Latest / The Scene Projects / Charlotte Rupp on Supporting Veterans and Operation Combating Veteran Suicide

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Charlotte Rupp on Supporting Veterans and Operation Combating Veteran Suicide · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Project Podcast Network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to a very exciting episode of The Scene.
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  I am your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is founder of Operation Combating Veteran
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  Suicide and Mrs.
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  South Dakota International, Charlotte Rupp.
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  Charlotte, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you.
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  It's great to be here.
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  Well, it's so nice to have you here where we were together physically this weekend.
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  We just got done with a big event we threw together out at Kathmandu Campground.
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  We had an absolutely fantastic time.
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  But before we get into all the stuff that we just did, I want you to go ahead and tell us a
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  little bit about you and a little bit about your nonprofit before we get too far down the
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  rabbit hole.
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  Absolutely.
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  Thanks.
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  So Operation Combating Veteran Suicide is a nonprofit that my husband and I founded.
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  My husband is also a veteran.
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  And we have found that over the years of working with veterans now for over two decades
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  that what veterans need is help with housing, help with employment, and help with mental
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  resources.
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  So through our nonprofit, what we're doing is working with veterans to get them into
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  employment, take care of their housing for them, and just really get them on a structured
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  program that makes them successful coming back in if they've fallen on hard times.
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  Of course, we've got substance issues, those kinds of things, PTSD, and of course, the
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  suicide attempts.
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  I mean, we are losing no less than twenty two veterans a day.
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  The number is rising right now, which is just horrifying to me, and that is across The US,
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  but we need to take care of that.
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  They served us, and it's now time for us to serve them and get them back into a great place
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  where they're successful with with family housing, their mental health, everything.
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  So that's what Operation Combating Veteran Suicide does.
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  We do have a two year program that they are on.
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  They have to stay employed, which we help with the employment.
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  We work with several employers that literally call me and go, I have this position.
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  Do you have a veteran that can fill it?
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  So we do that and then, of course, assisting with their housing.
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  It is just incredible the work that you are doing.
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  I think something we hit on when we were talking this weekend was the structure of it.
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  For a lot of these, guys and gals, coming out of the military, you've lived in that structure
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  since you were, you know, coming out of high school, most of them.
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  Right?
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  You're moving from one system into another and and and into an institution.
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  And it's a lot something that we talk about guys coming out of the prison system that you
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  you're institutionalized.
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  And very much in the same way that can happen to you in the military as well because
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  everything is very cut and dried and kind of laid out for you.
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  You don't have to do a lot of thinking on your own necessarily to know where, your needs are
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  being met or the job that you're doing.
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  And and there's so much that is, you know, kind of built into the structure of our military.
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  But when you're out, all of that goes away, and that can be a very jarring feeling for a lot of
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  these veterans, I'm sure.
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  Can you kinda speak to the the shakeup that happens at the end of a at the end of someone's
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  service?
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  Well and that is the thing.
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  It's an end.
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  I mean, it's over.
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  It's done.
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  I mean, most of them do not come out of the military having a job in society.
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  So they come out and flounder.
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  They've gone in at 18.
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  They've never had to apply for a job.
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  They've never had to do a resume.
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  You know, most of those things have not happened, or they've done a military resume
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  because they were moving rank or, you know, whatever they were doing there.
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  But, you know, they've not had to do the, how do I get an apartment?
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  You know?
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  Yes.
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  They have the steps to it, but what is the process of bill paying?
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  And, you know, they live on base or they come out or, they just fall on hard times, they've
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  been at war, they're coming back, their PTSD is horrifying, experience was bad, just very hard
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  life things, and there's just not a next step.
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  There's not a next step of, Hey, we need to talk to people.
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  Get into a peer group, you know, of other veterans that are in the same boat and talk
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  through what you're feeling.
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  It's so important for them to still feel like they have some structure.
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  And then, you know, with us, that's kind of what we do is we give them very hard structure
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  in the beginning, and then over the two years, by the end, they're doing it on their own.
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  They know, you know, how to just make life happen outside of the military being like, you
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  have to be here.
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  Here's, you know, here's lunch and dinner.
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  You know, they come out and they just need that next step.
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  And so that's what we are for them.
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  And it's something, obviously, a a need that's not really being met by very many other
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  organizations.
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  We spoke about, you know, obviously, the government has the veteran affairs and these
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  things, but their resources are so limited because you're trying to cover this the whole
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  country, right, and all these thousands of veterans that are that are leaving the service
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  every year.
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  So it's understandable that there can be holes inside of the VA or inside of the other
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  government associate or, you know, organizations that are there to help veterans.
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  So it really comes down to people like yourself in the private sector taking some ownership of
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  it and going, well, we are going to help these people.
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  And I know that, you know, while operation combating veteran suicide as an entity is
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  relatively new, This is something that you've had a passion for for many, many years now and
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  that you were doing long before you ever put a name to it.
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  Can you talk a little bit about your history helping veterans, what was kind of the the
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  genesis of Operation Combating Veteran Suicide?
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  So for me, I've worked with veterans for over twenty years in some capacity, whether it is my
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  background is hospice.
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  So I've always worked with veterans on the no veteran dies alone, so I will go and stay with
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  veterans when they're passing.
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  I've always been helping other organizations.
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  Casey and I have put in lots of time, effort, and money into buying boots, helping with rent,
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  buying food, you know, the things that veterans need coming out, sending stuff overseas.
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  So we've always had this passion that we were going to make a legacy for us.
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  And when I became missus South Dakota International, somebody made a comment to me,
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  and she said, make this your legacy.
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  And I was like, oh my gosh.
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  I've got it.
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  And this, you know, just kind of became a full realm.
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  You know, as idea people, we're always building ideas and rolling forward with them.
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  I finally just named it.
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  We're not doing anything different than what we've done other than now we are a true
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  nonprofit, which is great.
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  We are getting help from individual donors, corporate donors, and we love that now.
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  Goal is for us in the next two years is to build an apartment complex that will help house
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  them for the two year program that they're there.
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  They'll be in their own place figuring out each step by themselves, but right now in the
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  interim, we're just working with other places to house, and it's working great.
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  But we want them to be doing it on their own and feeling like it's their place, not like a
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  domiciliary where they're all kind of housed together or a transitional house where there
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  are a bunch of them together.
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  It's gonna be their own place that they have to deal with.
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  And a huge step in, you know, building back some of these people.
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  I know I know a lot of the veterans that you work with, you know, are dealing with substance
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  abuse issues, are dealing with severe PTSD.
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  They're finding it very hard to operate in the world at all, you know, much less having to
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  deal with, you know, paying all the bills and worrying about how to exist in your life.
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  Sometimes just waking up and getting out of bed, you know, because of the physical ailments
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  incurred during their service can be very hard.
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  So I think what you are doing is just so important and such a vital cog in the wheel of
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  helping our veterans to assimilate to civilian life.
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  And I love the idea of a, you know, an a complex, a community, right, that is all
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  veterans, and they can kind of rely on each other a little bit in that space.
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  So I think the long term vision for what you're doing is just incredible.
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  And not only to do it once, but to have a repeatable process that hopefully one day we
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  can take, you know, all over the country and wherever it's needed.
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  We have a formula then to provide for veterans anywhere we go.
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  Obviously, starting close to home here in South Dakota, a big congratulations to you, you know,
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  on winning the pageant, the missus South Dakota International.
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  It's not something I know that you really set out to do.
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  It wasn't necessarily a dream of yours to enter the pageant world, But can you talk about the,
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  the platform now that the pageant and this whole new world has given you for the good that
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  you want to do in the world?
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  Yeah.
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  You know, the pageant's been huge now for me.
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  It was brought to me that I should go for Missus South Dakota International.
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  I've never done pageants in my life, so I it's not something I was a little girl running
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  around as a pageant girl or teenager or any of that first time ever and now have the title of
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  missus South Dakota International.
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  It has brought so much to me.
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  You know?
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  I I said that, you know, it just wasn't something I had, like, this grandiose idea to
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  do, but I decided I was gonna do it.
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  I think for myself, self confidence, I'm getting me out there.
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  I love being able to help support the veterans, and I knew this would also help with the
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  platform.
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  I mean, it has.
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  Lots of reach outs.
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  People wanna know what my platform is.
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  They wanna see what I'm doing.
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  They follow me because I am, you know, not only missus South Dakota, but I've now got this
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  amazing nonprofit.
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  Going into the pageantry in Tennessee in July is when I compete for international, and, you
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  know, it's gonna be a great platform there too.
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  I'm super excited to get it out to the judges.
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  There are some very affluent people that show up to these, and I can promise you, my
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  nonprofit will be first and foremost in front of them.
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  And that is more what the the pageant and the title provided.
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  Right?
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  It is a larger platform for you to share all the good that you are doing out there in the
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  world and to to use it to tell people and to bring in, you know, more funding and more
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  awareness and hopefully inspire others to not only give to your organization, but to maybe
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  start their own causes for veterans in their area.
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  I mean, I I know both of us dream very, very big, but there's no way that we can help every
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  veteran out there.
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  Right?
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  We would love to and we would love to, like I said, build these formulas that that can do
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  more, but we need several organizations that are filling different gaps.
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  Right?
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  From putting boots literally on people's feet to get them onto the ground or, you know, for
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  the the larger vision of providing this kind of transitional housing between, you know, getting
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  out or going from the domiciliary and coming out of, you know, a a substance abuse program
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  or a, you know, a traumatic program, even just coming out of the hospital.
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  Right?
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  Some of these, you know, veterans coming out of the military are getting medically discharged.
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  And what about them?
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  What if they have no family to go to?
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  So there's just so many people and so many avenues that we can access.
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  And both of us using the platforms that we've now built for ourselves, an award winning
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  podcast, the beauty pageant queen, to to go out and to spread the word that not only do these
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  organizations need help, but other veterans need help too.
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  Maybe, you know, there's plenty of veterans out there that maybe don't need the housing and
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  don't need this, but maybe they could use just a group to talk to about the mental health
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  aspects of, you know, dealing with, you know, the PTSD or just being a veteran these days
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  isn't an easy thing as as well.
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  Well, and I think it's so important to realize is that, you know, yeah, we are operation
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  combating veteran suicide.
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  My goal is to be there before we've had an attempt.
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  Things happen, though.
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  We know attempts happen, and, unfortunately, sometimes they're successful.
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  So for me, it's getting to them before.
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  You know, let's talk about it.
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  Know you're having these stresses.
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  You're having you know, just coming back to the real world, even if you weren't in combat, even
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  if you, you know, weren't fighting and, you know, wasn't super stressful, it's stressful
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  because you're just back out.
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  You know?
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  You're back to where you were the day before you went in.
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  You don't have a job.
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  They still need help.
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  I mean, even if they have money, even if they're doing good, they still need the
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  support.
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  They need to know they're taken care of.
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  They need to know, you know, I'm here to help.
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  Great.
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  They have a beautiful home.
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  Cool.
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  I'm glad you have that home outside of base.
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  How are you paying for that now that you're out?
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  Like, what's the stuff for you?
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  I mean and they come out stressed.
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  Right, Charlotte.
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  I hadn't even thought about that.
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  It is someone who has bought a home, gets a thirty year mortgage, has a twenty year career
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  in the military, and retires from that, and now has, for the first time in their life, still
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  has a decade worth of mortgage payments to pay on their own.
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  And what a, yeah.
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  Exactly.
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  What a stressful situation that must beat all of a sudden, you know, be walking away from
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  that steady income and and all of those things.
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  And in most cases, the military is not necessarily providing you with skills that are
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  applicable in the private sector.
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  Know, some are, but if you are a frontline, you know, a a frontline soldier, your skills are
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  are not translating in the same way to private sector and all of a sudden, you know, taking
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  orders from someone who maybe hasn't earned your respect by being of a higher rank.
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  And, yeah, it's just a there's so many intricacies to and each veteran's story is
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  different.
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  How do we meet them?
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  How do we meet them where they're at?
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  How do we help these people where they're at?
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  And to move them into a place that's going to be a place where they can build a successful
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  life outside of their military service.
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  Absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  And that's what we're here to do.
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  We're here to get them pointed in the right direction from the beginning wherever that
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  beginning is for them now.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, let's talk about what we have going on currently.
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  I know we just stepped away from an awesome event, which has given us a little insight now
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  into what more we could be doing together.
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  But we got a couple events coming up in the next few months.
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  I want you to go ahead and and plug away.
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  We do.
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  August 16, we are having Operation Combating Veteran Suicides Poker Run.
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  It will be starting in Sturgis and ending in Rapid.
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  We are riding the beautiful Black Hills.
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  We are so excited.
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  We will have five stops that day.
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  Our writers' lunch is included.
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  We're gonna have some drawings, a silent auction, auction, some music there at the end.
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  It's gonna just really be a great day, but we would love the support.
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  You can go online and register already, and that is at
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  operationcombatingveteranssuicide.com.
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  Or the simple thing which I'm gonna, as we go in time, transition over to is 0c-vs.com.
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  Our name is very long, so you'll hear Bubba and I throw around, it's OCVS.
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  I mean, because it's a lot of words to get out of your mouth.
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  But so we have that happening August 16.
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  Registration, there is an early bird registration for that.
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  All bikers, cars, whatever, are welcome.
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  We just want everybody to join us and support our veterans that day, and we will it's just
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  gonna be a really great day starting at 10AM.
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  So great things going on that day.
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  Would love to have you guys with us for that, so please join us on that one.
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  And then, Bubba, do you wanna announce the next one or you want me to give the dates and then
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  you can talk a little bit?
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  Because there's a lot going on that so we had a
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  crazy will announce it and you can tell them about what's going on because I don't even know
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  what you have planned.
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  So the last weekend in September.
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  Correct?
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  I don't even know what those dates were.
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  Sixth.
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  We're gonna come in on Friday the twenty sixth, Saturday, the twenty seventh, and we're gonna
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  leave the morning of the twenty eighth.
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  And when I say we, that means everybody listening to this, we want you guys to join us.
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  That's right.
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  So we're gonna go back to Kathmandu RV Park And Campground outside of Sturgis.
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  That's right off Exit 34, very close to the Black Hills National Cemetery.
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  Great space out there.
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  It will be kind of an end of the season party for them, but also giving us another chance to
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  get everyone together to build some community, to build awareness about OCVS, and to continue
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  to do good out there in the world.
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  So we have a lot of space.
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  We have multiple days that you know there's gonna be music if the scene projects are
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  involved.
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  So we got that going on.
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  We're gonna have a lot more stuff.
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  Anything that you know we will be doing that weekend, Charlotte?
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  Yep.
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  We're gonna bring back the singer songwriter contest.
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  We want you know, we think that is a great thing to do.
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  That was so much fun.
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  And the talent here in the Black Hills, Bubba asked me to judge, and I did.
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  And I already told him that I've retired from that.
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  It was way too stressful.
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  He did tell me I wasn't retiring, but that's okay.
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  It the talent's amazing.
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  So we absolutely wanna drum up more of that.
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  Bubba doesn't know it yet, but his band will be there playing because it was amazing.
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  He's amazing.
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  I think we wanna do a few other bands.
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  We'll get out there.
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  We're for sure gonna do an opening night band.
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  I don't know if that's Bubba's band.
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  Him and I really after Saturday, we're like, we just need to debrief and that's what or on
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  Sunday.
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  Sorry.
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  We just need to debrief, and so now he's kinda getting my vision as we go here.
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  So, you know, but it is.
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  It's gonna be lots of music.
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  We're gonna do probably some cornhole tournament, maybe horseshoe volleyball.
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  I mean, we're just really gonna do some fun outside.
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  It'll still be warm here.
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  If it's not, we'll pivot like we did this weekend.
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  We'll pivot until we're worn a circle around us.
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  Well, it doesn't matter.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  We've gotten really good at that.
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  We'll have some good food.
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  I mean, we're really just gonna make it a great weekend.
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  So what we're asking is everybody come in.
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  I will get stuff put together so that and Kathmandu's already ready for people to
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  register out there to stay.
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  But they can take campers.
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  I mean, they can take any kind of just tents, whatever.
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  We'll make it work.
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  They have hookups out there.
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  But coming in on Friday, and then we'll be there Friday night, we'll have a great concert.
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  Saturday, we will do the showcases.
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  Lots of stuff to come on this, Bubba, but
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  it's gonna be incredible.
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  I can't thank you enough for for diving in headfirst on our event, you know, this last
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  weekend.
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  It was absolutely incredible to see how it all came together in a very, very short amount of
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  time.
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  Most people wouldn't even be courageous enough to, attempt it.
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  And I thought not only did we attempt, but we succeeded on so many levels.
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  And and mostly just proving to ourselves that, hey, we can really do something special when we
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  put our minds to it.
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  And I think that was the first start for me is, okay.
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  You have this space.
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  You have this platform.
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  How are you going to use it?
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  And now that we have a great handle on that, it's time to just kinda put the hammer down and
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  to to get to work doing more of them.
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  So absolutely thrilled to be working with you again, Charlotte.
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  Remember, August 16, there is the OCVS Poker Run that will be, in the Black Hills starting
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  in Sturgis and ending in Rapid City.
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  And then September and leaving on the twenty eighth back at Kathmandu RV Park And
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  Campground, Exit 34 outside of Sturgis.
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  Lots of great stuff.
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  Keep your eyes peeled for more information coming on that.
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  And I think we're gonna have some more, some more programming for you coming from me and
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  Charlotte as well just to keep everybody in the know with, future events, any news from OCVS
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  that we can share on a more consistent basis.
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  So keep your eyes peeled for yet another podcast from the scene projects, and, we just
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  appreciate you all for tuning in and supporting not just our programming, but the great causes
• 22:16
  that are behind us as well.
• 22:18
  So, Charlotte, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 22:21
  Do you need to plug anything else before you go?
• 22:24
  Nope.
• 22:25
  Just you, Bubba.
• 22:26
  I appreciate you so much for what you've done and just bringing me in.
• 22:29
  I love that you're a lot like me on the grounds of if you want something to happen, you just do
• 22:34
  it and figure it out as we go, and I love that about you.
• 22:37
  So the scene project has been huge to us already.
• 22:42
  We appreciate you so much, but I just want you to know I love these thoughts, and we're just
• 22:46
  gonna run with what we have, and you will for sure see more of me with you.
• 22:50
  Well, thank you for your kind words, Charlotte, and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 22:56
  Thank you.
• 23:01
  How do I pause this?
• 23:02
  Oh, pause right