When Vandals Trashed a Park, a Group of Veterans Came to the Rescue

Where would we be without generous people pitching in to pick up what others have torn down? The actions of a group of volunteers in Florida show that for many veterans, helping out is a lifelong commitment.
The Little St. Mary’s River Park in Baker County, Florida is a place for families to get outside, relax and enjoy nature. But last spring, the park’s docks were vandalized. The criminals, who’ve never been caught, ripped the handrails from all the docks, crushed picnic tables and tossed them in the water and destroyed a bridge.
Larry Porterfield, a 70-year-old veteran who served in the Army as a combat engineer, was upset by the damage. “They even came in and tore the handicap ramps out,” he tells Clifford Davis of The Florida Times-Union. “Now, why would they do something like that?”
Luckily Porterfield, whose spirit of community service runs strong, had an army to back him up and help make the repairs. “I was in highway construction for 42 years. But I’m retired, so I thought I’d go ahead and do it,” he says.
Porterfield led a group of veterans from the Baker County Veterans Council, along with some civilian volunteers, in a park renovation project. Baker County supplied the materials, while the volunteers supplied more than 700 hours worth of labor, working four days a week for two months this summer to rebuild all the damaged property.
This isn’t the first time the Baker County Veterans Council has saved the day — they’ve repaired damaged porches for widows, raised funds to help disabled vets keep their homes and given cars to needy veterans, among other selfless acts.
Baker County Commission Chairman Jimmy Anderson says, “What I like about them is they are trying to teach people a sense of responsibility for their community, and for that, I give them high praise.”
MORE: Veterans Help Disaster Victims Through Team Rubicon
 

For Veterans Suffering from PTSD, Relief is Found Deep Under Water

For U.S. soldiers, returning home from deployment can be a lonely event. That’s especially true for those suffering from PTSD; these veterans often isolate themselves from others, seeking the quiet and calm that they haven’t experienced since before their service.
Marine veteran Timothy Maynard of Greenville, N.C., has found a way to achieve that peace without isolation and now he’s sharing his secret with others.
After serving his country for eight years, Maynard struggled. “It was pretty bad,” he tells Josh Birch of WNCT. “I did a little bit of time with the rehabilitation clinic trying to get back to where I could kind of function with normal people and on my own.”
Then Maynard tried scuba diving through Scuba Now, and enjoyed it so much, he became an instructor. “Underwater it’s just kind of quiet, it’s slow, I don’t have to worry about distractions from other people, other noise,” Maynard tells Birch. “It’s just me and my breath. I’m just doing my own thing. So it lets me slow my mind down so that I can relax and I don’t have to stress.”
Maynard began to invite other vets to try scuba diving as therapy, and he must be a pretty convincing pitchman because over the past year, the Scuba Now shops in Greenville and Wilmington, N.C. have trained 400 veterans, bringing the total number of service members receiving instruction to over 2,500 in the past six years.
Scuba Now offers scuba certification, which normally costs hundreds of dollars, free of charge to any veteran who has earned the Purple Heart medal.
Maynard thinks scuba’s benefits have gone beyond just a fun hobby for him. “I attribute it to saving my life cause it kind of gave me meaning, gave me something to do again and now I just love it,” he says.
MORE: Meet the Marine-Turned-Doctor Helping Veterans Overcome PTSD
 

How Birthday Cake Is Improving the Lives of Needy Children

Whether it’s chocolate, angel food, or rainbow sprinkled, a birthday cake is pretty much a necessity when celebrating someone’s special day.
But as Lisa Ray and Patty McTighe of Bowling Green, Ky. realized, not every kid enjoys the privilege of receiving this annual confection. So they started Celebration Cakes Ministry, using the kitchen of First Baptist Church to provide low-income children with personalized cakes for their birthdays.
Ray and McTighe aren’t professional bakers; everything they needed to know about decorating cakes, they learned from Internet videos and trial-and-error. In less than a year, they’ve already baked and delivered 140 cakes, all the while leading a group of 20 dedicated volunteers who meet several times a week.
Each cake is customized for its recipient, incorporating the child’s favorite characters, colors, or activities. (Check out the group’s Facebook page for photos of some of their whimsical creations, featuring such kid favorites as Elsa from “Frozen,” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Elmo.)
Celebration Cakes learns about deserving local youngsters from social workers, schools and other organizations that work with needy children. “These kids, some of them are going through a hard time, and just one little thing like a cake can brighten their day, and that’s what makes it worth it,” Ray tells Laurel Wilson of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
These volunteers’ unique efforts are already gaining notice. Volunteers in Action gave Celebration Cakes the Rookie Volunteer award and Western Kentucky University named it the 2014 Emerging Nonprofit Organization of the Year.
As much as the cakes brighten the children’s birthdays, they make the volunteers happy, too. Cynthia Jones started baking after watching the Celebration Cakes crew enjoy themselves as they worked. “Once I started,” she tells Wilson, “I was hooked. It brings back childhood memories of playing with Play-Doh. I love it, because when I was a child…I can’t remember having a birthday party. I just think even if kids cannot afford a cake, they deserve to have a cake they like.”
MORE: Veterans Receive Donations From An Unlikely Source: A Twelve-Year-Old Girl
 
 
 

Can Nail Polish Prevent Date Rape?

As young adults across the country head to college this month, they might be worried about more than just getting to class on time. That’s because the Washington Post analyzed the most recent federal campus crime data available and found over 3,900 reports of sexual assaults on American college campuses in 2012. These statistics, coupled with the probability that such crimes are massively underreported, are disturbing, to say the least.
But four North Carolina State University students are developing an innovative product that might bring some peace of mind: a nail polish that changes color when it detects the presence of the date rape drugs, such as Xanax, Rohypnol or GHB in a drink.
How does it work? If the wearer uses her (or his) finger to stir their drink, the polish will change color if any of these drugs are present.
The team of invetors, which consists of Tyler Confrey-Maloney, Stephen Gray, Ankesh Madan and Tasso Von Windheim, are currently raising funds for research and development of the nail polish. According to Lauren K. Ohnesorge of the Triangle Business Journal, a securities filing indicates that they’ve already raised $100,000 from one investor, with the goal of ultimately collecting $250,000.
Back in April, these students won the Lulu eGames, which is sponsored by NC State’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, with their invention. Next they applied to present their startup idea at this fall’s Kairos Global Summit, and earlier this month, made it to the semi-finals.
The young entrepreneurs are keeping mum about when their product will be available, but the idea has already generated widespread interest.
Other products already exist for detecting date rape drugs, including Drink Safe’s testing coasters, and the pd.id, a battery-powered gadget that indicates the presence of drugs when immersed in a beverage, but none of them have the ease of use as nail polish. After all, if it works, Undercover Colors has the advantage of offering users one less thing to carry. Plus, since the polish is invisible, it will likely deter would-be attackers from even trying to spike someone’s drinks since they wouldn’t know who might be wearing it.
As the inventors behind Undercover Colors write on their Facebook page, “In the U.S., 18% of women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. We may not know who they are, but these women are not faceless. They are our daughters, they are our girlfriends, and they are our friends. While date rape drugs are often used to facilitate sexual assault, very little science exists for their detection. Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime.”
MORE: The Innovative Blood-Drawing Technique That’s Pain-Free and Saves Money
 

Can You Can 3D Print a Car? This Program Trains Veterans How

While manufacturing is no longer the number one industry employing Americans, it’s still a vital source for jobs, as the U.S. is the world’s second largest manufacturer. And as the military continues to downsize, more veterans will be looking for work that builds on the skills they developed during their service, so the U.S. Department of Energy has launched the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advanced Manufacturing Internship for veterans.
The first six-week-long program of classes was held at Pellissippi State in Tennessee this summer, and it featured hands-on training at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.
Lonnie Love, group leader of the program, told Kelsey Pape of WBIR, “Right now there are about 10,000 active duty military members that are leaving the military every month. What we want to do is kind of tap off some of those that really have aptitude for manufacturing, give them some skills, and help them find great careers in the manufacturing industry.”
The veterans got hands-on training in how to use manufacturing machines — even learning how to use a 3D printer to create a car. They also were educated about working with a variety of materials, including ABS plastics, carbon fiber and titanium.
According to Pape, several of the program’s graduates have already received some interest from employers.
The U.S. Department of Energy hopes to offer this program in different locations across the country in the coming years, so more veterans will be receiving training in the latest manufacturing techniques.
MORE: Transitioning to Civilian Life Can Be Difficult. So Microsoft Trains Marines in IT Before They Hit the Job Market

When a Wounded Veteran Needed to Get Back on His Feet, This Toy Helped

Who better to know what a veteran needs to recover after being injured than a fellow wounded soldier?
Back in 2010, while Dave Flowers was recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, following the loss of his leg and several other injuries, he began playing the Nintendo Wii Fit at the suggestion of his physical therapist. “Within about nine days of just playing that thing every single day, not even very long, just a couple hours a day, I was able to start walking with a walker, and then a few days later just two canes,” he told Michelle Basch of WTOP.
Because the game helped him find success, Flowers created the program Wiis for Warriors to provide free Wiis to other vets.
Flowers won a Bronze Star Medal for his valor in Afghanistan. In 2009, when he was a Staff Sergeant with the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield, he was clearing a weapons cache site with his team when he stepped on a mine. His left leg was shattered and he lost his right leg below the knee, but he prevented fellow soldiers from being injured when he fell back into the hole the blast created.
Flowers’s selflessness doesn’t stop with his actions on the battlefield or Wiis for Warriors. Now living in Mississippi, he started the Dave Flowers Foundation as a way to honor and assist wounded veterans of a prior generation who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
“I know for a fact, told to me by my surgeon, if it wasn’t for the field medic tactics generated during Vietnam, I wouldn’t be alive,” Flowers told Patrick Ochs of the Sun Herald. “I kind of feel like I owe those guys a little bit…When you’re told that in Vietnam they would have stepped over you because they couldn’t have saved you — they developed those techniques because of the people in Vietnam.”
Flowers’s goal is to help older veterans in southern Mississippi with any needs they have that aren’t covered by VA benefits. He notes on the foundation’s website that some older veterans are reluctant to ask for help because of pride or past negative experiences when seeking assistance.
“I’m alive because of a different generation,” he told Ochs. “You have to help them.”
We couldn’t agree more.
MORE: This Amazing Nonprofit Helps Wounded Warriors Rebuild Their Lives

Short on Cash? That’s No Problem at This Farmer’s Market

The way it typically works at a farmer’s market (and with just about every retailer, in fact): You pay money and in exchange, you go home with a bunch of fresh produce.
But at the go-go fresco farmer’s market in Charlotte, North Carolina, if you don’t have enough money to pay for your greens, you don’t have to worry.
Huh?
If you’re telling yourself that there must be a catch, there’s not. The farmer’s market frequently operates on the pay-what-you-can principle that’s already the basis for many cafés across the country.
Even better: You might not have to drive across town to visit go-go fresco, since it visits 10 different locations each week, with the goal of bringing fresh produce to people who might not be able to access it otherwise.
Two of the locations are designed to reach low-income families and that’s where patrons can pay what they care to — either the suggested price, a bit more to help another shopper out, or less if that’s all they’ve got. Go-go fresco also accepts food stamps and often donates produce (which it buys from local farmers) to the non-profits that host their mobile market: The YWCA and the Children and Family Services Center.
“We have good weeks and some bad weeks, but it balances out,” Nick Knock (who founded go-go fresco with Leconte Lee) told Mark Price of the Charlotte Observer. “It’s inspiring to see the hearts and generosity of people who don’t think twice about paying more so someone in need can get fresh food.”
Knock told Price that there have been a few times when he wondered if patrons were taking advantage of the pay-what-you-want option, “But then I saw that they only had $3.19 left on their (food stamp) account, and I got choked up. They were spending what little money they had left at our market. It was mind-blowing when you think they were able to get food because of us.”
MORE: The Restaurant Without A Cash Register

A Selfless Teen Treats Former Service Members to a Home-cooked Meal on Father’s Day

On Father’s Day this year, Kayla Waller, a high school senior in Shreveport Louisiana, decided to do more than simply celebrate her own father. In what an only be described as a heart-warming act, Waller showed the veterans staying at Woody’s Home for Veterans, a local Volunteers of America-run transitional home, that she considers them honorary fathers by cooking them a meal on the holiday.
“They are fathers because they are protecting us, like a father,” Waller told Craig Sims of KTBS. Waller had participated in community service projects at Woody’s Home before, and this year was inspired to come up with her own. Spending about $250 that she earned from her very first paycheck on food, Waller worked for 10 hours cooking 60 meals, which she served the veterans herself.
Charles Myrick, a veteran who stays at Woody’s Home, told Sasha Jones of KSLA that Waller’s efforts helped him “to see there are still people out there who appreciate veterans.”
Waller thinks it’s essential for young people to help others. “Think of a track race,” she told Sims, “You’re sticking the baton. You’re giving the baton to someone else. My generation is the next generation that’s coming up that’s going to be in charge.”
It sounds like Kayla Waller is doing a great job running her leg of the relay.
MORE: Minnesota Looks to a Historic Structure to Help End Veteran Homelessness

A Retreat for Veterans in Need of Peace and Camaraderie

Getting away from it all really can have a monumental impact on your spirit and mental health. And that’s certainly something that many U.S. veterans need.
So it’s no surprise that Steve Bukowski (who served as a Navy SEAL for 34 years) had a dream of opening a retreat center for veterans in need of help transitioning back to civilian life. Sadly, Steve died in 2010 without fulfilling his goal, but now, his wife Lynnette is working to make it a reality.
“Over the years he [Steve] realized, after 9/11 and after we went to the war, that the need was greater to bring the men home and have them have a place to decompress,” Bukowski told Catarina Andreano of ABC News. “The pressure under which they work is so extreme.”
Lynnette aims to open Landing Zone Grace Veterans Retreat in her home town of Virginia Beach, Virginia, within the next six months. She’s poured her own money into the nonprofit and started a GoFundMe account that has so far raised more than $15,000 toward her $75,000 goal. Bukowski notes on the website that she needs to raise that much within two weeks to be able to close on a 35-acre property and house for the retreat.
Bukowski plans to offer equine therapy, yoga, kennels for service animals, kayaking, and other treatments and activities. The nonprofit will first welcome returning Special Ops veterans before expanding to include members of all military branches and their spouses.
Why give Special Ops veterans first dibs? Lynnette wants to give them priority because their security clearance restricts how much they can talk about their experiences. She hopes at shared mealtimes they’ll feel free to open up with each other. “A huge problem among Special Ops is the high divorce rate, and it’s just not necessary,” she said.
Bukowski said that this type of retreat would have been tremendously helpful for her husband. “Steve practiced mediation when he came home from missions and deployment…He always needed a little time to isolate himself.”
Bukowski continues her fundraising campaign for Landing Zone Grace through June 20. Even a small donation could make a big difference to returning veterans.
MORE: These Sisters Created An Incredible Place to Help Veterans
 

A Hands-On Guide to Preserving Our Nation’s Historic Treasures

The problem facing historic buildings nationwide?
A huge backlog of overdue maintenance that’s in dire need of completion, with an estimated cost of $4.5 billion just for Park Service structures alone, according to the PBS NewsHour.
Adding to the problem is that the workers who perform skilled restoration work are aging. So is there any solution?
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has partnered with the National Park Service and other groups to launch a pilot project, Hands-On Preservation Experience, or HOPE, that provides young people with jobs as it trains them to restore aging structures.
One such project already underway is at Skyland Stables in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains, where experienced craftsman David Logan guides students in restoring the structure that was built as a WPA project during the 1930’s. Logan, who owns the restoration company Vintage, Inc., told Jeffrey Brown of PBS NewsHour, “What I have done is guided the team just on some approaches for replacing siding, ways of cutting out the old, and then how to handle the oak to let it move, and just little tips and advice.”
The students earn $10 an hour, compared to $40-$60 an hour a contractor might charge, but also gain valuable skills in the process. Logan said to Brown that he sees fewer tradespeople learning about historic preservation these days.
One of the students is Elijah Smith of Washington, D.C. “I think it’s important to save old buildings, because when you go back, you can see what you did right, what you did wrong, how you want to add ideas to it. And the older something is, the more value it is to it. It brings more people to it,” he said.
Not only does this program shore up some of our nation’s treasures, but it provides youth with a new career path, too.
MORE: Two Wrongs That Make A Right