This Injured Vet’s Motto: Keep Moving

After attending the University of Connecticut’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, South Kingstown, R.I.-based veteran Steve D’Amico emerged with a bright idea.
D’Amico, a Rhode Island Air National Guard Technical Sgt., wants to help other injured veterans remain active through his new business, Broken Gear. He tells the Associated Press that the company “was founded on the principle of disabled athletes empowering themselves to get back into sports, whether they’re disabled veterans or disabled civilians.”
So far, Broken Gear is selling a variety of t-shirts with messages to inspire disabled athletes and their supporters, such as, “I am broken and I run,” and “I am broken and I ride.” D’Amico’s company also sells camouflaged gear bags made from uniforms of servicemen and women and specially designed to be easy to use by people who have prosthetic hands or suffer from other injuries.
As D’Amico sells these items, he has plans to use the profits to support disabled athletes, “buying equipment and getting vets involved in different activities,” D’Amico says. “For example if a veteran wanted to ride a bike, and didn’t have the funds or the ability, we can sponsor him, get him a bike, get him the Broken Gear jersey and pay for his admission.”
His mission just received a big boost: Work Vessels for Veterans presented D’Amico with a Dodge Durango (which was once used to transport Boy Scouts to camping trips) that he envisions using to take veterans and their sporting gear wherever they need to go.
“I feel so honored. To me, when I see this vehicle, this is what a Broken Gear vehicle would be. It’s rugged. It’s tough. It’s kind of beat up a little bit, but that’s what we’re looking for. You’ve been through the ringer, but that’s OK, you just press on,” D’Amico says.
MORE: Bravery After Battle: How This Navy SEAL Uses His War Wounds to Help Fellow Soldiers

This Restaurant Is Looking to Hire a Few Good Vets

What’s better than enjoying a plate of delicious seafood while looking out onto the ocean? Not much, actually. But if you can enjoy that meal and help Americans veterans at the same time, then all the better.
At the Cast-N-Cage restaurant on Bradenton Beach Pier in Florida, patrons can do just that. That’s because the eatery’s owners, Tammy Kemper-Pena and her husband Roland Pena, are veterans who want to hire other former service members. “We want to give veterans a place to work and feel comfortable where they can relate with other veterans and be able to share their stories and help them with any issues they may have,” Kemper-Pena told Randi Nissenbaum of Bay News 9.
Opening the restaurant marks a comeback in more ways than one. During her military service, Kemper-Pena suffered a back injury and two brain injuries, and Pena broke his back while serving in Iraq. Additionally, a year and a half ago, Tropical Storm Debby damaged the historic pier on which the Cast-N-Cage now sits in Sarasota Bay. The pier was closed for repairs until recently, when a bait shop opened and the Cast-N-Cage held its grand opening on March 1.
The Cast-N-Cage offers a ten percent discount to veterans and those who are on active military duty. They’ve already hired 10 veterans, and are looking to employ more. Navy veteran Glenn Schneider told Bay News 9, “It almost makes me cry. It’s touching that someone out there is helping other veterans.”
Judging from the photos on the restaurant’s Facebook page, there doesn’t look like any better place for a newly-returned veteran to recuperate than at this restaurant on the ocean filled with food, music, and camaraderie.
MORE: These Veterans Rallied to Save a Fellow Vet from the Cold

These Guys Just Walked 2,000 Miles to Help Other Vets

Five months ago veterans Anthony Anderson and Tom Voss set out on an epic trek from their homes in Wisconsin to Los Angeles to raise money for Dryhootch, a non-profit that helps veterans transition back into civilian life, and to increase awareness about the difficulties facing returning servicemen and women. On Saturday their community threw them a welcome home party at the Milwaukee County War Memorial.
Voss told Jesse Ritka of 620 WTMJ, “Neither of us really had any time to decompress after our deployments so the beginning idea was to take the time to work on yourself, better yourself by walking. Anderson and Voss’s beards grew long during the 2,000 mile walk, and blisters came and went, particularly during a footsore stretch in Iowa and Nebraska.
Anderson and Voss were aiming to raise $100,000, and finished $20,000 short of their goal, but are still accepting donations. And they’re still educating people about how everyone can help veterans. Anderson told Ritka, “Don’t watch the stories on the news and say well I’m informed now.  Take that information and go out and do something with it. Try to change the lives of your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers because that’s where veterans are.”
MORE: This Veteran Suffered A Traumatic Brain Injury. Now He’s Got A Chance to Win A Medal

One Woman’s Mission to Give Veterans a Trip to ‘Nature’s Cathedral’

78-year-old Pennsylvania resident Margery Hermann wanted to do something to help returning veterans, so she decided to combine her love of rafting with her charitable mission. In 2012, she founded Canyon Heroes, which organizes rafting trips for veterans down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Hermann believes a seven-day trip into what she calls “Nature’s Cathedral” can provide a healing experience for men and women who’ve served their country. After two successful runs so far, several veterans said the river journey has helped them in ways years of therapy did not.

“Stand Up for Heroes” Turns to Music Therapy for Wounded Veterans

Stand Up for Heroes gets a lot of well-deserved attention, with recent celebrities including Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart rising in support of veterans and helping raise funds to support injured veterans. But one innovative piece that’s getting less coverage is MusiCorps, based at Walter Reed. Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters took notice and started drawing attention to the program, which uses cutting-edge research and creative techniques to let music work its magic on wounded warriors. The initiative is creating some beautiful music and inspiring stories, and on the way it’s showing off the legitimate benefits and successes of music therapy in the healing process.

Hope for Vets with Hearing Loss

When most people think about the health challenges facing post-9-11 veterans, PTSD or missing limbs are usually some of the first problems that spring to mind. But actually the most common problems for recent veterans are tinnitus and hearing loss, which rank as the top two disabilities reported to the Veterans Benefit Administration. These ailments result from sudden loud noises like roadside bombs as well as exposure to sustained noise generated by aircraft and engines. In 2012 the Department of Defense established the Hearing Center of Excellence, which is lobbying congress to approve funds for more research on preventing and healing hearing loss, including medicine that could help prevent hair-cell damage in soldiers’ ears, and various treatments for tinnitus. With this renewed effort, everyone involved hopes to make similar strides with healing hearing loss as those that have been made with advances in prosthetic limbs.
 

A Collaboration to Provide Good Reads to Troops

Press 53, an award-winning small publisher of literary fiction and poetry based in North Carolina, is teaming up with AnySoldier.com to provide good reads to troops. Whenever a book lover buys a book through Press 53’s website between Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving, Press 53 will send the customer their order and also send a book to an active-duty soldier or a wounded veteran. Sergeant Brian Horn began AnySoldier.com in 2003 when he was stationed in Iraq as a way to distribute care packages to soldiers who don’t get much mail. Press 53 has been sending books to soldiers in the Middle East since 2007, and two years ago began also sending books to the Veterans Writing Project in Washington D.C., which gives the books to soldiers recovering at the Walter Reed Hospital and other rehabilitation centers. Their program is a good way for anyone who loves reading to share that enthusiasm with a soldier.
Sources: Press 53 / AnySoldier.Com
 

Calling All Vets: Iowa Wants You!

Calling all [p2p type=”post_tag” value=”veterans”]veterans[/p2p]: Iowa wants you! Iowa Governor Terry Branstad recently launched Home Base Iowa, a new partnership between public and private interests in Iowa that will pair veterans with companies seeking employees. The program will raise private funds to make veterans aware of this service through social media and military publications. Branstad says that in his travels throughout Iowa, he’s encountered many employers who want to hire more workers but can’t find people with the right skills. Branstad hopes the program will encourage veterans to move to Iowa, help reduce veteran unemployment, and fill those positions that Iowa companies have ready and waiting for skilled workers.