellow Marines not yet exposed to the trials of war. Samuel would request and be granted transfer to 3/8 (3rd Battalion - 8th Marines) and was soon thereafter deployed back to Afghanistan with his new 3/8 family.   

After completion of his honorable service overseas, Samuel moved to Oregon and settled down in the City of Milwaukie. Samuel explained his desire to live in the Northwest and his appreciation for its natural beauty stemmed from a previous fishing trip years prior. It was not uncommon for Samuel to be the first to point out the wondrous landscape and scenery that surrounds the area. 

As a Combat Veteran, Samuel would experience the troublesome GAP between the need for Veteran services and their inability to quickly respond with resources and solutions. It was during such a time in June of 2017, that the Milwaukie Police and the Clackamas County Fire Department would meet Samuel. In their combined effort to help, basic needs were provided by police officers and firefighters to temporarily get Samuel by until Veteran resources could be obtained. However, additional follow up with Samuel and the V.A. revealed that resources he was eligible for could not react fast enough to resolve the medical and lodging issues he faced. It also exposed a desperate need for local emergency funds to assist Veterans facing dire circumstances. This is the acknowledged “GAP” before Veteran services can become engaged that Samuel himself hoped for future solutions to.

Sadly, Samuel would unexpectedly pass in January of 2018 from natural causes related to his injuries, and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. 

In memory of Samuel’s expressed desire to close the GAP before Veteran services are available, and in response to the recognized lead times required and routinely experienced by Veterans seeking assistance at the Federal, State, and County levels, the Milwaukie American Legion Post 180 partnered with the Milwaukie Police Department’s Veterans Resource Team to establish the “Cpl. Diffie Veterans Fund”. One-hundred percent of fundraising profits and donations received go directly towards helping local Veterans in need, by bridging the troublesome GAP until assistance and solutions can be procured through existing Federal, State, County, or other Veteran resources.