SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. -

Just after the country celebrated Memorial Day, U.S. Army Veteran and automotive sales trainer Joe Verde announced his donation of $37,900 to help place canine companions with wounded veterans.

The donation will benefit Canine Companions for Independence, an organization which helps place companion dogs with physically disabled military veterans.

“I'm a veteran. My dad was a veteran, and my son and grandkids are all veterans,” said Verde. “And, I appreciate everything that the men and women in the armed forces stationed around the world do for all of us,” Verde said.

A portion of the recent donation came from a recent auction at the National Automobile Dealers Association annual convention in Orlando, Fla..

Verde was the highest bidder on a 2011 Fat Boy Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which went for $26,000. All of the proceeds from the live auction event sponsored by NADA and ADESA benefited the Wounded Veterans Initiative of Canine Companions for Independence and went toward the cost of providing specially-trained service dogs to assist disabled U.S. veterans, officials explained.

Verde also recently sold the motorcycle for $11,900, and the funds were donated to the aforementioned organization at their most recent quarterly graduation ceremony in Oceanside, Calif.

Officials noted that Verde served in the U.S. Army for more than seven years and was stationed in Vietnam in 1967, 1968 and 1969, during the Vietnam War, as a CH-47 flight engineer.

“As a Purple Heart recipient himself, he has a strong connection with other veterans and has become active in ways to help them make a smoother transition into their lives back at home,” they concluded.

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