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Community DC Molly Brooks Hero's Bridge Final for 3.1.26 · Community D.C.

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community DC.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tennis Glasgow. We welcome to the show
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for the first time Molly Brooks. She is the founder
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and CEO for Heroes Bridge, a nonprofit that provides free,
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  Speaker 1: personalized support to veterans age sixty five and older to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: improve their quality of life, independence, and dignity through various programs.
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  Speaker 1: They offer companionship assistants with home maintenance, pet care, and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: resource navigation, serving veterans in their homes or facilities. Here's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: my thirty minute conversation with Molly. I hope you enjoy
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: it as much as I did.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Molly, Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's great to have you aboard on Community DC
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: for the first time. And when I found out about
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Heroes Bridge, and I've talked to so many different nonprofits
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that work with either current or former military. I'm always
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: thrilled about that because living in my fourth time in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the DMV, and you know, I'm a big sports guy
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  Speaker 1: and every time I go to sporting med military is honored.
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  Speaker 1: I love this area. I'm very patriotic. My listeners know that,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and I got real jacked up to hear about the
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  Speaker 1: incredible things that you and your team are doing that
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  Speaker 1: started about ten years ago, so for our listeners and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: for myself to get a good education about Hero's Bridge.
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  Speaker 1: I know it's been about a decade, and I bet
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  Speaker 1: that went by pretty quickly when you thought about this idea.
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  Speaker 1: But I'd love to hear a little bit more about
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  Speaker 1: you because I know you have a nursing background and
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  Speaker 1: your father was in the military, and Here's Bridge is
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  Speaker 1: a really cool thing that you've got going. But tell
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  Speaker 1: me about the origin story about why you came up
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  Speaker 1: with this idea to start this nonprofit.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, thank you. So I grew up the daughter of
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  Speaker 3: a career marine. I was born at Campla June, and
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: my brothers and sisters and I spent our formative years
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  Speaker 3: on Marine Corps basis, and I'm just kind of raised
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  Speaker 3: in an environment where, same as you, we were taught
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  Speaker 3: a lot of patriotism and respect for the military and
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: those that served. My father also went to Vietnam twice,
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  Speaker 3: so I think theildren of Vietnam veterans kind of know
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: what they went through when they came home better than
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: most because we were kind of following in their footsteps
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  Speaker 3: as they were readjusting to life after Vietnam. So I
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  Speaker 3: grew up in rural Missouri and the Ozarks, and I
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: became a nurse at a pretty young age.
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  Speaker 4: I've been nursing now for.
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  Speaker 3: Thirty two years, which was crazy, and that went by
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  Speaker 3: really fast. But I think in my nursing career, because
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: of my father's service, I always noticed the veterans a
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: little bit more than my other patients and just kind
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  Speaker 3: of saw my father and a lot of them.
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  Speaker 4: And I think I.
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  Speaker 3: Did hospice and palliative care nursing, which most of that
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  Speaker 3: work is done in the community at the street level,
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  Speaker 3: so you're going into people's homes, and I was seeing
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  Speaker 3: how some of our seniors were living in such a
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  Speaker 3: relatively wealthy area right outside of Washington, d C. All
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  Speaker 3: of our counties always rank on the most wealthy counties
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  Speaker 3: in the nation, but a lot of our seniors were
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  Speaker 3: living in very difficult circumstances, and the ones that were veterans,
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  Speaker 3: that made me extra sad.
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  Speaker 4: So the origin story.
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  Speaker 3: Is I was called to do a hospice admission on
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  Speaker 3: a gentleman that had been discharged from the hospital with
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  Speaker 3: pancreatic cancer. And when I showed up, you're just kind
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  Speaker 3: of given an address as a hospice nurse. When I
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  Speaker 3: showed up, he was living in a tool shed. He
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  Speaker 3: had nowhere to go when he was discharged from the hospital,
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  Speaker 3: and somebody let him stay in the toolshed behind their house,
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  Speaker 3: and that just devastated me. And it was right then
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  Speaker 3: and there that I decided something has to be done
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  Speaker 3: differently in America with these aging veterans. And I started
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  Speaker 3: it about a week later in twenty sixteen. Only had
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  Speaker 3: seven hundred and fifty dollars and a couple like minded
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  Speaker 3: people that were willing to help me.
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  Speaker 4: And yeah, it's been ten years. It's best decision of
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  Speaker 4: my life.
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  Speaker 3: It's really been a joy to kind of grow the
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  Speaker 3: organization and do more for veterans.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it always impresses on me when somebody has
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  Speaker 1: an experience like you did, noticing that there's a real
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  Speaker 1: big hole in the industry for whatever it is, and
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  Speaker 1: you've explained that eloquently about what you noticed and what
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  Speaker 1: you'd like to do, but then taking it to the
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  Speaker 1: next step and actually starting a business in a nonprofit
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  Speaker 1: and executing a business, which we found out in this
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  Speaker 1: program and a lot of other podcasts that we do
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  Speaker 1: It's not an easy task because usually you're a one
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  Speaker 1: person band to begin with, and nonprofits usually small organizations.
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  Speaker 1: And I love for you to talk about your team.
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  Speaker 1: In a little bit, we're going to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: programs and everything. But as you decided to make that
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  Speaker 1: decision with that small amount of money to start Heroes Bridge, Molly,
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  Speaker 1: what were you hoping with your mission and your vision
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  Speaker 1: that you wanted this to be and execute.
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  Speaker 4: It's funny.
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  Speaker 3: When I first started, I really just wanted to make
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  Speaker 3: a difference in my immediate area. I thought it would
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  Speaker 3: be very small, in a couple counties here on the
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  Speaker 3: Virginia side of DC.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we could have a little.
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  Speaker 3: Funding to take groceries or give a veteran a ride
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  Speaker 3: to the doctor. I thought it would be a very small,
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  Speaker 3: local nonprofit. Although I was scared because I had never
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  Speaker 3: done anything like that before or founded an organization. But
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  Speaker 3: I kind of had the realization that even if it failed,
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  Speaker 3: it wouldn't be on CNN, right, it would be fine.
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  Speaker 3: So I just had this conviction to just start, and
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  Speaker 3: it was for the first couple of years.
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  Speaker 4: It was exactly as I expected.
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  Speaker 3: It was in a five county area on in the
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  Speaker 3: Piedmont of Virginia. But boy, then it just really took off.
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  Speaker 3: And I guess I should have known it would. That
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  Speaker 3: half of America's veterans are over sixty five kind of
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  Speaker 3: falls exactly half that half are what they call pre
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  Speaker 3: nine to eleven and half or post nine to eleven then,
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  Speaker 3: and some do very well, but many do not. So
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  Speaker 3: I should have known that the need was great and
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  Speaker 3: that it would grow exponentially, but it was a surprise
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  Speaker 3: for all of us.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got some incredible programs that I want to
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  Speaker 1: talk about, but I do want to talk about your impact,
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  Speaker 1: and this is clearly on your website, but it truly
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  Speaker 1: is incredible. On the short time, the ten years that
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  Speaker 1: you put this organization together, of over ten thousand, three
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  Speaker 1: hundred veteran visits, over ten eight hundred volunteer hours, and
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about volunteering donations later in the
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  Speaker 1: program because I know that's important. Over fifty three hundred
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  Speaker 1: meals served, twelve hundred rides, eight hundred and sixty six
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  Speaker 1: veterans served, and three hundred and eighty three pop patrol visits.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a fun little thing I want to talk
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: about too. When it comes to your programs. But let's
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  Speaker 1: do this first before we get into the weeds about programs.
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  Speaker 2: If you were to give a thirty.
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  Speaker 1: Thousand foot view to our listeners, what heroes bridge is,
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  Speaker 1: what would you tell them that you exactly do with
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  Speaker 1: all those impacts that I just talked about.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, we meet the social needs of America's aging veterans.
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  Speaker 3: And I think as a nurse, I knew a lot
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  Speaker 3: of these veterans. They had healthcare, right, they had doctors,
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  Speaker 3: they had Medicare. Then why were they doing so poorly?
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  Speaker 3: And it's really social situations. Many of them are alone
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  Speaker 3: in life, and we put a battle buddy with them
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  Speaker 3: and they're no longer alone, or many of them have trouble,
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  Speaker 3: you know, finding their next meal, and we solve that problem.
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  Speaker 3: So I think at a thirty thousand foot view, we
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  Speaker 3: really meet the social needs of aging veterans.
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  Speaker 1: Molly, before we get into each avinjual program, including the
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  Speaker 1: battle buddy that you talked about there that I think
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  Speaker 1: is so cool because you know, I and this program
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  Speaker 1: whatever we're talking about, whether somebody's got a disease or
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  Speaker 1: something's happened to their family, or somebody unfortunate has died
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  Speaker 1: by suicide. The acknowledgment that you can be able to
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  Speaker 1: relate to another person or families is really important, and
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  Speaker 1: I want you to talk about that in just a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. But when it comes to criteria and you
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  Speaker 1: getting help to people, and we'll give the website a
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  Speaker 1: couple times during our thirty minute conversation, is there a
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  Speaker 1: criteria where somebody can contact you and get help or
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  Speaker 1: do you have some kind of basis that you work
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  Speaker 1: with it, you can work with this person, this family.
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  Speaker 1: When it comes to criteria working with Heroes Bridge, our.
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  Speaker 3: Only criteria to help older veterans is exactly that they
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  Speaker 3: have to be a veteran age.
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  Speaker 4: Sixty five and older.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: Other than that, we keep a really low barrier to entry,
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  Speaker 3: and some of our veterans need a lot from us,
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  Speaker 3: and some of us just need a phone call once
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  Speaker 3: a week.
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  Speaker 4: They just need someone to talk to.
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  Speaker 2: I agree with it.
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  Speaker 1: I agree with that, and that's back to my point
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  Speaker 1: about simple acknowledgment and feeling like you're not the only
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  Speaker 1: person on the planet. I've related to my audience many times.
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  Speaker 1: I've had an autoimmune disease rumatiarthritis since i was twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: I had this back in eighty seven. There's no Internet,
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  Speaker 1: there's no social media, and I thought I was on
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  Speaker 1: the planet by myself. And when you have that mental
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  Speaker 1: wellness being attacked like that on top of a disease
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  Speaker 1: and you can't relate to anybody, it's debilitating, especially mentally.
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  Speaker 1: And that you do that for other veterans, I think
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  Speaker 1: it's just wonderful. So that leads me to the cool
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  Speaker 1: programs that you have, and we've got time to talk
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about each one. The Battle Buddy program
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned, and that's really cool. You've got the Honor Guard,
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  Speaker 1: you've got the Paw Patrol, and you've also got Home Front.
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  Speaker 1: So if you could spend a little time on each
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  Speaker 1: one talking about this, I'd love to hear about them.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, I'll start with the Battlebuddy program because it's really
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  Speaker 3: the foundation of everything we do in my nursing career.
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  Speaker 3: And when I formed the programs of Heroes Bridge, I
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  Speaker 3: kind of really tried to look at what was falling
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  Speaker 3: through the cracks of the healthcare system or the VA,
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  Speaker 3: because the VA should be caring for these older veterans,
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  Speaker 3: right And to me, one of the biggest things is
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  Speaker 3: that any of these veterans ended up alone in their
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  Speaker 3: later years. You know, about two thirds of the veterans
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  Speaker 3: we serve or Vietnam veterans. And boy, if we got
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  Speaker 3: anything wrong in America, it was how we treated Vietnam
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  Speaker 3: veterans when they came home. So they ended up alone.
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  Speaker 3: Whether they had poor coping mechanisms when they came back
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  Speaker 3: from Vietnam and had no assistance, you know, whether it
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  Speaker 3: was alcohol or you know, anger issues. Many of them
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  Speaker 3: lost their families. Many of them never had families from
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  Speaker 3: their trauma in Vietnam. They just never married or kind
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  Speaker 3: of adapted. So we call them elder orphans. And when
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: you think about it, when an older person starts to
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  Speaker 3: have get older and have issues, there's usually a daughter
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: or a son, or a niece or a nephew that
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  Speaker 3: kind of swoops in and meets that need. They get
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  Speaker 3: them to the doctor, They make sure they have groceries.
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  Speaker 3: And with a lot of these veterans, there isn't anyone.
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  Speaker 3: It's us. It's the battle buddy. They have no ones,
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  Speaker 3: so our battle beddies pair up with them, and again,
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  Speaker 3: some go out to lunch once a month, some go
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  Speaker 3: fishing every week, Some just talk on the phone, and
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  Speaker 3: we really let that battlebuddy connection grow on its own,
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  Speaker 3: and all of the relationships are different, but it's really
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  Speaker 3: the foundation of everything we do, making sure every older
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  Speaker 3: veteran has a battle buddy.
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  Speaker 4: So it's a great program.
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  Speaker 3: And I would also say it's great for the younger
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  Speaker 3: veterans too, Like the younger veterans often need a new
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: mission and a purpose in life, so I think it
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  Speaker 3: benefits both the older veteran and the younger veteran.
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  Speaker 1: I bet it's so successful because there's just not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of relating going on right, shared experiences, right, which
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  Speaker 1: is going away?
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  Speaker 3: I feel like sometimes right, I feel like the Battle
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  Speaker 3: Buddy program is what we used to do. I grew
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  Speaker 3: up in a small town in Missouri, and I know
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  Speaker 3: if my mom knew that an older person had lost
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  Speaker 3: his wife, she would make she would go on Sunday
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  Speaker 3: and take them a cast a role like.
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  Speaker 4: These are the things we used to do.
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  Speaker 3: So I hope with Heroes Bridge, we're just kind of
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  Speaker 3: going back in time and getting back to the relating
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  Speaker 3: like we used to.
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  Speaker 1: You're right, well, I'm glad you mentioned that because in
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: this series, something I talk about and something I also
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: live by with my family. Is there aren't enough acts
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: of kindness out there anymore. We're living in a world
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that's on fire right now. I know it's difficult for everybody.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: It's moving very fast social media AI and it's just
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: tough out there not to mention, dividing how we feel
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: about everything. But acts of kindness aren't around. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: excited to hear that that's such a successful program, and
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of the basis of everything that you started.
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  Speaker 2: Let's move over to Honor Guard. What is that sure?
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  Speaker 3: So Honor Guard is just really making sure that that
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: veteran has a healthy processing of his time and service.
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  Speaker 4: I think a lot of veterans.
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  Speaker 3: If they had a difficult time and service and traumas
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  Speaker 3: within the wartime, many of them came home and put
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: it away, like literally, they kind of packed their stuff
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  Speaker 3: in a box, put it away, shoved it down, and
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  Speaker 3: never really processed it.
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  Speaker 4: They just went back to life.
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  Speaker 3: But what happens is, you know, fifty years later, you
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: start having stressors of aging and a lot of that
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  Speaker 3: stuff resurfaces. So the Honor Guard is really we some
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: have lost their medals, will replace their medals.
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  Speaker 4: We'll find.
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  Speaker 3: Comrades that they served with, like we'll get calls and
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: you know, I keep thinking about this guy I was
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: in boot camp and I could never find him. Can
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: you find him? And we've made some connections like that.
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  Speaker 3: And then during after COVID Honor Guard really kind of
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: took on a new life because a lot of our
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: veterans had been sequestered alone, like many of us were,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: you know, for months, and you couldn't go out and
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: you couldn't do anything. So when it was over and
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: stuff started opening back up, we put them to a
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: field trip at the Army Museum at Fort Belmore. It
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: had just opened. It's a beautiful museum, by the way,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: and they loved it so much. On the way home,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: they were like, where are we going next? And we
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: really meant it to be a one time deal, but
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: they were adamant that we needed to do this once
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: a month. So now once a month we go on
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: a field trip with the veterans. We have that singer
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: van Yeah, and it can be like a I mean,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: we might go to a brewery one month and then
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: the Marine Corps Museum the next month.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: It's our only.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Criteria for the field trip. Is it something that we
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: would want to do. I think sometimes with seniors you
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: make them play bingo or I mean some people really
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: love bingo, but you know, we just really wanted it
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: to be fun for them. Yeah, and so that's another
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: part of Honor Guard is just bringing some joy to
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: their life.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I love that because it's fresh air, and it's
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: an activity and it's fellowship again, right, it's being able
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to hang out with people with which maybe they don't
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: What you've alluded to is the loneliness is a really
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: big deal, and not just for vetching, for anybody out
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: there in the world. Right now, Well, let's talk about
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: pop patrol. I'm sure this is a very popular one.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the beautiful photos that you have up
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: on the website. I mean, you know, when it comes
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to animals and dogs visiting people, it's just it's as
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: secret elixir that everybody loves, because most people love animals
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and dogs. Tell me a little bit about paw patrol.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: I found as a nurse that our veterans there's two
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: things that they actually respond very well to and love
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: across the board.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: One is children.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: So we do do a lot of innergenerational things with
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: our veterans. But the other is animals, And I've thought
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: about that a lot as a nurse, like why do
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: veterans connect to those two things? And I just feel
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: like those are two things that are kind of untouched
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: by war, right, So I think they have a connection
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: that way. And our veterans love animals visits. But what
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: we found with a lot of kind of pet therapy
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: or animal assistance, it was very red tape, like to
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: get a service dog could take two to three years
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: and a lot of money. And we want to just
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: we thought, people have friendly pets. Why do we make
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: it so hard? So our pop Patrol program, a volunteer
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: with a well behaved pet can go visit veterans just
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: like that. There's no They do have to pass a
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: little Manners test and they have to have their vaccines,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: but other than that, that's the process and they can
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: go start visiting veterans.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: And you're right, the veterans love it.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I think so many of them had animals in their
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: younger years that they they loved and now they can't
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: have pets because of where they live or their circumstances,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: so they just really enjoy those visits. The real magic
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: is when we can match the breeds. We can't always
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: do that, but sometimes a better and you know, had
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: a Doberman pincher and we can get a Doberman into visit.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: That's that's the real magic. But that's a fun program.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I also imagine with your thirty years in nursing and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: before starting Heroes Bridge as an r in and the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: kind of care that you were giving, you probably saw
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: animals already having a profound effect on people that you
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: were taking care of, and how it makes such a difference.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, Again to that loneliness factor, a pet can
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: really kind of bridge that gap for you.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, Ken, all right, tell me about Homefront.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: So home Front, I always say that social isolation is
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: the number one issue that we get called about with
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: with our veterans, But the number two issue are housing
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: related issues.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: And you know, whether it's you know, the.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Veteran bought the house in nineteen seventy one and nothing's
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: ever been updated since, so it's kind of falling down
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: around him. Sometimes it's a two story house or steps
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: into the house and they can no longer navigate that,
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: so we're building wheelchair ramps. Sometimes it's sanitation, you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: you cannot talk enough about the housing crisis, especially around
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: some of our more expensive cities like Washington, DC. And
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: what we see happens is when a veteran is living
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: on thirteen hundred dollars a month in Social Security and
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: the average rent is eighteen hundred, Like, how does that work?
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: It doesn't.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: And what we see happen is what I kind of
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: call the underground rental market, where people will rent out
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: like the gentleman living in the tool shed, someone living
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: in a basement. Substandard. So we just saw a lot
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: of housing issues. So we started the Homefront program as
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: a way just to remediate whatever housing issues. We were
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: getting calls about home repairs, building ramps, that sort of thing.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: What really happened a few years ago is some situations
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: were so bad they couldn't be remediated. We get calls
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: a couple times a month about veterans living in their cars.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: So we decided a few years back to try to
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: make a bigger dent in the problem, and we are
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: building a forty four unit.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: Community just for older veterans.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: My goodness, out of work. That's huge, I mean an
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: under what an undertaking.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's been a journey I've never built anything,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: but again, you just see this glaring need and just
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: felt you know, someone has to do something and everybody
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: needs to quit admiring the problem. And it's really a
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: housing stock issue. So yeah, we're building forty four cottages
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: in Warrenton with a six thousand square foot community center
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: in the middle. We should break ground in twenty twenty six.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Congratulations, I should have that. That's just so exciting. Well,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: this is a great segue to talk about donations and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: if you're a small, medium, large business, or an individual
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: or a family, you've given everybody many ways to donate.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about that for us?
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: Sure?
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: So we get our support from a wide range of entities,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: some foundations that care about seniors and how they're doing,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: many businesses, whether they just support us by donating or
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: they sponsor one of our events, it's a big part
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: of being able to do what we do for our
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: veterans and individuals. You know, we have a monthly giving
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: club where you get some benefits if that's kind of
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: your thing, or include us in your tax planning. There
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: are so many ways to give. Our website, you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: there's donate tabs and lots of information you can kind
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: of designate your donation for our street level services that
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I just described.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: If you're interested in the village project, you can donate
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: specifically to that campaign. So lots of ways to give,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: and that diversity in giving foundations, families, individuals, businesses is
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: really what makes us able to build that ramp for
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: that veteran or send him meals.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: That's really what keeps us going.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: And as far as we know, we're the only organization
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: in America that is doing this kind of work, So
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: the support is just really important.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Well that's huge, and another great segue talking about volunteering.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I know you've touched on it a little bit, but
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: if somebody wants to volunteer, whether it's one of those
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: different programs inside those buckets doing that, how do they
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: start the process if they want to volunteer with you?
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: So we worked hard in the last year to put
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: our volunteer process entirely online. So used to you would
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: have to come to our office to get orientation and onboarding,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: and now anyone in the DMV can go online and
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: start the volunteer process.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: All of the modules are completely virtual.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: So we encourage you again to visit the website, it'll
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: walk you through the process, it'll walk you through the modules.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: And that's so important too, because as we grow. I
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: talked earlier how in the beginning it was just a
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: couple counties near where I lived, but we're getting more
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: and more calls just from all over and it requires
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: us to have a battle.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: Buddy in that area, right.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Kind of it's hard for a battle buddy that lives
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: in Gainesville to go to Potomac, Maryland. So we kind
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: of need a network throughout the DMV of people that
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: are willing to step up if we get a call
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: from a veteran in their area.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about events. I know you've got a run
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: coming up pretty soon. That's pretty important, and that'll probably
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: be a great fundraiser. But beside that, anything else you'd
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: like to promote. But let's talk about the run first.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: It's coming up in late March.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Sure, So I talked about my dad being a Vietnam veterans,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: so I have a deep knowledge of how those veterans
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: were treated and how they weren't treated when they came home.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: And a few years back, I think in twenty and sixteen,
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: they designated March twenty ninth as Vietnam Veterans Day. So
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: it was the first time that there was a day
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: just for those veterans. And I noticed that people really
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: weren't much celebrating it. You know, they would usually do
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: something down at the wall or some observance, but I
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: don't think America really noticed that we had set aside
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: a day for them. So I started having a five
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: K every year on honor around Vietnam Veterans Day, and
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: that is coming up at the end of March.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: It's actually March.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Twenty eighth in Fakier County at the Flying Circus, so
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: that fun, fun location, and it's just really a time
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: for the community to come together and honor Vietnam veterans.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Many people run for their dad or their grandpa or
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: their husband.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: It's very walker friendly as well.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: And another fun thing about the Vietnam Veterans five K
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: is every year the medal commemorate something from the Vietnam War.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: This year, I haven't actually revealed this.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: This is the first time I've said it because people
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: kind of wait to see what the metal is going
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: to be.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: But this year it's a swift boat on the metal.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Nice so cool.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it looks pretty cool. We'll be revealed sending
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: that out to the people in a couple of weeks
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: that they can see that.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we would love to have every we're breaking news
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: on Community DC, which we don't do that often, So
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: thank you for that. That's fantastic, very exciting though too.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I do want to get a story out of you.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: We've got about five minutes left before we wrap up
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: recap our thoughts and everything we talked about give the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: website to everybody. But I imagine that it could be overwhelming
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: at times about hearing some really tough stories out there.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: But I imagine some incredible things come out about what
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you your staff of All in Tears do and getting
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: feedback from making a difference. I'm sure you've got hundreds
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of stories over the last decade, Mollie, but is there
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: something maybe recently that happened where I kind of presented
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: as this is why we get up every morning because
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: this happened, And is there something you could share, whether
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: it was a family, an individual, or something specially said
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you know what, we really made a difference today.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Can you maybe share a story or two with us?
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Sure?
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: I think one thing that is probably the most important
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: is the veterans suicide issue. And a lot of the
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: veterans that are choosing self harm or taking their own
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: life are older veterans. It's not exclusive to the younger veterans.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: And we last summer or was following a veteran we
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: got called that he wasn't doing well, and the battle
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: that he started going to see him and saw him.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: For a couple of weeks.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: But on the third week went and and and the
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: veteran was not in a good spot and he was
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: imminent said he was going to take his own life.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: And our battle buddy had had just shown up at
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: that moment, and we have a process for that. So
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: the VAS has a great suicide crisis team, and we
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: did all of those things. The battle buddy showing up
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: at just that time, we enacted all of our processes
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: for that, and he ended up in treatment.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: He's fine now, he's happy.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: So knowing that our battle buddies, like what if, what
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: if the battlebody hadn't gone, you know, in that moment,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: it would probably be a very very different story. So
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: I think that's something that we all wake up and
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: take a lot of comfort knowing that we're really helping
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: in some of the darkest moments of these veterans lives.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: So I know that's not the most it's your full story,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: but it is now because he's doing so well, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I think it's some of the most important work we do.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I think so, and we've talked to any time I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: talked to a military organization that's helping veterans. Obviously, the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: PTSD and the mental health awareness is really at the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: forefront now, especially now.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I know it wasn't dressed.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Back in the Vietnam era World War Two, and I'm
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: old enough remember that when it came to my mental wellness,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know about it. You just throw dirt
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: on it and you keep on moving, and that's what
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of these veterans have done. But
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I think that's a wonderful story that you shared, and
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for that. Listen, we only have
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of minutes left. We are going to give
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the website to everybody, but I just want to get
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: some final thoughts, recap what we talked about, kind of
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: remind everybody about the run again coming up, and just
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: to kind of recap everything.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: So Mally the floor is yours.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, come out on March twenty eighth to Fokier County
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: and you'll meet a lot of us on staff, a
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: lot of our volunteers, and a lot of our veterans.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: Really fun events. But I think one thing I like
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: to remind everybody. If you're thinking about volunteering, you go
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: on and you're like, oh, this isn't the best time.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: I really like to remind everybody that anyone can be
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: a battle buddy, whether they click that link on our
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: website or not. Most people, if you look around, there's
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: a neighbor that you notice he hasn't gotten his mail
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: in two weeks, and you can go knock and see
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: what's going on. There might be someone at your church
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: that you know they just lost their wife and he's
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: a veteran. So you don't have to follow our process
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: to be a battle buddy in.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Your own area.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And I just really encourage everyone to look out for
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: the veterans around them and the senior around them.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: You can be a battle buddy without heroes Bridge.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: So you've got a great website. Whoever's organizing doing a
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: wonderful job, So congratulations to you, and then for doing that. Now,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: everything that we talked about is on the website, including
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: how to donate, the volunteering, more about the run that's
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: coming up, and all the different events than Molly and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: her team have assembled. Just everything is on there that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you could want. What is that website for everybody?
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Molly, It's www dot Heroesbridge dot org. And we also
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: have a pretty active Facebook page if that's kind of
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: your thing. We post all of our stuff on there
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: You have the UURL for that for everybody.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: I think it's just at Heroes Bridge.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good, Well cool, Well listen, thank you for this.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that we could get you on Community DC.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I'd like to follow up with you in six months
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to see how things are going. But I imagine, as
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I said off the top, of decade has gone by
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: very quickly, and you and your team done some incredible work.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So you know, being a registered nurse for three decades
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: is enough and incredible, but that you've started this nonprofit
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: help out all the veterans out there.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I know that your family is probably very proud of you.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Continued success and I really appreciate you joining us on
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Community DC.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Thank you. I look forward to connecting.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: In six months we should be close to breaking around
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: on our village hotstanding