Veterans Wellness

                         Chip's Fund for Veterans Yoga

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                         About Chip

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                         Edward Thomas "Chip" Duchnowski was a Massachusetts native who died on Patriots Day in 2018.                               He only left Clinton, MA to serve as a Marine - as a 17 years old, going to war. While in Vietnam, he
                         engaged in ground combat. He received the Marine Corps CAR (Combat Action Ribbon) and was
                         promoted from private to corporal and then to the leadership rank of sergeant. He re-enlisted after
                         completing his initial three-year commitment, and was stationed in California following his tour of
                         duty in Vietnam.

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Chip was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps during the summer of 1970, a 21 year old whose life would remain largely defined by his service during an increasingly unpopular war.

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About Veteran's Yoga at Open Spirit

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Weekly practice with Veteran's Yoga improves lives and moods dramatically, even permanently. Their resilience expands rapidly and hopelessness recedes.  

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Veteran's Yoga also helps with focus and balance, stimulates energy and mobility and, in turn, guards against injuries and generally promotes psychological and spiritual well-being. The best benefit is that it brings camaraderie, friendship and engagement in a broadening community.  

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Why donate to Chip's Fund for Veterans Yoga

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Veterans Yoga is a practice designed for people who have experienced trauma. It honors, acknowledges and works toward healing the invisible wounds, including those that persist among Vietnam veterans.

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The practice is backed up by evidence-based research and has been tested with active-duty troops in Iraq. The American Occupational Therapy Association encourages Veterans Yoga practice.

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And Veterans Yoga is free.

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But teachers need training. Studio space is needed. Equipment is used. Your generous donation will go a long way.

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Give in memory of Chip, so that other veterans like him, who live with the hidden wounds of war, can find healing and peace.

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Chip‘s family has come forward as the first to contribute seed funding to support Chip’s Fund for Veteran's Yoga, and their generosity will work to expand Veterans Yoga and other trauma-sensitive community healing for Veterans, first responders and trauma support nurses in New England towns and beyond.

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Many who served in Vietnam returned to a bitter nation with its own deepening and lasting divisions. Returning troops did not get ceremonies, celebrations or welcoming honors. Their homecomings were often lonely events, sometimes with openly expressed condemnation in place of gratitude.

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Some 58,000 service members lost their lives in or as a direct result of the war; more than twice that number have subsequently died of isolation, despair and self-inflicted harm after homecoming.

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Veterans whose lives and life visions were to remain largely defined by memories of wartime military service during an increasingly unpopular conflict. South Vietnam, America’s first (but not last) insurgent war.