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Turning a life altering change into a worthy mission, helping disabled veterans · The Financial Exchange Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As promised, we are now joined by Garrett Barton from
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  Speaker 1: Circle K. Garrett is a franchise business consultant there with
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  Speaker 1: their worldwide franchise group. He is also a Navy veteran. Garrett,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today and thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your service.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, I appreciate it so very much. It's an honor
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  Speaker 2: and privilege to be here, and I'm very excited for
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  Speaker 2: the five K rice tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely looking forward to it myself. I know you've been
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  Speaker 1: with Circle K for eleven years now, and I just
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  Speaker 1: learned today actually that Circle K is now the official
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  Speaker 1: convenience store of the dav of Massachusetts. How did that
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  Speaker 1: partnership end up coming about?
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's been a number of years in the making,
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  Speaker 2: say to Moscow, who just had on and my boss,
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  Speaker 2: our regional director, Pete Radswitz, have been working together for
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  Speaker 2: a number of years helping out at the golf tournaments
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  Speaker 2: in the five K. We've been supplying some items like
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  Speaker 2: water and things of that nature of a number of years.
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  Speaker 2: With p and I talking, we decided to take it
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  Speaker 2: to the next level. So we went to our marketing department,
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  Speaker 2: into our VPS and said, look, you know what this
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  Speaker 2: is something that we really need to be involved in,
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  Speaker 2: and being a DAV myself, it really hits home. So
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  Speaker 2: we were able to take it up a notch and
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  Speaker 2: now Circle Katy is donating thirty thousand dollars to the
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  Speaker 2: DAV Massachusetts. So it's a huge honor, huge privilege, and
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  Speaker 2: something that's been in a number of years of making
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  Speaker 2: and we're so happy and proud to be a part
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  Speaker 2: of this organization.
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  Speaker 1: Garrett, you mentioned that you have experience with the DAV yourself.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you joined the Navy back in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty three and served through nineteen eighty eight. Can you
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  Speaker 1: tell our listeners a little bit about your time in
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  Speaker 1: the Navy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was something that I'm very proud of done.
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  Speaker 2: My father was a Korean War veteran, so it was
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  Speaker 2: something in the family. My brother in law was also
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  Speaker 2: in the Marines, so something that we've all been indoctrinated into.
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  Speaker 2: And I wanted to go into something that was going
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  Speaker 2: to be very advanced as far as going to college
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  Speaker 2: and things of that nature. So I really took advantage
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  Speaker 2: of the VA benefits and the VA Bill to be
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  Speaker 2: able to go to college and get my degrees to
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  Speaker 2: the VA. Now I started off in San Diego. They
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  Speaker 2: got transferred up to the Great Lakes, Illinois doing advanced electronics,
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  Speaker 2: and mine was a six year mandatory enlistment since I
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  Speaker 2: did two years of schooling. Then I transferred over to
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  Speaker 2: Virginia Beach and finished my last Missile Radar System school
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  Speaker 2: and was assigned to the USS Barney DDG six guide
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  Speaker 2: miss of the destroyer out of Norfolk, Virginia. And during
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  Speaker 2: that time, of course, you go on a number of
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  Speaker 2: cruises and things of that nature. But I blown out
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  Speaker 2: my knee and I went through a year's therapy with
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  Speaker 2: that through the VA Hospital Enforcement Virginia, And unfortunately, since
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  Speaker 2: I'm not fit for the fleet because of my knee,
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  Speaker 2: I was not fit for the Navy and I was
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  Speaker 2: mentally discharged under honorablekenitions. So with that I got involved
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  Speaker 2: in the DAV a whole lot more. They paid for
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  Speaker 2: all my schooling, they paid for all my surgeries, all
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  Speaker 2: everything I've had to have done. The VA was there
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  Speaker 2: for me. I've been to sixteen VA hospitals throughout the country,
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  Speaker 2: as I've lived in sixteen different states and been to
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  Speaker 2: all fifty and have never ever had a bad experience
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  Speaker 2: at a VA hospital, and you know, a shout out
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  Speaker 2: goes out to all the nurses, the assistants, the helpers,
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  Speaker 2: and the doctors of the VA hospitals. They've all been
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  Speaker 2: tremendous and I'm very proud of them all and very
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  Speaker 2: proud to be part of the organization.
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  Speaker 1: Garrett, I understand that you also play a leading role
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  Speaker 1: for all the veterans that work for Circle K. Regarding
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  Speaker 1: the National Brave Organization, can you tell our listeners a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about that organization and your involvement in that program.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, The Brave Organization is a group of veterans within
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  Speaker 2: the Circle K organization where we have our own little
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  Speaker 2: group to talk about veterans ideas things how we can
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  Speaker 2: promote the veterans and the dav how we can get
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  Speaker 2: out to other veterans within the community as well within
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  Speaker 2: our own community outside our local geographical area, as well
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  Speaker 2: as within Circletate itself. So it's a spotlight where we
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  Speaker 2: do articles, we have weekly we have quarterly newsletters. We
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  Speaker 2: actually just sent out the red poppy pin to all
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  Speaker 2: of our personnel throughout the franchise group to help support
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  Speaker 2: the organization and bring awareness to it. And so many veterans,
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  Speaker 2: as Isaiah was mentioned earlier, that they just don't have
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  Speaker 2: a clue on all benefits and opportunities that are there
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  Speaker 2: for them and how important it is for them to
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  Speaker 2: reach out to the DA. As Isaiah had stated earlier,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's not necessarily an easy situation, but the
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  Speaker 2: payoff is tremendous. What they can do for you and
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  Speaker 2: help you, and so many things I never had a
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  Speaker 2: clue on. You know. I notified my father, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when he was getting older about the VA and things
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  Speaker 2: that they could do, as well as my brother in law,
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  Speaker 2: and we really I talk to people all over the
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  Speaker 2: country about this everywhere I go. I traveled everywhere, and
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  Speaker 2: I know I get up with all the different veterans
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  Speaker 2: and let them know what's going on. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: have veterans come back to me and see Garrett, thank
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  Speaker 2: you so much for giving me this information. You were
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  Speaker 2: absolutely great, and I appreciate so much because I had
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  Speaker 2: no idea what I was eligible for sure until I
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  Speaker 2: went and asked. So it's a great honor and I'm
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  Speaker 2: so happy to me it would be a part of
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  Speaker 2: that would circle k and as a dav Well.
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  Speaker 1: Garrett, thank you again for the time today. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for your service, and thank you for the support of
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  Speaker 1: the dav Department of Massachusetts. Again, we really appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: joining us and just thank you so much for everything
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  Speaker 1: that you're doing on behalf of veterans.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for the time,
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  Speaker 2: and throw all your veterans out there. You know, if
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  Speaker 2: you don't know, go out and talk to somebody.