In the summertime, the most exertion many of us are willing to commit involves turning over some hamburgers on the barbecue. But a new brewery with a special mission is making helping veterans as easy as cracking open a bottle of beer.
Navy veteran Paul Jenkins and Marine Corps veteran Mike Danzer founded the Veteran Beer Company in 2012 with the goal of easing the veteran employment crunch by creating a company that would employ veterans and generate profits that could be donated to charities that help veterans. They began selling their two varieties—Blonde Bomber and The Veteran—on Veteran’s Day in 2013, and the company has been expanding ever since.
“We only anticipated to sell about 2,000 cases our first year,” Josh Ray, regional director of Veteran Brewing Company told Nicole Johnson of Valley News Live. “After four months, we did over 30,000 cases, and we’re pretty close to approaching 60,000 cases right now.”
Beer drinkers can now find Veteran Beer Company’s brews for sale in Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ten percent of the profits go to veterans’ charities, and the rest is channeled back into the company. Veteran Beer Company, which brews its beer in Cold Spring, Minnesota, employs only veterans, and plans to hire more vets as it continues to expand.
“Some of the things that veterans are promised aren’t really always followed through on,” Ray said. “With this, it’s really our opportunity to give back.” And anyone planning to buy a six pack to celebrate a lazy summer afternoon can give back too.
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Tag: Jobs for Veterans
A New Program Transitions Soldiers into Successful Tradesmen
You always want the very best for your friends. That’s especially true if your pal has sacrificed by serving as a member of the United States military.
When seeing two of his Marine friends (“both extraordinary people with a lot of talent”) struggle after returning from war, Keith Mercurio of Little Canada, Minnesota had an idea. “When they came back from service, I was able to watch how they reintegrated into society—one of my friends didn’t have much to do, he was just home. These guys are having to come home where there are no jobs for them. He was having a tough time…While I am seeing this happen to my friends, I am also listening to how our businesses are having trouble finding good people. And both of these situations just didn’t make any sense to me,” Mercurio told Candace Roulo of Contractor Magazine.
Mercurio realized what his veteran friends were missing: Professional training that would qualify them for in-demand fix-it jobs.
So he met with Jack Tester, the CEO of Nexstar (a national company that organizes a network of contractors), who just happens to be his employer. (Mercurio is a sales trainer for Nexstar.) From there, the program Troops to Trades was born.
Nexstar usually only trains people who work for its own companies, but Mercurio asked his boss to open up their training to all veterans — regardless of their business affiliation. Tester agreed.
One of the beneficiaries of the program is Army veteran Bryan Daleiden, who was working in the office of Uptown Heating and Cooling in Minneapolis. Daleiden wanted to be fixing heating and cooling systems instead of completing paperwork, but he lacked the training. He applied for a scholarship from the Troops to Trades program, and they paid his expenses for a two-week training course.
“Anytime there is an opportunity to achieve higher learning in something I’m passionate about, I seize it,” Daleiden said.
Troops to Trades is run by The Nexstar Legacy Foundation, which is partnering with the American Legion to get the word out about the scholarships, training, and job placement that they offer in plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical services. The company has set up a business network whose members agree to talk to veterans about their work and offer them jobs.
Mercurio said he knew his idea would work, because people like his Marine Corps veteran friends “…did get all the skills from training in the military that anyone would ever hope for in a human being — they are reliable, respectful, disciplined, hardworking, noble and honest.”
Only now, they can fix your clogged kitchen sink, too.
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The New Target for These Soldiers? Child Predators
Undoubtedly, dedication and intelligence are two important attributes to bring to a job — and they’re certainly something that our service members possess.
A new program aims to make good use of these characteristics as it employs 14 wounded veterans as federal agents in the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Child Rescue Corps (H.E.R.O. Child Rescue Corps), which is a part of the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These vets will work to prevent and solve child trafficking cases.
Just last week, the program’s first graduating class participated in a child rescue retreat in Memphis, Tennessee, where they used their smarts to study techniques to catch child pornography producers and traffickers.
The H.E.R.O. Child Rescue Corps came about when the National Association to Protect Children asked Immigration and Customs officials if they could retrain wounded veterans to work as analysts tracking child predators. Private donors funded the $10 million program, which trained the former soldiers before dispatching them to field offices throughout the United States, where special agents will supervise them in investigations.
“In 2013, when we presented the idea to top officials at Homeland Security, they said ‘Yes.'” Grier Weeks, executive director of the National Association to Protect Children told Jonathan A. Capriel of The Commercial Appeal. “It was the fastest any of us have ever seen the federal government move.”
Justin Gaertner, who lost both his legs to an IED (improved explosive device) during his third deployment to Afghanistan in 2010, is newly enlisted in the H.E.R.O. Child Rescue Corps. During the training period, he said, “I spent three months in New York assisting in 30 operations which led to 80 arrests of child pornographers. We rescued about eight children from the hands of sexual predators.”
Homeland Security special agent Kevin Power, who mentored the H.E.R.O. interns, told Capriel, “Their military discipline makes them really good for this work. Computer forensics is meticulous and methodical. These guys don’t cut corners, and they don’t question the ordered process you have to go through every time.”
As for Gaertner, not only does the new job allow him use his skills, but also, he has a new career in which his disability doesn’t matter. “The opportunity to put people behind bars who hurt children, is a big reason why I choose to do this,” Gaertner said. “I have an eight-year-old sister who I want to protect.”
We’re sure that Gaertner’s young sibling is just one of the many things motivating him each and every day.
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Here’s a New Website Bringing Unemployed Veterans and Understaffed Tech Companies Together
Technology firms are always seeking employees, with tech jobs frequently topping lists of the best employment prospects. Meanwhile, military downsizing has lead to ever more vets on the hunt for a job. David Lucien decided to come up with a solution that is working to solve both of these problems.
Lucien is the CEO of DCL Associates, a consulting firm that advises technology companies. Inspired by his World War II-vet father, Lucien decided to use his business knowledge to work with others and start US Tech Vets, a website that helps veterans find jobs in technology. The site launched this past January.
The website offers veterans information about how to start their job search, craft a resume, and describe their military skills in a way that civilian employers can understand. Vets upload their resumes to US Tech Vets, and members of national and regional technology associations can search the resumes for employees and post jobs. US Tech Vets has partnered with 147 companies committed to hiring veterans to provide jobs and resources.
Currently, there are about 13,000 jobs posted on the website, and 800,000 veteran resumes are in the database, which Lucien believes is the largest collection of military veterans’ resumes in the world. “We want to make it a priority of every technology company to hire, train, and retain military veterans and to make sure every veteran and veteran family member has the opportunity to be employed,” Lucien told David Karas of the Christian Science Monitor.
“I have always had a soft spot for our veteran and active-duty military,” Lucien told Karas. “We cannot do enough for these brave individuals and owe them our lives, just as they have risked their lives for our freedom.”
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This Supportive Startup Hires Veterans to Help Organizations Go Digital
To say that the government of Englewood, New Jersey had a paper problem was an understatement. Stacks of forms were backed up in the city’s construction office — creating a headache for people trying to obtain building permits. And that wasn’t the only problem that the department had. Since the office was only open during regular business hours, it was difficult for permit-seekers with full-time jobs to come in to fill out forms and check on how the permit process was progressing.
City workers weren’t in denial about the inefficiency of their office, either. Englewood city manager Tim Dacey told Miles Ma of NewJersey.com that obtaining a construction permit was “a very time-consuming, paper-oriented process.”
So they contacted Bright Star, a startup that specializes in helping businesses transition from paper-based transactions to digital ones. But Bright Star isn’t just any startup. It’s a nonprofit that hires veterans to do the digitization work. Dorothy Nicholson founded Bright Star in 2008 after seeing her veteran family members and friends struggle with transitioning to civilian life. Nicholson told Ma, “There really was no leeway to enable them to slowly get back to the practice of working with other people.”
She wants Bright Star to provide that support and understanding for veterans through such programs as job sharing. That way, if a veteran can’t hold a full-time job, he or she can work a part-time one. Nicholson also allows employees to miss work for the physical therapy, counseling, or medical appointments — all things that many returning veterans need to attend. Additionally, Bright Star has a job sampling program through which employees can give different jobs a try until they find the right fit.
Bright Star has updated Englewood’s construction office, and now each building inspector in the city has an iPad to use to efficiently complete forms. Beginning on May 13, digital permitting will be available for all Englewood residents. And as for the veterans that Bright Star employs, “Yeah, there’s a bottom line that you’ve got to be aware of,” Nicholson told Ma, “but at the same time the humanity of helping soldiers needs to be a priority.”
It sounds like Nicholson is a woman with her priorities straight.
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These Rocking Bands Are Offering Veterans a Dream Job
Who knew that behind the makeup, leather, wigs, and prominently displayed tongues, the members of KISS have a soft spot for America’s veterans?
Last year, KISS invited veterans to apply to become a roadie for their tour with Motley Crüe. Almost 2,000 vets submitted their names, with the lucky winner being Paul Jordan, who served for 27 years in the Army — including three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Possibly putting him ahead of the other applicants? Not only has he been a fan of KISS since he was four years old, but also he sports a tattoo on his chest of Gene Simmons sticking out his seven-inch tongue.
“Since I retired, I’ve had a really hard time trying to find a find a job,” he told the Today Show last year. Now with a year of roadie service under his belt, he said, “I know now that life exists after military service. You just have to find something you’re passionate about and go get it. There is a world of opportunity out there.”
Last year’s program was such a success that KISS is accepting applications for a roadie for this summer’s tour with Def Leppard, as part of an effort to give a couple of veterans the job of a lifetime and raise awareness for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring 500,000 Heroes campaign (a program that works to help military men and women find jobs).
The issue of helping veterans is one that’s close to the heart of Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen. After having his left arm amputated after a 1984 car accident, Allen thought his career was over and he suffered from PTSD, according to BlabberMouth.Net. He learned how to drum again, however, and wanted to reach out to others who’ve undergone amputations. At the USO’s request, he began visiting wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center and became involved with the Wounded Warrior Project.
“It is our privilege to draw attention to the obligation we all have to the brave men and women who volunteer to risk their own lives to protect the liberties and freedom that we all take for granted,” Paul Stanley of KISS told the Today Show. “We should all jump at any opportunity to provide any assistance needed by our warriors. Heroes deserve jobs!”
KISS and Def Leppard are accepting roadie applications from vets online through May 9. Although only two vets will win a roadie job for this year’s tour, hopefully the example set by these hairspray-loving rockers will inspire others to offer vets a job.
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How One Woman Helps Vets Dress for That Oh-So-Important Interview
Most people reach for their nicest clothes when dressing for a funeral. But back in 2010, when Star Lotta attended the funeral of her cousin Jimmy, a Marine Corps veteran who returned from service suffering from PTSD and died of a heart attack at the young age of 23, she noticed that the veterans in attendance weren’t wearing suits.
This stuck Lotta as unusual and she wondered if it was because they couldn’t afford the formal clothing, which can be quite costly. Coincidentally, Lotta ran a business selling custom-made suits, so she started asking her clients if they had old suits they no longer wanted that they could donate to veterans. Soon, Suiting Veterans — a non-profit in Wilmington, Delaware that outfits veterans for job interviews in donated business suits and stylish dress clothes for women — was born.
Retiree Jack Doyle, who has worked as an Army finance clerk and as a men’s clothier at Macy’s, volunteers with the organization. “It’s just a way of kind of giving back to guys who are serving our country,” Doyle told William H. McMichael of USA Today, “And it’s a lot more fun than working on commission.”
According to the non-profit’s website, it has gathered over 200 suits for women and 600 for men. Lotta lets veterans know about her services by visiting veterans’ job fairs. She’s received so many donations that the space where Suiting Veterans is based is virtually filled to capacity. So she has started loading suits up in a donated truck and taking them to such places as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey to meet veterans there. She’s received so many emails from veterans across the country who’d love to receive a suit that she hopes to one day expand Suiting Veterans nationwide.
We salute the success of Lotta and her army of suiting volunteers.
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Can This Recreational Activity Heal Vets and Help Them Find Jobs?
There’s nothing better than the feel of the sun on your face, the smell of salt water in the air and the breeze blowing through your hair. For some veterans, hitting the open seas in a sailboat could be exactly what they need.
The Bayfront Maritime Center of Erie, Pennsylvania, already serves some veterans through its volunteer-run EASE (Erie Adaptive Sailing Experience) program, but now it’s ramping up its efforts to reach out to even more through its new Veterans EASE program. Bayfront Maritime Center Executive Director Rich Eisenberg told Ron Leonardi of the Erie Times-News that they will partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the VA Hospital in Erie, to provide healing experiences to former service members.
Only 40 percent of returning veterans in the Erie area make appointments with counselors, and of those that do, only 40 percent return for a follow-up visit. Eisenberg thinks that sailing could prove more therapeutic for veterans than a visit to a counselor’s office, especially given the success of a similar program, Veterans On Deck, in Charleston, South Carolina. Veterans EASE will feature year-round programs that focus on not only sailing, but also boat maintenance and building activities.
The center also plans on helping participants find employment, too. “Right now, there’s a 20 percent shortage of skilled workers in the maritime industry,” Eisenberg told Leonardi. “That’s projected by the U.S. Coast Guard to go to 35 percent in 10 years, because a lot of the personnel are retiring. These are excellent, high-paying jobs, and veterans are well positioned to be filling these positions because of all their military training.”
Sounds like a day of sailing could lead to a full-fledged job for some Pennsylvania veterans.
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This Non-Profit Helps Paralyzed Vets Find Meaningful Jobs
“When you go to some of these interviews and you roll up in your chair, you can see it in their faces, ‘Oh, man.’”
That’s how Enrique Chavez, a paraplegic veteran from Long Beach, California, described what it’s like trying to find a job as a disabled veteran to Andrew Edwards of the Press-Telegram.
Fortunately, a program called PAVE (Paving Access for Veteran Employment) is assisting severely disabled veterans like Chavez gain employment. Over the past seven years, PAVE has helped 439 of the 2,500 veterans who joined the program find jobs. “While that number might not seem scintillating at first blush,” said Sherman Gillums of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (an organization that aids U.S. vets), “we are focusing on the hardest to place: those with severe disabilities.” Gillums, himself is a Marine corps veteran who was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident in 2002, understands the unique challenges disabled vets face.
Paralyzed Veterans of America offers the PAVE program at seven locations in the United States, and makes its services available online to any veteran who wants to participate. PAVE counselors help veterans craft a resume using their military experience that will appeal to civilian employers, figure out the paperwork they need to access their benefits, learn about the differences between military and civilian culture, and recover from their wounds and psychological trauma. PAVE also reaches out to potential employers, informing them of the tax benefits they can receive from employing a veteran.
Navy vet Mike Metal fount a job with the Volunteers of America in Santa Ana, California with the assistance of the PAVE program. He told Edwards, “I love coming to work every day.” It’s clear the Paralyzed Veterans of America won’t rest until every vet they work with can say the same.
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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.
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