Rally Point 81 Dane Boyle_Helping Hearts

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally Pointers Fun in Happy Friday. Everybody, wherever you might
be in the world, It's Amanda macchiato mccanue here with
you today on the Rally Point Show. We're just going
to jump right into today's show. Today we have our
first segment, which is positively caffeinated with the always upbeat,

(00:21):
always energetic coach Dame Boyle.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning Coach, Good morning Amanda.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Glad to be here today, really, because it doesn't sound
like it. Have you caffeinated yet? You go ahead, I said,
have you caffeinated yet? Take take a long gulp.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've caffeinated, I've rocked, I've written, and I'm going to
take another ship.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
There going coffee Not yet. I was going to say,
they're they're making coffee in the studio, and my wonderful
producer Zay said he would bring me some. So yes,
I am awaiting my moment to be cafe needed as well,
because yeah, I had a crazy morning today. I got
a call from the VA and it ended up being

(01:06):
a relatively long conversation because it involved the lovely world
of community care, which if you're a veteran, you know, yeah,
just trying to work out there's always different nuances. It
feels like the process is always changing. And so my
community care coordinator and I had a relatively long conversation
which led to me not being able to make my
coffee before I left the house this morning. So here

(01:28):
I am awaiting caffeination. But anyway, life is a four
letter word, right, And sometimes it's a good four letter word,
like free, and sometimes it's one of those four letter
words that you just kind of want to shout about.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
So yeah, exactly, And we won't stay on the air, right.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Correct, because we like the FCC and we want to
stay on their good side.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, Hey, I was saying earlier though that
when you said that I didn't sound excited and I
should take a sip of more coffee.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I want to remind everybody I was not voting most
likely to see succeed, but I was voted the most
energetic in my senior class.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
There you go, And at this point you're probably several
hours up on a lot of people for how long
you've been awake.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, you know what's funny, I've been saying, I get
it butt four. It's actually crept between out four thirty
four forty five. But I have rocked already. I have
created content, I have answered emails, I have sent my
daily Danish and so in the first three hours it's
super focused. And I actually was rocking this morning and
I stopped under the street light and I said, and

(02:39):
I'll ask you this, Amanda, I said, are you a
morning person or a night person or evening person? For me,
I've been a morning person since I was a kid,
so it's not new to me. And I've owned it
and I don't apologize for it.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I gift and a blessing. So I am not a
morning person at all. I had to literally fake it
till I made it in the military. But yeah, no,
I'm not a morning person. I'm definitely an afternoon evening person.
I'm not a night out either. I've reached that age
where if I stay up past eleven, I'm like a gremlin.
Bad things happened to me, Like I just won't sleep well.

(03:13):
The next morning, I'll feel like I got hit by
a truck. It's just yeah, So I'm I'm learning now
at the stage in life, like, yeah, try to get
in bed before nine thirty and have the light turned
off by ten, and you should be okay. But yeah,
you were out early because I heard your content this morning,
and I it was hilarious because I was like, are
those birds outside my window? Or are they on the

(03:34):
other end of the phone, and it was it was
the birds out where you were.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I was like, oh wow, so it's just me and
the asphalt guys this morning? Was it you and the
whore repaving the street right outside of Armor?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Got it?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Neighborhood nice? The asphalt guys are out or girls are
out super early in the morning too, making noise and quirt.
You could still hear the birds too.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
But oh you sure could. I was to say, I
couldn't even hear the asphalt trucks on the content that
you made this morning. So wow, but very cool. So
I was gonna say, what are we going to talk
about today? For positively caffeinated now that I.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Want to talk about I wanted to talk. So I
obviously was a veteran or I am a veteran, will
always forever be a veteran and grateful and that I
have my DD two fourteen, right, that's something we can
always be that. But I was also a school teacher
and I'm still a teacher at heart, an educator at heart,
and I believe that the veterans and teachers who tell
me if I'm wrong, you agree in a moment. We

(04:29):
wake up each day and we've always been part of
a mission that's bigger than us. It's just something that's
who we are.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Would you agree, yes, absolutely. So.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I think that when you leave the service or you
leave public educational private education, the mission doesn't really end.
It just gets reassigned, right. But the problem is that
most vets and teachers, it just we kind of feel
lost because we don't have the guidelines, we don't have
the SOPs that, we don't have the structure, we don't
have the connection. And I think that's where we can

(05:02):
help in the rally point for Veterans services, that we
can help the veterans create a new personal mission. It's
not about just specifically what they do, but who they're becoming.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Warrior wellness also plays a role in that Justin's organization
for sure. Yeah, it's it's a matter of I feel
like once you join the military or you know, become
a teacher. My mother was, she's a retired teacher and
she taught for well over thirty years combined. But so yeah,

(05:36):
both of those professions, whether it's the profession of arms
or education, they like you said, they both involve something
bigger than yourself. And I think that's something that is
always kind of inside of someone, whether they were aware
of it or not. Like when I joined the military,
I thought I was just running away from home and
getting a new job, giving six years of my life,
you know, for a change of scenery and a job.

(05:57):
But it turned out what was inside me was that
I always love to be helpful and to serve a
purpose that was higher than myself. And once I realized
that a lot of things kind of fell into place.
And when you're right, when we leave the military, that
spirit is still there that never goes away. It's just
the path that we have to take to find, like

(06:20):
you said, what that reassignment is. So when people transition
out of the military, a lot of my close friends,
when I talk to them, if I transition before them,
obviously I tell them like, give yourself a good like
eighteen to thirty six months. It depends on the individual,
but it's going to take you that much time to

(06:41):
kind of decompress from everything in the military process. It
in some ways grieve it. I mean, grief isn't necessarily
a bad thing, but you're going through the stages of
grieving as you let go of that career. And then,
you know, give yourself time to figure out what is netX,
because you might it might be in fits and starts.

(07:02):
You know, the first thing you try after retiring might
not be what you end up doing in the long term,
but it's that it's that path of discovery and figuring
out more about who you are as an individual. What
do you actually want to do? What are you passionate about?
Now that you can really choose what to be passionate about,
and how, what are you going to do about it?

(07:24):
You know, how are you going to see that through
that passion and how are you going to bring it
to life or how are you going to expound on it?
Are you going to join a group that does it?
Are you going to chart your own path, maybe start
your own business, start your own nonprofit? What are you
going to do to pursue that passion?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
I mean, that's huge, right. I love the idea that
you give. You said, set yourself, you know, twenty four
to thirty six months to.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Outprocess right exactly absolutely mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, on just
about every level socially because now too, like I mean,
I live in a place where there's a lot of
veterans here. However most of my friends now they are
not veterans. So it's it's interesting going from a life

(08:17):
where everybody around you speaks the same alphabet, soup, you know,
acronymse and everything, to where now you have friends that
you know. I love my friends here, I absolutely love them,
but they've never served in the military, so it's it's
an experience that's you know, for them, being friends with
a veteran might be a little different for them, and

(08:38):
then it's different for me because then too, I get
to see how their paths unfolded, and I think that's
so cool because you know, some of them, they've owned businesses,
and they've traveled the world, and you know, they've had
all of these adventures and done all of these cool
things that you know, I can't necessarily relate to, but
I can admire.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
And and in reverse too, so hopefully you know, they
thank you for your service, and you might say my
pleasure or it was an honor, yeah, and then they
want to know, well, why did you join him? Maybe
it was to run away or discover yourself. I mean,
for me, I realized pretty quickly that making just above
minimum wage in my own apartment, you know, and having

(09:21):
a car that I would pray on Friday that would
start so I could back in the day go get
my paycheck just wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want
to live at home, and so I wanted to be
my own man. And I was like, okay. For me,
my dad was active duty, my granddad, my great granddads, like,
they all lived out to have a pretty good life
and raise families. And that's what I tried to do.
So you can combine it. But again, when you allow

(09:42):
yourself to outprocess, I would recommend finding somebody or a
group or a coach in an investing time, energy, effort,
or money or all of the above to discover who
you are, who are you now? Because the man or woman,
even if you serve four years or forty years, which
would be really hard today military, but you're not the
same person and enlisted or went to OCS, you're not

(10:05):
You're not the same person.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Not at all. And I agree with you that it
is nice to have somebody on the path with you.
But somebody that can look at things through a more
objective lens and kind of just help with you know,
encouraging or even accountability or even just like for me
when I retired, and I think a lot of people
when they retire, they're like, who am I now? Like

(10:28):
you said, like we're not the same person we were
when we went in, But who am I? What are
my hobbies? What are my passions? Because to be honest,
when your eyeballs deep in a career, you don't have
a lot of time to focus on that kind of stuff.
Some people do like they're able to balance it, and
that's absolutely awesome, but a lot of us kind of can't.

(10:48):
It's like we get into this washprints repeat kind of
cycle of you know, day in, day out, and so
when we retire, it's like, oh my gosh, I have
all this time, Like I can actually do whatever activities
I want. I can volunteer however I want. I can
make stuff or you know, work on things. I can

(11:09):
do anything I want to do. Like it's kind of
like the world is your oyster again, you know, And
so it's it can be overwhelming in some ways. Like
my husband jokes that were busier in retirement than we
ever were while we were active duty. But it's just
a whole new world opens up to you because now

(11:29):
you have time to play sports, or you have time
to you know, do more fitness stuff that's not related
to preparing for a PT test, or you have time
to do arts and crafts that don't involve decorating your
classroom for your students, or you know what I mean.
Like you have time for things that you actually want
to do for you because you can. But I do

(11:51):
think in some ways, eventually a lot of times it
ends up that it is something that's for you, but
in the process it blesses other people too, which is
a really cool thing because then it's like your cup's
getting filled, but you're also able to refresh others.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Hundred percent. I think that you're also spot on where
we get to try a lot, and sometimes trying a
lot can also be overwhelming. So when you give yourself
that out processing of twenty four to thirty six, try
it all right. If you wanted to learn how to
play guitar a guitar lesson, you want to learn how
to do a podcast, watch some YouTube videos, or you know,
buy a course or do something you know you or

(12:30):
have somebody.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like the Sarge drag you on to a radio show
as a guest and then tell you want you to do.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
The show, or Amanda says, hey, would you like to
be a guest, and here we are a year later,
still doing it right?

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, absolutely put out goodness every month, right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Be open to learning, and one of the keys I
think is to take a deep breath and realize you
may still want to serve. I still want to serve.
I know, Amanda, I know everybody on the show to
serve in some level. But that service is what ueles
your fire, not your mom, not your dad, not your spouse.
That doesn't mean they can't be involved in some way,
but at this point, it's like, what is going to

(13:11):
allow me to get up to be that morning person,
that midday person or evening person or weekend in person
or whatever that look like. So be true to yourself.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Absolutely. I love how you say. Sometimes you'll say things
like you know, when you're thinking about doing something that
might be different or might be a shift for you,
what's the best that can happen? Like that is the
coolest positive mindset thing to think about. And it reminds
me of something that was being said a lot, probably

(13:41):
about I don't even know. I feel like I've lost
all sense of time, probably like eight to ten years ago.
Do you remember there was a saying out there that said,
what would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Like that's another wonderful, wonderful thought is like, man, we
have to start looking at things like that, like in
through that lens, what would we do if we knew
we could not fail? Because therein lies that like discovery
and that pushing outside of that comfort zone and you know,
possibly the makings of something great or learning something about yourself,

(14:17):
like hey, I thought I would like doing you know,
pottery and it turns out I don't. Or you know,
I thought I might like play in a certain game
or something and it turns out that I don't. So
I mean, that's just another way of learning more about
yourself and who you are, because in a lot of ways,
when you're in you know, a profession like the military

(14:40):
or even you know, education or the corporate world, you
kind of have to shut off who you are on
some level. At certain points you have to not necessarily
betray that, but you just kind of have to mute
that and shove that to the back of the closet
to you know, put other things to the forefront for
a little while. So oh, it's such an amazing experience

(15:05):
when you can finally go back through later and start
going through who am I Like? When I retired, I
had all this scrap booking stuff because I scrapbooked a
lot when I first met my husband, and so I
had all this scrap booking stuff and I had carted
it around the country with me over the years, and

(15:26):
I hadn't opened it since two thousand and seven, and
so it got to a point where I was like,
you know what, it's been over a decade. I need
to either figure out am I actually going to use
this stuff? Or do I need to find a home
for it where it will be loved and used. And
my girlfriend happened to be down visiting from Georgia and

(15:46):
she loves to craft, and so I just went through
the bin right then and there, and I was like, Hey,
what do you want? You can take home whatever you want.
She was like, are you serious? I was like yeah,
because I kind of realized, like, it's not that I
don't like to craft. Anymore. Is just that that's not
something that I, you know, wake up and say, I
think I want to go scrapbook today. I used to,

(16:08):
but for some reason, that just isn't something that I
do anymore. I mean, hopefully it'll come back to me
one day, I don't know, but maybe not. I mean.
I took an alcohol ink class at one point in
my community, thinking oh, well, that'll be good for you know,
artistic outlet whatever. And the lady that taught it, she

(16:29):
was wonderful and very talented, but it just wasn't something
that resonated with my soul. So I was like, okay,
well I tried it. It's okay. It wasn't for me,
but that's all right.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
You know. But you don't have you don't have to
like everything correct. You've got to try it, do what
you like. And here's the deal. If you're not very
good at it, you like it, do it anyway.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
If you're not perfect at it, do it anyway. Yeah,
it could be imperfectly perfect, because if it sets your
soul on fire, and you might make what somebody might
think is the non prettiest, ugliest coffee mug. But if
it's set your soul on fire. I mean I have so.
My dad passed away several years ago. My dad loved
arts and craft, from stained glass to photography. It would work,
it didn't matter. Well, they my mom and dad went

(17:12):
and did glass bowling class. But the piece that I
have is a mistake, and I use it as a paperweight.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Nice pick it up.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
And I'm thinking, you know, when a few good men,
Tom Cruise had to hold a bat when he was thinking.
So when I want to see deep thoughts or whatever
I'm stuck of writing a playbook or writing a book,
or creating a connecting color coloring book or whatever I'm doing,
I'm like, I just kind of hold it, and for
me it kind of I hope it channels me talking
to my dad where he says, hey, just take a
deep breath, go for a walk. You're doing fine. It
doesn't have to be done today, right.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Absolutely. I was going to say, I when I bolt,
probably Helen Keller probably could beat me at bowling. But
I still like bowling. It is what it is. I mean, yeah,
I like bowling, but I'm not great at it. Every
so often I get lucky and I get a st
or maybe pick up a spare or something. When my
kids were little and they would play with the bumpers.

(18:05):
I was like, yes, because now I might get a
triple digit bowling score.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
But hey, I stuck at golf. But the guys that
I've played with over the years, and you hit one
good shot and he goes, that's the shot that gets
you to come.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Back, right, I was going to say, don't even get
me started on golf. I tried that in Pe in
high school because they made us do a unit on golf,
and I think I scared the ball off the tee
maybe twice, but for the most part.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
It was a lot.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
With was my middle name, and the funny thing is
my maiden name was Worth. But yeah, I was a
pro at the.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
With that's so funny, so funny, but I think that's it.
Give us something great. Understand that mission doesn't end, it
just gets reassigned. So try to create a new mission.
What what do you want? Where are you? What have
you learned? Like in any training physical training plan, So
I have a trailblazer. A group of us are also

(18:58):
going to train for another half or full marathon before
the year's out, and I tell them all the time,
the man or woman that starts this training than will
not be the same one that crosses the finish line.
It's the same way when you've been at good duty.
So give yourself great allow yourself to fail, meaning you're
learning from something. What's the best it can happen. So
if you don't try, what would happen? But when you succeed,

(19:20):
what can happen? And that's the most important part I
think about reassigning your new.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Mission, absolutely definitely looking at it from the proper mindset
for sure. I Mean it's funny because I was reading
the other day about mindset and I was reading about
how and I didn't know this, And I've caught myself
doing this in the past. Sometimes I'll get frustrated and
I'll be like, nothing can ever be easy for me,

(19:43):
or you know, I guess that's just the way my
life is supposed to be. Is it's just always supposed
to be an uphill battle. I did not realize those
are victim mindsets. I was like, no way. So, you know,
talking about mindset and trying to like reprogram that absolutely
same thing with finding you know, your reassignment if you
will after you transition out of the military or you

(20:06):
retire from education, or if you just leave your career
and go start, you know, try to start something new.
God forbid, maybe you get laid off or or something
might happen that you weren't expecting, and now you have
to shift. That mindset matters so much so embracing the
what's the best that can happen? You know, what new

(20:26):
undiscovered adventure is out there waiting for me. Those are
the things that we need to really internalize and speak
to rather than you know, the opposite end of the
spectrum of thinking that you know, nothing's ever going to
be easy. Everything's always going to be hard. You know,
life's always going to be difficult. We can't stay focused
on that. Like, we have to choose to see the

(20:48):
good and we have to choose to see the upside
of you know, every opportunity. And it's funny because now
I'm thinking of the movie Mary Poppins when she says
every job that must be done there is an element
of fun. You find the fun and snap, the job's
a game, and it's like, oh wow, okay, So that

(21:10):
like changes your whole mindset. So we got to kind
of embrace our owner Mary Poppins and try to change
our mindset on things sometimes so that so that we
can stay positive and stay motivated.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
And again, it's not toxic positivity. Like you mentioned emotions earlier,
they're all important, they all feel good, but mean you
embrace them. And again, when you can turn it into fun,
turn it into a game. I don't have to. I
get to and then from there and you make it fun,
life will be pretty good. If it's not perfect. We
don't get to just puppy dogs all day long and
walk at the park. That would be great. But the

(21:44):
idea is do the best you can each and every day,
accept it and change and reframe it so that you're
looking at a positive spin again, if I you know,
I might cry if I stole my coffee, but in
reality it didn't ruin my day. It just made me
change my shirt. Right. If I really were to go
out and down a mess that the dog made, it stinks,

(22:05):
it's messy, but you can pose off your shoe. It
was a moment, yep. Right. If you get stuck in
traffic blow down, maybe it was the reason that you
Hopefully it prevented you from something bad having. I don't know,
but the idea reframe it. Just take a left turn
when you need to, take a right turn when you
need to, and just sometimes just sit in the parking

(22:25):
space and think and plond your life when.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
You need to, or take a U turn when you need.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
To, even when I don't want to, when Ways tells
me to take a legal U turn, but still take right.
Take that And that so important, and it really is
about the framework. It's taking one day at a time,
one week at a time, creating your mission, one moment
at a time. One of our trailblazers, he was in

(22:50):
education for twenty eight years and he's in a new
job and he's like, Man, I don't know if this
is what I want to do for the next twenty years.
Your job doesn't have to be one for another twenty years.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Correct. You don't have to be married to it. It's
not like there's an enlistment contract or you know something
in placing you have to be here for this long. Absolutely. Yeah,
you can give your two weeks now, which is a
new concept for some of us too.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Right, No, exactly. So when you have the coach, when
you have the community, when you have somebody that's been there,
done that they can tell you or advise you on
where to go next. Yep, thanks for your coach. The
good mentor will also tell you where they screwed up
and where they're still trying to learn. Correct, because we're

(23:36):
all trying to learn and we're all trying to do
a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Oh absolutely, Yeah. Nobody is perfect for sure, but I
definitely agree it's better. I think you've you've said this
statement before and I'm going to butcher it, but I'm
going to let you correct me. It says, if you
want to get there fast, go alone. But if you
want to get there something, go together. You got to
tell me what if you.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Want to go fast, go alone, If you want to
go far, go together? How about that? Love? It really though,
is that you want to be able to step and
high step with somebody together, hand in hand. And that's
the key, right.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
That is awesome. The thing is, I mean, you hear
it all the time, like hashtag better together. Sometimes it
is better to do things with the help of someone
else guiding you and walking alongside you, for sure. So
well with that, we appreciate you being on the show
today for this installment of Positively Caffeinated. We hope you
have an awesome Independence Day and we will talk to

(24:29):
you next month. There we have it.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
All grytop audio.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
All right, take care, coach, We'll talk to you later.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Bye.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Join us for the Veteran Relief fundraising event at Amvet's
Post three twelve on seven zero five zero Chancellor Boulevard
in Northport, Florida on July fifth, starting at noon. There
will be food, fun, DJ's fifty to fifty Raffle, live
music all coming to you. Open to the public. Meals
are twenty dollars. Reservations are requested. Come on out and

(25:02):
help fundraise for veterans at Amvett's Post three twelve on
July fifth, starting at twelve noon. And we're back with
our monthly Helping Hearts for Heroes segment featuring SHAWNA. Willis
from Right at Home, Southwest Florida and Kim Spencer from Brookdale.
Good morning, ladies, Good morning, Thanks for being here every
month to tell us about what Helping Hearts for Heroes

(25:24):
is up to really quickly for those of you listening
that haven't heard this segment before, Helping Hearts for Heroes
is a group in our community that exists to help
veterans facing homelessness, but also it goes a little broader
than that. So they also have under it Warrior Wellness,
which is run by our very own Justin Ludford. That's
his group that takes care of getting veterans to be

(25:47):
more mobile, so working with them to make sure that
basically empowering veterans to stay in the fight, making sure
that when you leave the service. You know, sometimes we
tend to withdraw, we tend to not be as interactive
with others, and so Justin's work with Warrior Wellness, which
falls under Helping Hearts for Heroes, works to help veterans

(26:10):
with that and make sure that you know, people have
a way of staying mobile, staying active, and also staying connected.
So with that, ladies, let's talk about Warrior Wellness and
kind of how that came to be under Helping Hearts
for Heroes.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Sure, so we had the privilege of meeting Justin i'd
say last October, and he really had a vision to
really get veterans mobile, to help them improve their mobility
if they've had some weaknesses or some prior injuries, and
to also connect them with other veterans in the area

(26:46):
for building morale support you know, just some mental health
support also, and he kind of explained his philosophy and
what he was really looking to do, and it just
sounded like the perfect thing to put underneath us. So myself, Heidi, Nivel,
and Kim talked about it and we said, this is
a no brainer, we need to add him under us.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Awesome. And so I understand that you guys kind of
work at hand in hand in the sense that because
of the work you do at Brookdale and at right
at home Southwest Florida, sometimes you were able to connect
some of the veterans that you serve with justin for
warrior wellness, and that happened recently.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
It did. So I met with a family, a son
and father who recently relocated from the East coast of
Florida over to the West coast of Florida. And the
dad was a Vietnam veteran. He had recently lost his
brother who also served in Vietnam. He was non mobile
to the extent he would just go to work and
come home, had some dementia, was really grieving still from

(27:49):
losing his brother recently, and just some of the things
related to being a veteran with war and his doctor
had really recommended that he needed to get out and
be mobile and exercise more. He has some cardiac issues.
He had recently gained fifty pounds, So with talking with them,
I thought immediately this would be a great gentleman for
Justin to reach out and connect with. So I connected

(28:12):
the Dots, got the Sun to reach out to Justin.
They've met twice so far. They now are doing twice
a week at the local gym, or he has a
gym in the community that he lives at that they
can also use, and they're just working out, talking, building
that morale, getting that mental health support that he's missing

(28:33):
from not having somebody to talk about the war and
the things he went through with losing his brother.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Absolutely, and so that's such a wonderful story of ways
that you can connect veterans to warrior wellness and ways
that warrior wellness helps our veteran community. Now you don't
have to be a veteran to support warrior wellness. Under
Warrior Wellness is also a group called Legacy Rut Club
Southwest Florida, of which I am a part and we

(29:00):
do rucks at least four times a week, typically at
the Franz Ross YMCA on Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven thirty.
Been on Wednesdays we're at the KPA's Pioneer Trail behind
the Gulf Cove Publics at seven thirty and then on
Fridays we are at Centennial Park, which is in the
Westport community. So doing those rucks helps to keep people,

(29:22):
you know, moving and active. But justin not only partners
with those groups. He partners with the YMCA also for
the physical training aspect of Warrior Wellness, and he also
partners with a lot of local gyms, so places like
Planet Fitness, Rhino Jim he has a partnership with them
as well. And Warrior Wellness is a nonprofit to be clear,

(29:44):
that also falls under Helping Hearts for Heroes, which is
also a nonprofit. And so with that, these gym memberships
they're not free, so there's there's some expenses and some
costs that go into trying to provide these services to veterans.
And so you all have kind of come up with
a plan to help raise funds for Warrior Wellness. Correct, Yes,

(30:07):
very cool. Can you tell us about that?

Speaker 5 (30:08):
Yeah, So we are having an event in July July
twentieth from one to five and be held at the Wyvern.
So we're just asking for donations, but in reward for
your donation, you will get two free drinks and some
appetizers and a chance to just kind of socialize and
find out more about the Warrior Wellness and how we
can help our veterans.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Awesome. Yeah, So from what I understand, it'll be a
great opportunity not only to support Warrior Wellness, but if
you are someone who works closely with the veteran community
or you want to work with the veteran community, this
could also be a really good networking opportunity. Am I right? Yes?

Speaker 5 (30:45):
And then we need to pull all of our resources together.
There's so much more out there for the veterans that
we aren't aware about and are aware of, and so
we need to make sure the veterans are aware of
it and start getting some resources together for them. So
it is a great opportunity for people to come out
and talk with our veterans and tell them what's available
to them.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Absolutely, and our community supporters, because I mean, I think
in an earlier segment today we were talking about the
power of that statement better together. So for the community
supporters out there, I know, we have a lot of wonderful,
wonderful people in Charlotte County who love our veterans, support
our veterans. Y'all show up for all kinds of events
when it supports the veterans, and this is definitely one

(31:24):
where we could use your help. But by bringing our
community members out here who love and support our veterans,
this also serves as an educational opportunity for them as
well to kind of know what resources are available, so
that as they meet people along the way who might
be new to the area or just maybe don't know,
they can share some of the resources that they'll learn

(31:45):
about on July twentieth as well. Correct.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
And we have been so lucky to partner with the
Wyvern Hotel. I mean, they're just amazing. They support veterans
through and through and they offered to do this event
for Justin and for Warrior Wellness at no cost. So
what we're really looking to do is bring people in,
let them be aware of the resources that the veterans

(32:08):
in this community have that are available, and also to
make those resources and those connections deeper. So by just
going and visiting, learning about warrior Wellness, learning about helping
hearts for heroes. Learning about what you can do under
these umbrellas, you can then spread that news to somebody
else in the community. And all we're asking for is

(32:31):
just a few hours of your time on a Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yep, come out enjoy the sunshine. It's a rooftop bar,
so that's pretty cool. You'll come into the hotel, which
is located at one oh one East Rita Esplanade in
Pona Gorda. It's in the downtown area and it's kind
of on the forty one southbound side of the road
for those of you, oh northbound, excuse me, it's on

(32:54):
the forty one northbound side of the road. So if
you're coming down from Port Charlotte or Inglewood or anything
like that, you'll just come over the bridge and make
that left on ready to Esplanade and you'll practically run
right into the wyburn and then when you come in,
you'll just come right in, go up the elevator and
to the roof, and then that's where everything will be

(33:15):
laid out. There will be wonderful appetizers, drinks, there will
be music, so you know, you can kind of mingle
as you go, and I mean it's just it's a
great afternoon to spend with friends, Come learn some come
support the veterans, and come help make this a more
successful program. Also, there are a lot of folks in

(33:37):
our community who are very active. So if you're looking
for a great way to have some community but also
get a workout any you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday morning,
you can do that and get that information too at
the fundraiser. So it could be a way to kind
of open some more pathways, expand the reach of Legacy
Rout Club and ultimately Warrior Wellness since it falls under

(34:00):
Warrior Wellness, and just get some more visibility in the community.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
Every dollar that you donate is going right back into
a veteran. So if you donate ten dollars, those ten
dollars are going back into Worry Wellness. So that we
can purchase those gym memberships for veterans, we can take
them out exercising in different gyms and let them find
which one they're comfortable to most with. Maybe they like
a smaller gym, maybe they want to just go out

(34:25):
in the community and walk and not want to be
part of a gym at all. Justin can utilize those
resources and those donations to provide those direct services to
any of those veterans.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
And it also covers swim lessons, so some people might
not be strong swimmers, or for some people, you know,
like you said, you had a guy that gained fifty
pounds his first client. Sometimes as we gain weight, our
joints aren't so responsive to walking necessarily, but getting in
a pool can give just as good of exercise without
putting that strain on the joints. But aquatics and things

(34:58):
like that, they still typically we require some kind of
a membership fee at the YMCA especially, so yes, all
of the donations will help offset the costs of the
program and making sure that the veterans who need the
help get the help and that no cost to them.
So I think that's a really important thing too because
also a lot of veterans, especially you know, in their

(35:20):
later years, a lot of them tend to be on
fixed incomes. And so if we can make a pathway
to come together as a community, you know, the whole
saying it takes a village, then if we can help
offset these costs to help these veterans stay mobile, stay
in the fight, you know, have camaraderie, have community. I
think that's definitely a cause worth investing in for sure. Absolutely,

(35:45):
So hopefully y'all can join us July twentieth at the
Wyvern at one oh one East Rata Esplanade in Punta
Gorda for the Warrior Wellness fundraiser, And like Shanna said,
there will be Justin will be there on hand to
talk about everything that Warrior Wellness is doing. You'll also
hear from Helping Hearts for Heroes, Legacy Rut Club as

(36:07):
well as the Rally Point radio show. We will all
be there for the show. So if you know a
veteran who needs help, definitely please reach out and contact Justin.
His phone number is four two three five nine nine
nine five four six and that is the number for Justin.

(36:28):
If you are interested in getting more information or if
you know a veteran who needs help who could benefit
from the Warrior Wellness program, please have them reach out
to Justin and he will gladly help them out and
take it from there. And it doesn't have to be
the other thing to put out there is there's no
age limit on this. Like veterans come in all shapes

(36:49):
and sizes. We're all different ages. I mean, we have
people who are veterans who are in their twenties. We
have people who are veterans who are in their nineties.
So it doesn't matter the age of the veteran. There's
no age requirement for Warrior Wellness. It's any veteran who
you know. Maybe they're struggling after transition. Maybe it's it's
hard for them to socialize with other people, Maybe they're withdrawing,

(37:12):
maybe they have had a physical setback, surgery or an injury,
or maybe they they're just kind of in a bit
of a slump and maybe don't feel like getting out
and exercising like they used to. Whatever the case might be,
if you know a veteran that could benefit, absolutely reach
out to Justin and make sure that that person can
at least get the console and get the help that

(37:33):
they need. And again his number is four two three
five nine nine nine five four six.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
You can also reach his website by going through the
Helping Hearts for Heroes website, So that is www that
Helpinghartsfoheroes dot com. There is a direct link on our
website to the Warrior Wellness website, So if you cannot
attend in person this event and you'd like to donate,
you can donate through either of those sites, or you

(38:05):
can come into the Wyvern prior to the event and
you can donate in person.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
That's wonderful. Yeah, everybody's schedules are usually pretty busy, so
that's a good point to make if you can't be
there in person, but you still want to give their
absolutely options to do that beforehand and then I presume
afterwards as well as you take donations every day of
the year online for sure, yes.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
And if they want to donate walk into the LIBRN,
they would contact Terry or Veronica there.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Okay, good to know. Yeah, absolutely, it's such a wonderful
community partnership that the Wivern has and it is so
generous that they're helped. They're providing the venue, the space,
and the resources to have this fundraiser. I mean, it's
really going to be a wonderful time. And again, if
you're out there and you work with veteran agencies or
you want to start working with veteran agencies, bring your

(38:57):
business cards, come out ready to ready to interact with
others who are in like minded spaces as you and
talk about you know what you do for veterans looking
at ways you can partner with other veteran organizations, because
the one thing I noticed in our community is that
sometimes there ends up being a duplicitous effort and it's

(39:19):
not intentional. It's just that people aren't always aware of
the existence of another organization, or they're not aware that
another organization is having an event or whatever the case
might be, where they could partner rather than trying to
hold two separate events. So this would be a great
way to kind of just even expound on that as well.
So hopefully, yes, we'll see you guys on July twentieth

(39:41):
at the wy Urn for the Warrior Wellness fundraiser. And
like Shanna said, if not, you can go to Helping
heartsfourhroes dot com. You can google Helping Hearts for Heroes.
It'll pop the website right up. You can go on
there and you can donate to Warrior Wellness. If you
donate through the Helping Hearts for Heroes website, it gives
you the option to to kate on some form of

(40:01):
a memo or a note that you're giving the money
for the Warrior Wllness fundraiser, so that the money will
get where it needs to go. And if you wish
to go into the Wyburn ahead of time before the fundraiser,
you can talk to Terry or Veronica and make sure
that your donation for Warrior Wellness gets where it needs
to go as well. So, but that's not all that
helping Hearts for Heroes does you? Guys also have a

(40:21):
lot of other things kind of coming up on the horizon,
and one of the big ones is your golf tournament.
So let's talk about that.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Yes, so we are doing our first annual charity golf tournament.
We are hosting that in October. It's October twenty fifth.
It is from eight am to one pm and it's
at the Hills Golf Course in Rotunda. So basically, what
we are looking to do is get individuals who love
to golf or just love to be in the community

(40:52):
and want to support veterans to come out for a
fun afternoon. We are still looking for sponsors who want
to do that. Also. Orship can be as little as
one hundred dollars all the way up to top sponsorship.
What that includes is the opportunity for four of you
to golf that day, so you can get your team together.

(41:13):
You also have signage throughout the golf tournament. Depending upon
whether you are a top sponsor or just a regular
whole sponsor. You will have the opportunity to market your company,
the opportunity to speak to individuals who are looking to
support the veteran community, and you get to have fun
out in the sun and play in the beautiful Southwest

(41:34):
Florida golf courses.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Absolutely, and so with that, that'll be from eight am
to one pm. And if golfers want to sign up,
how do they need to go about that?

Speaker 4 (41:47):
So you can go to the Helping Hearts for Heroes website.
We have a direct link to our upcoming events and
you will see the one for the charity golf sponsorship
and charity golf tournament. If you want to be a sponsor,
there are opportunities to purchase right there on the website.
If you want to be a player or set up
a team of players, there is a form on there

(42:07):
that you can also complete. It's fairly an expensive an
individual's eighty dollars. If you want to play on a
team and you don't have a team set up you're
looking to join one, or if you have a set
of four. It's three hundred and twenty dollars total for
the four of you to play that day.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
That's an excellent deal because a lot of people in
this area do golf tournaments and usually the prices are
a bit higher. So that's nice that it can you
can offer a good value added experience for the golfers
and also for the sponsors.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
That also includes your lunch. So we after the tournament,
we will be doing an awards ceremony in their clubhouse.
That includes a hot lunch during that time. So afterwards,
you know you're tired, you've been out in the sun
all day, come in enjoy a nice lunch on us
in some refreshments.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Awesome and so so with that golf tournament, that is
going to help to offset costs for I know in
the past, like so where Helping Hearts for Heroes kind
of started was It started as home Goods for Heroes
and in late twenty twenty four you all did a
donation drive that was so successful that that is what
prompted creating Helping Hearts for Heroes. So the proceeds from

(43:21):
this golf tournament will most definitely help with taking care
of the next round of buying the home goods for
the veterans that are transitioning from housing into their permanent home.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
Some of the funds what we found were lacking was
how do they come up with a deposit for the
light bill or a water bill, you know, the water
deposits and so forth. So that's kind of why we
started the five Oh Wenesday three so we could have
those financial means to help them and not just for
the goods, but also those financial needs that they might have.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
That's wonderful. So at least you know, when you make
a donation to Helping Hearts for Heroes, you're not just
helping put you know, kitchen trash cans and clocks on
the wall or putting betting in their apartment or their house.
You're actually helping them get the lights turned on. That's
I mean, that's something people don't really think about very often.
Or you're paying the utility company to connect the water

(44:17):
in their name, and that's that's huge. I mean that
what you're doing through Helping Hearts for Heroes really, at
the end of the days, you're restoring dignity to veterans
who have experienced veteran homelessness, and that we might think of,
you know, turning starting up a light built or a
utility bill as kind of an annoyance when we move.

(44:38):
But for that veteran, that's a huge step for them
because now there's there's something with their name on it,
there's you know, they are getting to have some form
of ownership of a place to call home.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
And I know we've talked about it before on the
on the show that they you know, they have their
pride and we're is trying to keep that for them
because a lot of them, like when we gave the
presentation with the home goods, they were skittish. I mean
it took Jay to become the sergeant again to get
them out of their other apartments at the homeless village
in Puntagorda. And so they have a lot of pride.

(45:16):
We want them to have that and to have the
self esteem. So trying to do these things quietly but
helping them along the way to keep that.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
And think about not just those water deposits, those electric deposits.
You know, we all fall on hard times at times.
The economy is you know, struggling for some people. You know,
we're on fixed incomes for a lot of these individuals
and you know what, if you have your apartment, you
have your home good items, you have everything you need.

(45:46):
But this month you're short financially and you cannot pay
that electric bill for this month, you can come to
us and you can get those support services through Helping
Hearts to pay that arrears for that month.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
The nice part too, the money that we raise strictly
goes to the veterans. There's nobody on our board that
gets paid, so all the money raised is strictly there
for the veterans.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's definitely it's a force for good because
it's all volunteer. I'm blessed to sit on the board
with you guys for Helping Hearts for Heroes, so I
can attest to that as well. It is a wonderful,
wonderful thing when a nonprofit can say that they give
one hundred percent of their funds to the cause at hand,

(46:30):
So that's just fantastic. Are there other things that are
on the horizon for Helping Hearts for Heroes?

Speaker 4 (46:38):
We are getting ready to do another Home Goods for
Heroes Bingo night. We had such a great turnout with
the one that we did in April with the Inglewood
Elks that we are looking to do another one in
the Port Charlotte Ponta Gorda area, So coming a little
further south from Inglewood again raising all those funds through

(46:59):
the Bingo night going right back into the veterans. That
does give us the opportunity, as we are getting low
with some of those home good items too, to replenish
them in our storage facility. But it also gives us
that money if we do need to help them with
those deposits or anything that they're struggling with.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
For that month. Absolutely, and for those of you listening
that are maybe like I don't own a business, I
can't you know, be a sponsor of a golf tournament,
keep in mind there are so many donations that help
for golf tournaments, whether it's gift cards, gift baskets. If
you're out there and you're you know, maybe an independent

(47:37):
contractor or just a member of the community, I mean,
you can donate gift cards, you can donate gift baskets
with any kind of theme that you want to do.
You can donate really just about anything. I mean, there's
there's no gift too small to give to the golf tournament.
Or to the bingo if you're interested in contributing in

(47:59):
that way, maybe maybe golf and bingo aren't really your
your cup of tea if you want to volunteer your time,
I'm sure volunteers for the golf tournament would absolutely be appreciated.
If people want to help volunteer their time and efforts,
what's the best way for them to reach out to
coordinate that they.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
Can call and call me Camm at nine four one
seven seven nine six six three five.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
Or Shanna at nine four one two one four zero
two five eight. We definitely will never turn down anybody
that's looking to volunteer their time. It could be something
as small as setting up some bingo cards or raffle tickets,
so putting the gift baskets together, setting up the tables

(48:44):
for the golf tournament. Maybe you're sitting at a table
helping with registration, or setting up the refreshments for the
coffee and the doughnuts or pastries.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
When they're checking in, or the awards ceremony at the end,
because I'm sure that'll need some help to making sure
that you know the right team gets the right recognition,
or just making sure that everything flows smoothly with people's foods.
So if you're out there and maybe you belong to
a group and y'all want to get involved and help
out with the veterans, there are definitely pathways to that.

(49:16):
And again, can you share your phone numbers one more
time in case people weren't ready to write it down
in the first time.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
So k for Kim it's nine four one seven seven,
nine six six three five.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
And Shauna willis nine four one two one four zero two.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Five eight awesome. And you can get more information for
Helping Hearts for Heroes at Helping heartsfourhroes dot com. There is,
like I said, the golf tournament is coming up October
twenty fifth. It's from eight am to one pm. It
seems like it's a long ways away, but it's really not.
When you're still trying to pull together sponsors, golfers, volunteers

(49:54):
to help make this event successful. I think I'm probably
accurate saying we hoped to be able to do more
of these, so we hope that the first one will
be successful, and it's it's going to take a lot
of help. So if you're listening and you want to help,
we would love to have your assistance with the golf
tournament in any capacity that you feel led to assist.

(50:17):
And then also for the bingo. We'll keep folks updated
on when that's happening, where that's happening. We had an
amazing turnout for the bingo that we did at the
Englewood Elks recently. How much money was raised off of that.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
We raised about twenty seven hundred dollars that night.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
That is fantastic. People came out, they bought raffle tickets,
they you know, brought out gift baskets, they paid to
play bingo, I mean, and it was It was a
fun time. A lot of people gave a lot of
great feedback. We appreciate those of you that were willing
to give feedback good, bad, or indifferent. But definitely the
DJ was a huge hit. The bingo caller, yes he

(50:56):
was mister Michael White. Yes, yes, let's drop that name.
So yes, he will definitely hopefully be back to help
out with that in the future because a lot of
people said, you know, your bingo caller kind of makes
or breaks it, and he definitely made it fun, entertaining,
had people laughing by the end of the night when
he was reading off the raffle tickets. He had the

(51:17):
entire crowd participating because he would call the number and
then he'd be like dash. After a while, everybody would
be like dash. So it's a good time. It's a
lot of fun. All ages were out there. We're hoping
the same for the golf tournament.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
From that tingo, we were able to help recently eleven
local veterans through the local Va hud Vash program who
were homeless, who did not have any resources, get into
their first apartments or into other types of housing with

(51:53):
all of their home good items.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
That's wonderful. That's honestly, that's good to know too, because
a lot of people want to know where do my
contributions go. And to know that you know that twenty
seven hundred dollars raised has already been reinvested into the
cause of helping hearts for heroes. That's huge. I mean,
your your money is at work, and it's at work
efficiently and effectively. So for those of you that showed

(52:17):
up for BINGO, you can take some pride in knowing
that you've helped restore some dignity to veterans and helped
deliver them from homelessness and provide them with a safe
place to call home. That's huge, So thank you again
ladies for being on the show. We look forward to
having you every month, so absolutely so we'll see you
next time.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Thank you guys, thank you.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Mark your calendars for July twentieth, twenty twenty five, from
one to five pm at the Wyvern Hotel, Perch three
to sixty rooftop one oh one East Rata Esplanade in
Point of Quart of Florida. This fundraiser will benefit Warrior
Wellness that helps keep warriors in the fight, help veterans
stay fit, provide gym memberships, personal training, swimming lessons, and

(52:59):
holistic health services to those who served. And that's our
show for today. Thank you so much for joining us,
whether you're on one hundred point nine FMWCCF or via
the iHeartRadio app. We'll see you next time. Rally Pointers
fall Out