Swords to Plowshares honors Bay Area veterans, Nancy Pelosi at 30th annual celebration

New at 10 on this, the eve of Veterans Day, a San Francisco-based non-profit is honoring those who served our country, while also raising money to help veterans who are struggling here at home. Swords to Plowshares held its 30th annual Veterans Day celebration in the city tonight and recognized special honorees, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. KTVU's Betty Yu is there and has the story. At its 30th annual Veterans Day celebration, San Francisco-based non-profit Swords to Plowshares recognized veterans and advocates. The organization serves about 3,000 veterans across the Bay Area every year, providing legal services, mental health care, job assistance, and more than 500 units of housing in San Francisco. Right now, our largest cohort that we're serving are still our Vietnam-era veterans, so they're aging veterans. So really making sure that we have services to provide to those veterans and thinking about Getting them to the grocery store, making sure that we have somebody to go out and check on them. The goal of the celebration was to also raise $50,000 to support those services, where even small acts of assistance can make a life-changing difference. For San Francisco native Josue Hernandez, that help came when he needed it the most. The Marine veteran served two combat tours in Afghanistan, but years after returning home, he found himself struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, While attending school and facing the possibility of homelessness He turned to the VA, which connected him with Swords to Plowshares. Asking for help is very hard. It sounds easier said than done, but it's very hard. It's hard in the sense where, like... Having the humility to ask for help because as veterans we're so used to just taking care of things on our own. Josue went from receiving services to working for Swords to Plowshares helping fellow veterans navigate the same challenges he once faced. On Tuesday he received the organization's Profiles of Strength Award. I'm the post-9/11 generation where uh thankfully we didn't have to be drafted we we volunteered we put our right hand up because uh A lot of us like to think because of 9/11, we wanted to think beyond ourselves. Speaker Merida Nancy Pelosi was also honored, receiving the Lifetime Advocate for Veterans Award. She's worked closely with the organization's leadership for decades and helped champion the 2022 PACT Act, expanding health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances. Who has done more for each other than our veterans? To protect us, to protect our freedom. To just make us so proud of what they do. We could never do enough. In San Francisco, Betty Yu, KTVU, Fox 2 News.