Since 2006, the non-profit organization Pin-Ups for Vets has been visiting veterans at their bedsides in military and VA hospitals. This month, they went to their 50th state! But the journey doesn’t end here.
How it all began
When Gina Elise saw injured vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006, she decided to take action to help. She decided to create a fundraising calendar with images inspired by the pin-up nose art on World War II aircraft and donate the proceeds to a local VA hospital. She would also don the bright and iconic 1940s attire complete with a red lip and hair flowers and deliver the calendars to patients in hospitals herself.
“I saw the impact it had, being right there, for our veterans, in person and delivering a gift of appreciation. Small gestures can make a big impact. Many veterans would start to cry in their hospital beds when thanked for their service by a surprise visitor bearing gifts,” Elise told We Are The Mighty.
She thought it was just going to be a one-time thing, but she was moved by the impact it had on the hospitalized veterans. “Being in a hospital with an injury or illness can be incredibly isolating. Some patients are there for weeks or months on end. To have someone remember you and spend time with you during a challenging time can give someone a sense of hope,” she reflected.
It took patients’ minds off their troubles to see Gina coming in to see them with her warm smile, bright colors — a contrast to clinical hospital settings — and her 1940s liberty rolls and hair flower, an homage to her own Grandfather’s WWII Army service. She realized quickly that she wanted to visit veterans nationwide and boost morale across America.
Twenty years later, she has reached her goal. In April 2025, Pin-Ups for Vets brought gifts to hospitalized veterans in Alaska, the 50th state on their national tour.
It isn’t always easy
Coordinating visits over the past 20 years to all 50 states has turned Elise into a master of logistics. “Sometimes I feel like I am conducting a pin-up orchestra! There are a million details that need to come together to make just one visit happen,” she laughed. Visits can include flights and travel itineraries for her Veteran Ambassadors, connecting multiple people from multiple locations around the country, securing their lodging and transportation, and arranging all the details with the facility they are visiting, including gifting calendars and medical equipment.
They often visit multiple veteran facilities on one trip, as well. On their recent Alaska trip, they visited the State Veterans Home, the Anchorage VA Hospital, the Military hospital at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the BX and USO at Elmendorf-Richardson, the Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital, and the American Legion Anchorage.
Having watched Elise in action myself, I can attest that she makes for an incredible command center coordinator. She is detail-oriented and a quick-thinking problem solver. She says it’s servicemembers themselves who inspire her: “I try to adopt the Marine Corps motto ‘Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome!’”
Notable Memories
Ask any of the Pin-Ups for Vets Ambassadors — veteran and civilian volunteers alike — and they will tell you the same thing: there is something grave and special about connecting with our nation’s heroes at their bedside where they need us the most.
Elise is a natural, cheerful and uplifting or gentle and soothing as needed. She intuitively senses what each patient needs and offers it with charm and grace. Over the past two decades, she has built up many touching memories of her own.
“One time I was visiting a patient who was answering my questions very slowly and quietly,” she recalled. “We had a light-hearted and brief conversation, and I delivered the calendar gift to him. When I left the room, the nurses rushed up to me to tell me that this veteran had suffered a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and that was the first time he had spoken in a month! I like to attribute that to the ‘Power of the Pin-up!’”
Other veterans, once learning that they are speaking with fellow vets, share stories and memories from service, sometimes for the first time ever. Volunteers and patients have cried together, laughed together, shared stories of service, danced together, and just held space for one another. “Being there for someone going through such a difficult time can mean so much,” observed Elise.
Impact
You can never really know what kind of impact you have on another person. Elise has received letters from veterans she visited long after meeting them. One Marine wrote to her after coming across the Pin-Ups for Vets Facebook page years after she visited him. Here is a short excerpt from the letter he sent her:
“I was a patient in the psychiatry ward suffering from severe PTSD and depression after my tour in Fallujah, Iraq, with the Marines. I had very little hope and felt a tremendous amount of guilt and loneliness, it was definitely one of the hardest times in my life. I cannot possibly express in words how grateful I am that you visited our unit in the hospital. Your kindness, generosity, and smile made a horrible experience for me a little more tolerable. Since that time, because of you and many other people who reached out to me when I was suffering, my life has improved a lot.”
Over the last twenty years, Pin-Ups for Vets has individually visited over 20,000 veterans at 119 different VA hospitals, military hospitals, and state veterans homes in all fifty states (and Germany!) to deliver gifts of appreciation and express their gratitude.
The organization has also donated $130,000 in rehabilitation equipment to VA hospitals in 25 states to help expand physical healthcare programs for recovering veterans. Pin-Ups for Vets has also purchased much-needed household items for homeless veteran programs across the U.S. for the veterans who are transitioning into housing, as well as delivered food, clothing, and gift cards for unsheltered veterans.
Pin-Ups for Vets has provided days of pampering with morale-boosting make-overs, meals, fashions, and photo shoots, for female veterans, military spouse caregivers, and Gold Star wives — all of whom have sacrificed so much in support of defending our nation.
Pin-Ups for Vets at the Chris Kyle Patriots Hall in Alaska. April 2025. Photo courtesy Pin Ups for Vets.
What’s Next?
Elise is currently in production for the 20th annual Pin-Ups for Vets fundraising calendar, which will feature more incredible female veterans as models. Though the organization has reached all fifty states, they will continue to conduct return visits and find new facilities to support. “We would also love to visit some more international bases,” shared Elise. “We have done morale-boosting visits to 25 different military bases and would also love to visit more domestically, too! Our troops deserve to know how much we value and appreciate their services and sacrifices.”
To support the Pin-Ups for Vets initiatives, be sure to check out their website and online fundraising store.