Rally Point 83

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally Pointers full In.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning everyone, Welcome to the Rally Point Radio Show.
It's Justin Leadford here along with Amanda mccannu.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good morning morning everybody, and of.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Course, as always we've got a producers a on the
other side there.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning, the brain, the guy that makes the magic happen.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, all right, So this morning with us we have
Naomi Copeland from Southwest Florida Honor Flight.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good morning, Naomi, Good morning, Justin and Amanda.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hello, how's it going.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
It's going fantastic. How are you guys.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
We love having your monthly Southwest Florida Honor Flight segment,
and so we've been talking a lot about, you know,
ways to keep this an informative segment but also give
it a little bit more dimension. So in the future
we're going to start having some guests who were prior
honored veterans on honor flights.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Correct, correct, Yes, I'm so laundry list for.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Us, absolutely, So there will definitely be more to come
as far as people telling their stories.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
About Honor Flight.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
So with Honor Flight, our hub Southwest Florida on our
flight actually encompasses seven counties and I sit on the
board of Southwest Florida Honor Flight as a veteran coordinator
and thank you Naomi for that opportunity. But yeah, so
Southwest Florida Honor Flight for our listeners, it covers seven counties,
which includes Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardy, Hendry, Highlands, Manatee, and Sarasota counties.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Pah, you've got them all.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You've got them all seven. So I learned it.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
I learned it from our Vice president Alex Davenport, who
taught me the secret is alphabetize the counties and you
won't miss them.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
So that's a that's a huge swath.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
And we're still trying to find folks that are willing
to come on these flights because for some folks it's
an easy yes, and for other folks there might be
some apprehension and maybe because of their experience in the
military or the era that they served in, maybe things
weren't so great for them. So we're trying to get

(02:09):
more people on the flights. But let's let's talk about
real quick what the Honored Flight really entails as far
as what veterans can expect.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, thanks for that, and that's very very true. You know,
I talk also about you know, we raise all the
funds for each flight, and it costs US about one
hundred and eighteen thousand dollars in expenses, give or take
depending on on some extra you know, fuel surcharges and
so forth. But fundraising is always, you know, out there.

(02:40):
We got to raise the fund But honestly, the more
difficult piece is convincing veterans that they should come on
their honored flight and let us honor you. And so
our mission is really simple. It is to honor veterans
at no cost on a one day for us. It's

(03:00):
a one day up and back trip to d C.
And honor them at their memorials in Washington, d C.
And then give them the welcome home they deserve. And
I will tell you there is so much healing that
occurs on a flight day. I'm sure we're going to
probably get into a little bit of that later, but
it's really convincing veterans. You wore the flag of our

(03:23):
nation and you are whatever you did in your time
in this military, you signed on a line and your
family and you gave yourself to our great nation and
whatever you were called to do, you stepped up and
you did it. You could have been a yeoman. You
could have been a cook in the galley, You could

(03:45):
have been on the front lines, and you could have
done anything beyond that and less than that being a
reservist even and so you were worthy. You are very
very worth us taking you and letting you be honored
at the memorial and then get to welcome home that
you deserve it. So so many you know, World War Two, Korea, Vietnam,

(04:08):
the eras go on and on, and Amanda and Justin,
I really really believe there are some people that got
great honors when they came home and great welcome homes,
and then there was some My father came home, got
off the train from Korea and went to work the
very next day, and there was no one there but
his parents to welcome him home. So that is our

(04:28):
whole mission.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
I think in a way too, it's interesting that you
touched on your father's experience coming home from the Korean War,
because I think a lot of us are not aware
that Korean War veterans kind of got treated like nothing
ever happened and they just went back to work. Everybody's
aware of how badly the Vietnam era veterans were treated
and how badly, that was mishandled. But to know there

(04:51):
are actually two eras of veterans out there that really
didn't get the welcome home they deserve makes it all
the more important that Honor Flight's mission involves giving them
that welcome home that they did.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know, I've been involved in Honor Flight.
My father in law was a World War Two veteran.
I was honored to be his guardian on Veterans Day
twenty ten, and that's when I absolutely fell in love
with everything Honor Flight does. So. Honor Flight was founded
by Earl Morse and Jeff Miller. Earl's a physician assistant,

(05:25):
was outside of Dayton, Ohio, White Patterson Air Force Base,
and Jeff Miller is a businessman from Hendersonville, North Carolina.
They both had their ideas of ways to honor veterans.
Earls was a little more grassroots level with the SESSMA
Club that he belonged to and taking little airplanes and
flying a couple dozen veterans on these little planes. Jeff's

(05:48):
vision was chartering an entire filling an aircraft, chartering an
entire aircraft of veterans to DC. Their two worlds came
together and they decided to collaborate together, and that was
the That was history twenty twenty years ago. So May
two thousand and five when Honor Flight was born. And

(06:10):
one thing Justin and Amanda that is sometimes confusing for
veterans is originally honor flight, there was, you know, that
great generation of World War Two veterans, and there was
tens and tens of thousands of them, and so Honor
Flight was really their early the early days of Honor

(06:30):
Flight was getting all of that greatest generation, those World
War Two veterans on their honor flight, and some hubs
had to determine because we had so many who went
who didn't go, And so at one point it was
basically like just combat World War two veterans. And then
as we got through that group of folks, we you know,

(06:52):
then allowed non combat World War two veterans, and then
it moved to Korea and now you know, onto Vietnam,
and I will I'll tell you in other eras, and
I know we'll get to that because we're going to
talk about our female veterans too today. And honestly, there
is no in our hub Southwest Florida honor flight. While
we cover seven amazing counties. Over one hundred thousand veterans

(07:15):
live in total in these seven counties we serve. To
date in our time, we've only flown twenty three hundred
veterans on their honor flights. Mission twenty three is coming
up and we're looking forward to that in the fall,
but we'll get to take about another one hundred veterans,
and I'm just so excited. We are now flying two

(07:37):
flights a year, and I'm hoping that we can add
a third flight because we have a lot of work
to do in southwest Florida.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, I'm glad that you brought up the criteria for
the veterans because I think there's some common misconceptions about
who it applies to. Because I met a lady who's
very jaded, very upset. You know, well, my husband was
ever given that opportunity. As a matter of fact, I
introduced Amanda to her and we're trying to take care

(08:05):
of her in a couple of ways. But this wasn't
the first time or the only time that I've heard
that story. Is you know, oh, that wasn't offered to
my husband, or that that doesn't apply to you know,
and so people don't feel like they're worthy or that
it applies to them. And can you dispel that myth?

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, I can absolutely debunk that myth because there's a
couple of things with that too. Justin is you know
a lot of people are out there's one hundred and
thirty hubs across the United States. We're part of Southwest
Florida is part of an honor flight network. There are
ten hubs alone in Florida, and so across the nation

(08:48):
there's all kinds of honor flights. So the conversation occurs
between buddies and friends, and I've had it happen. Somebody
is in Minnesota and their buddy is in Texas and
they've got another friend that lives here in Florida, and
the three of them, you know, have these conversations and
then they come to me and they're like can I go?
And I'm like, did you wear the flag of our nation? Absolutely? Yeah,

(09:11):
you can go. The process is this for every hub
fill out an application. You go onto a weight list,
and there's criteria that we use to determine the order. Obviously,
World War Two veterans, Korean veterans, anyone with a life,
limiting illness and then on from there. But I will

(09:33):
tell you eighty seven percent of the veterans we honor
on one Honor Fly are Vietnam veterans. So the book
of our veterans now are coming from the Vietnam era.
But justin I've also experienced that with husbands and wife
and the husband will then say to me, off to
the side, she's really encouraging me, pushing me, wanting me

(09:54):
to go. But I'm hesitant, and you know, I'm scared
of flying, or it's a long travel day, or I'm
just not sure what is going to happen when I
get to the wall, when I see my squadron's names,
you know, some of my guys that I was with,
or some of the women that I served with, And
so some of them are scared. And I'll tell you

(10:14):
for us at Southwest Florida Honor Flight, we are so
privileged and blessed. We are an entire volunteer organization, have thirteen,
I believe board members. I think it's twelve or thirteen,
I can't remember. I always lose count. And I try
to get a variety of individuals from, you know, different

(10:35):
counties that we serve in and different professions. So obviously
our vice president is a lieutenant in a fire department,
has a fantastic medical EMT background, and he gets these
crazy amazing medics to come along with us and serve
our veterans in case there's any bumps or bruises or

(10:58):
hiccups along the way. And we also have on our
board a psychiatrist who works for the VA, and I
make sure that she is providing us board members the
tools to be prepared for the day with our veterans
that may have some PTSD. And so I know, it's

(11:23):
a really it's something that I really struggle with because
in my mind, why would anybody be hesitant to calme experience? Truly,
when they come back, they say the best day of
their life other than being married and having babies and
having grand babies, it's truly the best day of their life.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
So okay, so outside of guardians and veterans, So, how
many people are on your crew?

Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah? Awesome questions. So we charter an aircraft and we
get about one hundred and seventy seven seats on the aircraft.
I think they have about one hundred and eighty one
in total. So we fill the book with veterans. We
tried to take anywhere from ninety to one hundred veterans.
Obviously that number varies depending on the medical situations that

(12:12):
we might have on board with us. We try to
take about seventy to seventy five guardians, and of that
is flight crew, which are the bulk of the board
of directors. Got We served a couple of dual purposes
that day. Some of us are wheelchair captains getting wheelchairs

(12:33):
off of the buses. Some of us are bus captains,
basically the missus Frizzle of the day of the school
bus if you think of that little show that was
on TV. And then we take eight medics with us,
anywhere from six to eight medics, so we generally have

(12:54):
about two medics on every bus, just to keep eyes
on our veterans, our greatest treasures. We've got to return
these treasures to their families as good as or not
better than when we've got them at four o'clock in
the morning to go on their honor flight. Right.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
So the what I was, what I was aiming at,
is so you have a large crew, plus every veteran
has a guardian, so correct when you have those Vietnam
veterans that are hesitant to go because they don't want
to go down to the wall and experience that.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Maybe they're not sure of how it will affect them,
and so they'd rather avoid.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
What I want. What I want them to know firsthand
is that you don't have to go down there. That
there's plenty of There are plenty of people that you
can stay up there with. You can you can, you
can walk over to the Korean War Memorial, you can
do whatever you're not It's not like we're all in
one huddle and we all have to go do the

(13:57):
same things. You're not forced into facing something that you're
not prepared to faces. Was what I was trying to
get to.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, and that's really really great. So I will
tell you our hub these are. This is kind of
our stops, and sometimes in this order, sometimes not in
this order. We're flying into Dulles now. This fall flight
will be our second flight into Dulles. It just makes
for a shorter commute, giving us more time downtown at

(14:24):
our memorials. So we'll usually swing around Ewajima, which is
the Marine Corps Memorial. From there we usually go over
to World War Two Memorial and spend a little bit
about a half hour at World War Two Memorial. I'll
tell you on most of our flights, the last since
twenty twenty two, we have had anywhere from three to

(14:44):
five World War Two veterans along with us. From there,
we go over to what I refer to as kind
of it's the Triangle. It's the Korea, Lincoln, Vietnam Memorials,
and we spend the book of our time there. We
usually go over or to the Korean Memorial first, or
the Korean veterans that are with us at their leisure,

(15:06):
they can stay there. We'd like to take a full
group photo in front of the Lincoln Memorial with the
Washington Monument behind us. From there, we'll ease our way
over to the Vietnam Wall. And what's really cool about
that area is we're there for about two and a
half almost three hours. There are benches, there are trees

(15:30):
to provide shade. There's you know, a little gift shop
in the Lincoln Memorial and some restrooms around there, and
there's benches around the Vietnam Wall so you can sit
and watch the folks go on down to the wall.
And usually half of our board will kind of hang
out along the forrey there if you will, and just

(15:54):
you know, ease their way down. If sometimes it's just
them taking their time and starting slowly there, and I
will tell you most times, our Vietnam veterans will find
their way, even if it's you know, one of the
first couple of panels at the Vietnam Wall, but they
find their way there, and then they just start touching

(16:15):
names and we don't even realize that they're walking down
the wall, you know, touching their brothers and sisters along
the way, and the wall is just you know, I
think all of those memorials are so sacred, but the
wall is very very special. And then from there we
will go and honor women veterans along with us on
our flight. I'll tell you we've had anywhere from sixteen

(16:39):
to thirty seven on our past flights. And it's a
really really special moment. It's a military women's memorial for
our women, and I'll tell you it's eye opening for
the men that are have served when they get to
see these women be honored at their memorial. And then
we go to Arlington and the Two of the Unknown

(16:59):
so and then we'll find our way back to our
airport for our return flight home.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
So, speaking of women veterans, because I can personally attest
to how important the Military Women's Memorial was to me
on my honor flight, there is definitely a push to
get more women veterans flying with honor flight.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yes, that is correct, at least for us personally, and
I think network wide. You know, originally there was one
female veteran on that was honored on a flight in
like ten years in our hub. And I have a
niece that currently serves. She's been in for fourteen years

(17:42):
in the Navy. And then I started, you know, doing
these networking events, you know, at the ball Stadium at
a nonprofit exposed and women came up and they had served,
and a lot of them had served in Vietnam, and
you know, they never did of all, people for sure
don't feel that they're worthy to be honored on a flight.

(18:05):
And then it really dawned on me that I started
hearing their stories and some of them had a real
hard time, a real tough go. They weren't treated real
well by some of their compadres, and so I want
to honor them, and that's a personal mission of mine

(18:27):
is to have no less than twelve women that we
honor on every single flight.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's wonderful.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Yeah, it definitely was meaningful to me, and I'm sure
for the women who are from the Vietnam era and
even before, it's even more impactful. When I was active duty,
I was stationed at Patrick Air Force Space and was
more was involved with the Space Coast Honor flight over there,
and we had a flight one time where there was

(18:54):
one female veteran and she was from I believe the
Korean War era. I could be wrong, it might have
been World War Two, but she was. She was the
only one the rest raw man.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, So do you have females on the wait list
or is it pretty much? Hey, if you're a female veteran,
you just need to sign up so you can get
on this flight.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
If you are a female veteran, we want and veterans
of all eras, whether your male or female, It honestly
doesn't matter. People think that they need to wait. Oh
I don't want to go in the fall, or I
don't want to go in the spring.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
Talk about in the schedule of honor flight, please, because
I do think there are some people who are kind
of like, I don't want to go and it's too hot.
I don't want to go and it's too cold. When
does when does Southwest Florida honor flight? When do we
do our flights typically? What does that tempo look like?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Absolutely? Yeah, that's a great question. And so our tempo
is that we take a flight in the spring, and
we take a flight in the fall. One in the spring,
one in the fall. I will tell you, Plana Gordon
Airport is fantastic. They have been our airport for the
past five flights since twenty twenty two. And since we

(20:11):
cover such a vast area literally from the Skybridge coming
over Tampa Bay all the way to the Lee County line,
from Seabring almost all the way down to Alligator Alley,
that's a big area. And we are fortunate enough that
we have a couple major airports in our area. And

(20:32):
so this fall flight will be from Sarasota International Airport,
and so we are so excited to collaborate and partner
with them and add another airport. So I think we're
going to bounce back and forth between Panta Gorda and Sarasota.
We'll see how the fall goes. It's all new to us.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Hopefully that opens there's more of a gateway for the
veterans who are in some of those northern counties, Lake, Manatee,
Sarasota Lands. Hopefully that will bring some of them to
be more inclined to apply. And for those flights, they're
like one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars approximately for a flight,
so to do this as not a no cost to

(21:14):
the veterans, there's a lot of fundraising that goes into that,
but there are also activities that are offered at no
cost that allow people to come together and learn more
about the Honor Flight mission, fellowship more with people who
are familiar with Honor Flight, whether they are part of
the board, have been guardians, have been Honored veterans, or

(21:35):
are just enthusiastic supporters. So you have we have a
lot of fundraisers coming up, so we do I do
to make sure people are aware of those. I mean,
all the all the details are available on the website
which is SWFL Honor Flight dot org, so please go
there to find details like dates, times, cost if applicable,

(21:59):
But there are.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Event social media too, on our Facebook or Instagram page two.
And I have to do a search on Facebook Southwest
Florida on her flight or Instagram.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Spell it all out on that one, so you'll find
it that way. So the events coming up are things
like there's an art night that's coming up where you
can get together with other.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Folks who are affiliated with Honor Flight.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
And do you know, Amanda, that came out of a
guardian from our April flight who saw how amazing the
day was and she's like, I want to give back.
I am an artist, I have this capability, and so
I'm like, let's do it. So we got you know,
several dozen people signed up for that, so it's super cool.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's wonderful. So there's that coming up.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
There are also a lot of for the people who
are car buffs. There's even like cars and coffee kind
of events that are coming up. Those are usually on weekends.
Like I said, if you go to SWFL Honorflight dot
org you can find that out get more information. There's
an events tab on the website where you can learn
about that. There's also a golf tournament coming up at

(23:05):
a very exclusive golf golf course here in our area
called Aileron and that'll be happening. So we need golfers.
If you're a golfer, please get more information sign up.
If you want more information about any of these fundraisers,
you can send an email to SWFL Honor Flight at

(23:27):
gmail dot com. Send them an email you can get
put on an email blast. I promise that you won't
get spammed. I think you send maybe one email a
month issue.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Maybe one history email.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Okay, And so that will give you a plethora of
information about upcoming events. Hub meetings. Anybody can come to
HUB meetings. Please come out, especially if you want to
learn more about Honor Flight. If you're not exactly sure
you know the level of commitment that you want to give,
that's okay. Come to an Honor Flight meeting and learn
a little more about what it's about and how things operate,

(24:05):
and you can make that decision.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
But on the fourth Wednesday of every month, we need
in person. And there's also a zoom option, So if
you sign up, if you send us an email and
ask to sign up on our email blast, you'll get
that zoom link. And so from the comfort of your
home or your office, or wherever you might be a
hotel room, traveling for work or fun, you can join

(24:27):
in and hear what we talk about.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
That's right fourth Wednesday at seven pm. If you want
to come in person, it's the Kingsgate Golf Course in
Port Charlotte, or maybe put a quorda it's the Kingsgate
Golf Course off a rampart boulevard. Yep, so awesome. Well
that's about all the time we have for today. Naomi,
thank you so much for being on the show every

(24:50):
month and helping us get more information out about Southwest
Florida Honor Flight.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yes, thank you for having me. If there are listeners
that are in other areas or have veterans from other areas,
you can always reach out to Honor Flight Network. Our
home offices out of Alexandria, Virginia. Dissearch Honor Flight Network.
There's a tab on their website find a local hub,
and you can find one of the one hundred and

(25:16):
thirty hubs across the United States.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Wonderful. Thank you for that information.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Great talking to you as always, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
And again for those of you listening if you missed
it earlier. The website for Southwest Florida Honor Flight is
SWFL honorflight dot org. From there, you can download an
application to be either an honored veteran or a guardian.
You can also fill the application out online. You can
get information under the events tab and if you want

(25:46):
to start having that sent to your inbox with events
meeting links information about Southwest Florida Honor Flight, shoot an
email to SWFL Honor Flight at gmail dot com to
get yourself on that list. Thanks again, Naomi, We appreciate
you and we'll talk to you next month.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Awesome, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Calling all veterans. On August the night, there's going to
be a veteran resource fair at m Vett's Post three
twelve in Northport. Come on out as Warrior Wellness and
am Vets three twelve welcome veteran owned businesses and veteran resources.
They'll be serving breakfast from eight thirty to ten thirty,
so come on out join us. If you're interested in
setting up a booth, come out to seventy to fifty

(26:29):
Chancellor Boulevard, Northport, Florida. For more information, reach out to
Justin Lefford at four two three five nine nine nine
five four six or if Justin at Warrior dashw dot com.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
See you there and now in the studio we have
with us Perry Bloomer. She is the engagement and marketing
officer for Bert's Motor Company, but some of you may
know that better as Bert's Black Widow Harley Davidson. So
welcome to the show, Perry.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Hello, thank you so much for having me today.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Awesome.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
So we're going to talk about a program that I
was when we were in the green room, if you well,
a program called Salute to America that I think a
lot of people probably see on the marquee for Bert's
Black Widow Harley Davidson when they drive by, and they
probably think, oh, it's an endorsement, they're a patriotic company.
There's actually a lot more to that tell us about

(27:18):
Salute to America and how it came to be a reality.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Absolutely, and thank you for the opportunity to do it.
I think most people do associate patriotism and being proud
of our veterans and active military with most motorcycle shops.
They tend to go hand in hand. So you're right.
I think they see the Burt Salute to America logo
or our posters and they think, oh great, they're very supportive,
but it is a five oh one C three charity

(27:43):
put together about eight days before Ian hit, we had
our char charter finalized. And where it came from is
that Bert King, who runs all of the Burt's dealerships,
he really has an affinity for helping veterans, people who
have served. He wants to serve people who have served
others and then maybe they hit a point in their

(28:04):
life where they can't do what they used to be
able to do, and he wants to pay that back.
It is a big passion of his. So he put
together Bert Sluto America Foundation. It's a long name, packs
the wallap but and it's a very long website, Bert
Sluthomericafoundation dot org. Wow. But what we try to do
is do very small, targeted donations to groups and individuals

(28:29):
within the counties we serve. So while there are huge
national organizations that could absolutely use funds, we work with
organizations that are right here in Charlotte County or in
Penellas County where other storees, or Lee County where those
stores are, and we try to truly impact veterans' lives.
Then that's what we're all about.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
That's wonderful, and you do this with very little overhead,
like ninety nine percent or more of what you take
in goes directly back to veterans.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Absolutely, So I am a paid employee of the motor company, right,
so all of the administrative costs of anything that goes
along with that. When we buy our tents, the dealerships
pick up that cost. So primarily the donor dollars go
directly to getting it out there with veterans and what
we need to do locally. So it's a tiny scale,

(29:25):
but every drop in the bucket is the right thing.
We raised tips for our beer. We raised tips and
do little events and raffles. We had an incredible Veterans
run last year, which is I think how we all
met and came together hearing about that, and we're hoping
to do that again. We just wrapped up basically a
raffle for a bike that we designed ourselves and it

(29:48):
made to look a little bit like an Abrams tank.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
And it is the coolest bike, the fastest bike in
America right now, And we raffled that off all across
the country. We raised about one hundred and six five
thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Wonderful, and so that was the to.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Change a life bike and to change a life we're
right now currently looking for a veteran in Penelas County
and a veteran in Charlotte County that meets a pretty
specific criteria. But somebody that has served and done well
for others, and maybe they've hit hard times through medical
bills or the hurricanes that have come through, or they've
lost their job and they need transportation to get to work.

(30:28):
We want to be able to give this person a motorcycle,
give them a stack of cash to help get their
bills together. I could help them counsel with their resume
and get them ready for interviewing. We really want to
impact somebody's life with that latest boom, and it's been
all over the country. People have been sending in their
their raffle tickets and the gentlemen who want who's in

(30:50):
Texas and so they get this great bike that's one
of a kind. And yet we're going to be able
to do someone of a kind, targeted help for somebody locally.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
That's wonderful. That's huge.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
There's a lot of people donate to charitable organizations and
they don't really know where their money's fully going or
how much of their money is actually making it to
the target audience. So it's good to know that with
your organization ninety nine percent just about every drop, Like
you said, every drop in the bucket is going to
impact the life of a veteran, which is absolutely wonderful.

(31:23):
If people want to nominate somebody, I take it it's
a nomination process.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
It is.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
How can they contact you to nominate someone in Penelas
or Charlotte County who they might feel is deserving of
being awarded this very generous bike money for their bills
and assistance with employment.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
So first off, they can go to any one of
our stores. You know, we have the store here, we
have Bert's Black Widow in Port Charlotte. We have Bert's
Barracuda and Saint Pete. We have Bert's Black Pearl in
Fort Myers and soon to be opening Bert's Buccaneer in Tampa.
So they can go in and ask for Perry. There's
only one Perry that works for us. They can also

(32:03):
email me and my name is Perry P. E. R.
I Perry at Bert's HD for Harley Davidson dot com.
I have the luckiest one. I have the best email
the whole company. It's nice and short. Everybody else's is
really long.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
So Bert's is spelled b e r T correct because
it might be wondering.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
So Bert's b e r T s h D.

Speaker 5 (32:26):
That's right, dot com, So send me a note. You
can nominate yourself, you can nominate someone else. You know,
we're just starting the vetting process now, and I'm sure
there'll be a lot of people interested, and we're only
choosing to but this is the start for us to
do something that is for somebody who's truly, truly deserving,
who maybe has hit bad times through no fault of

(32:47):
their own, and we definitely want to just give somebody
the chance to change their life. And that's what Bert
says all about. There's so many like you said, there's
so many charities where you're not exactly sure where the
funds go, and you're pretty sure they go to incredible
research that help us globally. There's another type of person
that wants to see the end result. And while we're

(33:07):
certainly not going to publish this person unless they want
to be published, we'll keep it confidential, but we want
to be able to know that we're doing everything we
can for someone right here in our community, and someone
in the writing community as well, I mean, obviously we're riders,
and we want people to make sure that they know
that writers are not big, scary, tough people. We're big

(33:28):
hearted people with lots of philanthropic desires.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Well some of them are tough, but they're still teddy bears.

Speaker 5 (33:33):
That's right, That's exactly right. I always tell people they
may not pay their rent, but they'll pay their bike
bill and they'll do any type of charity for a veteran,
a pet that is right, or for a children. So
you know, those are the big three. So we just
are looking for people that if you stop by the
dealership or you stop by for one of the big
concerts on the weekends and you put you know, five

(33:54):
bucks in the in the till for the tip, you
know that where that's going, that's going to help somebody absolutely.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
And so you said, you guys started this right before
Hurricane Ian. So you're going on coming up on three years,
three years as a five oh one C three and
so are there future projects beyond Obviously you're searching for
this veteran right now and hopefully people will nominate by
sending the email to Perry P. E. R I at
Bert's hd B E r t shd dot com to nominate.

(34:26):
So are there other future projects coming up? You mentioned
possibly doing a run. Are there are there other events
coming up that the community can kind of be on
the lookout for.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
So every event that we do on the weekends has
a tie to Bertsleu to America. You know what it's
like when you throw a big event. Many of us
have been involved in galas and poker runs and all those.
There's so much money that goes up front, so we
tend to do things very grassroots oriented. The run was
something that we partnered with Girls on the Run because
they were very excited to partner and make sure that

(34:59):
young girls know that the military is an option for
them and it's a pretty great career path. So it
was a unique bedfellow, if you.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Will second that statement exactly.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
Proof Yes, Jinks. So now I owe you a coke.
So we we definitely would like to do that again.
We're meeting next week, but most of our events are
very much in the dealership on the weekends. You know,
we'll do Last weekend we did a Nobody's Full event.
Come in and meet our new GM. He's Nobody's Full.
He's a military guy. Himself and we had Nobody's Fool

(35:30):
the band playing and so you know, you just come in,
you get a few free beers. That's a great thing
about all of our stores is we have free beers.
So the tips are really just tips going to the charity.
And we work with the local homeless coalition. We work
with the Tampa Bay Homeless Coalition for our other store,
Win Sports for Warriors. We've done a lot with the

(35:53):
Sheriff's office here and working with the Charlotte County. So
we really want to keep the fun here. So everything
we do is designed around that, and we're not necessarily
going to throw a ginormous party in a casino night
and do all of that. It's much more grassroots, and
I think that that's what our clientele love. They love

(36:14):
that they can be in their blue jeans and come
and do what they want to do. I know that.
For example, every year at the Twisted Fork we do
the big Michigan Ohio State Game, and so we have
a Michigan Ohio State penny Wars where you can put
all your change and your pennies into a bucket and
see who wins, and all that goes to birds Lout
to America Foundation, So we always have something coming up

(36:35):
every weekends and events. So all I can say is
check out the Bird's Black Widow events page on Facebook
and on the website because something's happening and you're going
to be able to raise money if you want to
raise money.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
We used to do penny wars all the time. I
was Air Force medical, so we used to do penny
wars all the time.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Did you guys do that in the.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Army, I've never heard of that.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Okay, real quick to break it down usually and correct
me if you guys do it differently. But there's a
huge jar out and when I was in the military,
it was like every duty section had a jar, right,
and so you want to throw as many pennies in
there as you can. However, if somebody throws a dime
or a quarter or a nickel, any silver change subtracts

(37:16):
that many pennies from the pot.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
So then pot correct.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
So if you work in your duty section, you want
to throw pennies in your jar, but people from other
duty sections are going to come by and throw quarters, nickels,
dimes to take away from your overall penny count because
it will cancel it out. So at the end you've
got all of this change and they go through and
they count and figure out what the total tally ends

(37:40):
up being. So when you guys do penny wars, I
take it, you probably have an Ohio State Commission and
a Michigan.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
And I'll tell you this. We've also included Green. So
I mean, I will tell you Michigan doesn't have a chance.
And I'm not just saying that because I'm on Ohio
State graduate because go Bucks, I did grow up in Michigan.
But we have people that throwing you know, twenty dollars
bills in there. Michigan doesn't have a shot.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
You could throw right if you throw a dollar, it
was minus one hundred, so imagine twenty dollars.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
It's like the Twisted Buck guy. Nation Is is a
really huge group that works with the Twisted Fork and
Bird's Black Widows. So they've got a handle on Ohio
State winning. But the bottom line is our veterans win.
And that might sell a little corny, but veterans, first responders,
hurricane victims, that's where that money goes. Right after Milton,
I literally loaded up the back of my suv and

(38:31):
we had generators and food and water and personal hygiene products,
and you know, we drove around and just gave it
to people who needed it on the street. And you know,
being able to do that is just to have a
boss like Bert King that says, yes, that's how we're
going to spend our money, go do it, make it happen.

(38:52):
That is one of the greatest feelings alive. So, you know,
to get to work for an organization that has its
heart in the right place but then walks the walk
is pretty phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So since you brought that up, because we are in
hurricane season now, and I know that last year you
guys partnered up with Helping Hearts for Heroes.

Speaker 5 (39:09):
It was Home Goods for Heroes Heroes.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Which Amanda and I are both on the board for.
So I know that we have a basically a storage
unit where we have home goods to give out to people.
So when when you talk about having products to give
to people, do you have like a location as we're
getting into hurricane season, do you do you guys have

(39:34):
those like toile trees and stuff like that on hand
or we don't.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
I went out and bought them because when we do
raise them when we have the box there for for
hometown or for the what it's now different, right.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
They've just.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Drive is still I think Home Goods for Heroes. I
guess we'll find out this year because this will be
the first year that Home Goods for Heroes has changed
over to Helping Hearts for Heroes. So I guess we'll
see see how that shakes out.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
We'll see.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
So when we do those boxes and collections, we donate
them right away to the charity that needs them. So
since we don't have a backstock like that. When the
hurricane hit, you know, the first thing during Ian, our
store did not lose power. We had showers, so we
were the actual staging section for the county Sheriff's office,

(40:22):
for the fire department. We served hot dogs. So this
year I stayed behind while the family went. They evacuated
and we were able to get power by noon. We
didn't have the same mass sort of staging for Milton
that we needed. But that's when Bert said, yeah, go
buy what you need to buy, and I hit the
road and you know those folks in Punta Gorda that

(40:43):
really needed help, That's where it was seen to be
hit the hardest. That's what we do. So if somebody
does want to use us as a drop off location,
we will always do that. If they're not sure where
to go, we know where to go, So drop it
off and we'll get it to the Homeless Coalition. We'll
get it to you guys to make sure that you
know where it is.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
Absolutely, and I think it's something that can be appreciated
that the fundraising and the way that you go about
raising money is so simplistic and easy. So many people
kind of I think, tend to overthink fundraising, especially in
the nonprofit world. So it's nice that you're able to
keep it very simple, very straightforward. And like we said,
you know the people who are the donors, they have

(41:23):
that peace of mind and knowing this is going straight
into a jar and then to help a veteran.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
So that's wonderful.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
And with the hurricanes, yeah, like you said, hurricane season,
this is kind of the time to be talking about that.
So if people have donations that they want to drop off,
if they don't know where to take them, they can
absolutely bring them to the Harley Davidson Dealership.

Speaker 5 (41:41):
Absolutely. That's why I have an office, that's why I
have some shelves. You know, I can't store things in
a warehouse, but I'll get them to the right people
in the warehouse. And I think what happens in the
biker community is you do get reminded, Oh it's hurricane season,
I should do something. Oh it's Thanksgiving, I should do something.
But in the biker community, these things, these folks are
always wanting to give. You know, they go to the

(42:02):
grocery store every day and think, oh, well, here's fourteen
extra cans that I can pick up of something. And
so we do food all year round here locally for
bikers reaching out and bikers reaching out. They serve homeless
and veterans every Thursday in Port Charlotte's.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
We've had them on the show before. They're a wonderful organization, absolutely, so.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
We've funded them a couple of times because they're all
doing it out of their own correct. Every month, somebody
pays for the food for one hundred and forty people plus.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Lunches and they bring They go and buy like socks, underwear, toothbrushes.
They go buy all that stuff and bring it out
to the park. So that's wonderful to know that they
have an extra layer of support when they need it
for sure, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
And in November we'll you know, we'll always do it
around Thanksgiving. But anytime someone just isn't sure where to go, obviously,
the United Way is a great place to go. The
Homeless Coalition is a great place to go. Call you
guys for home goods for heroes. But if you're just
not sure what to do, and you're on your bike
anyway and you've uh, you know, a saddle bag full
of stuff, drop it off. We know where to take it.

(43:04):
We're very involved in the community and it just means
the world to me that I have managers that let us.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Do that absolutely.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
So with everything going on in the world, I guess
you could say so your organization with helping veterans, there
are other means of doing that too. As far as
you guys partner with people, you have your organization set
up to where you're looking for that person. Do you
think if you find a person to bless with a

(43:34):
bike with money to get back on their feet, do
you foresee that that could potentially be something that's done
again in the future as the business continues to grow, Because,
like you said, you've got another store about to open
in Tampa one about to open in Lee County.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
Yeah, we would really like to do that. I think
that when you look at you know, if we did
that every year, we would be helping four people a
year plus what we're doing, you know, all around that,
so we're always helping people. It took a lot to
get with five different designers, a painter, two different shops,
build this bike and make it something so special that

(44:10):
we could raffle it all over the country. We have
an incredible, incredible social media influencer by the name of
Uncle Daddy. We all know him as Ralph. Ralph has
been a sales manager in our world for thirty years,
but he is wild and crazy and has a universal
international appeal. So having that voice and that entree to

(44:33):
such a huge audience is what made that raffle so successful.
The bike alone was sweet. And I'm not a fan
of different types of I'm not like a bike fan.
I love bikes. I think they're great. But these guys
know that this was the krem De La Crema bikes.
But Uncle Daddy is who got the word out so big.
So I know that Bert would love to do that again,
and I know he's already working on a couple of

(44:56):
things in the back of his brain about what we
could do that's special. We're always going to have that focus.
It is just something so meaningful to Bert. And you
know when we think about the partnerships that we have
where people are going out in the woods and finding
veterans that are living intense and maybe also need rehab
help in addition to homelessness. You know, when I think

(45:19):
about the stories of the people from wind Sports for
Warriors who they've told me, you know, I'm out there
learning how to win surf and my brain shuts off.
I'm not thinking about my PTSD for five minutes. You know,
those are the little stories that just make it all worthwhile.
And you know, you're right, I think people make it
very complex. I was the VP of HR for a huge,

(45:42):
top tier, you know, top five percent national nonprofit for
years and there's beautiful events and things that are incredible,
and the work they do is incredible. But sometimes just
Sally Joe Citizen wants to do something and know where
that dollar went. And if Sally Joe Citizen only has
a dollar and that that's what they can spare, then

(46:03):
that's what I'll take and we'll turn that into something
and we'll make.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
It work with Salute to America. You guys have so
many different partners that you help with, and so does
some of that money go to those organizations. Are at
all stays within Salute to America to help veterans, but
sometimes you partner with those other organizations.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
We do trying to understand that we do.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
We partner with other organizations, but again local and small scale.
I mean, I think we all know that the USO
is fantastic, right, Wounded Warriors is fantastic. There's incredible big
things that are done out there. But when the local
Sheriff's department says we're doing a little camp for kids
and we're doing shop with a cop and we want
it local, that's what we want to hit. You know,

(46:45):
Win Sports for Warriors is this little charity outside of
Saint Petersburg and they take you know, sixteen to twenty
five people out on the water. That's where we're going
to focus. So I can't take them out and teach
them how to win surf don't have the capabilities to.
We partner with Solid seven, you know that is out
there trying to make sure that there's suicide prevention and

(47:08):
awareness about that I have a job to do, they
have a job to do. They're better at that than
I am. And I'm probably a little better in hr
than they are, right, but they don't do my job,
and I certainly am not going to do their job.
So we do partner with small organizations to make sure
the dollars have the biggest bang for their buck. It's
not just about buying things, right. I mean, we can
do that all day long, but there is the old adage.

(47:30):
You know, you give a person a fish and they
eat today. You teach them how to fish and they
eat for their lifetime. So we partner with these smaller
organizations that are really out there doing the help. And
then on top of that, we are finding people locally
that need us. And the other thing that I haven't mentioned.
Many of the people that work in the motorcycle world

(47:50):
are veterans. It's a very attractive role for somebody who
is dynamic and has a strong sense of independence and
a strong pride about their country, and they're usually people
that really enjoy riding. So we had our own employees
who are veterans that lost their home and I think

(48:10):
I told you a story about the cars that if
somebody was not up to date with their car payment
and then the hurricane took their car, their three payments
shy and they don't get their car totaled out, they're
not going to get the money for their car because
they were three payments shy. So our organization came in
and paid the three car payments, you know, so for

(48:31):
six hundred dollars they became whole and would get their
car totaled that was destroyed in Ian or Milton, and
then they can buy a new car. So things like that.
Even our own employees have reached out to us employees
in the Twisted Fork, you know, We've had employees that
are friends of riders that have come to us. So

(48:53):
we do a lot on an individual scale, and we
do vet it and we're very careful. But at the
same time, it's being able to have the freedom to
go anywhere we're needed. I can talk to an individual
and help them. I can talk to a small nonprofit
that needs help and help them. I can always be
a venue for a huge nonprofit that just needs a

(49:13):
venue and not charge them. We have got so many
spiderwebs as to what we can do to help the community.
So that is a good question. It's not just me
writing a check every time.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
And like we said, that can be done by sending
an email to Perry P. E r I at Bert's
HD B E r t s hd dot com, giving
all the details of you know, the person's situation. If
it's yourself self nominating, that's fine, but just giving all
those details so that it can definitely be sure that

(49:44):
the money that Salute to America raises truly gets to
the necessary person and that that party that truly genuinely
needs it absolutely.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
And if you can't come by the dealership and grab
a free beer and leave a generous tip, then you
can always go to our website, which is bert sluteto
America Foundation dot org. There's an account right there where
you can do something like that. That's fine if you
want to send a check to the dealership made out
to Bert'slute to America Foundation. Again, I know it's a
really long name, so we'll say it nine times just

(50:16):
to make sure everybody's got it, but it is. It
is something that you know, people always ask me, how
did this preppy girl from Michigan end up in the
Harley World.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
We went to Ohio.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
That's a whole nother story, right.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Because I'm a go blue kind of person.

Speaker 5 (50:31):
I know I had to.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
I'm out numbered today, but that's okay.

Speaker 5 (50:35):
Well, and again, I love my Michigan compatriots. I grew
up there, but there were two of us from our
high school. One he played football for Ohio State, so
he would always say to me, Perry, I have a
reason to be here. Why did you come here? And
I was like, well, my major's here. What can I
tell you? But my feeling is is that we really
want to make sure that everybody knows there's a way

(50:56):
you can help. And if the way you can help
is you should just come by and have a beer
and drop in a dollar tip. Great, that's helping, you know,
that's the thing. It's helping, and it's going to the
right place. So if we can do it, we'll do it.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Awesome. Well, thanks again for being on the show, Perry.
We appreciate you. You I appreciate you.

Speaker 5 (51:13):
And yeah, we're ready for our box. So we're ready
to do home goods for heroes again, so you let
me know. We last year we did a box for
a month and then we also offered Birts Bucks to
anyone who donated on two specific days, so awesome. They
got five and ten dollars a Birt's Bucks if they
donated sheets or pillows, blankets, cleaning supplies. So we'll do

(51:34):
that again when you're ready, we'll get it on the board.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
That's a really good incentive to get here. Yes, thank
you so much, thank you, thank you. Mark your calendars
for July twentieth, twenty twenty five, from one to five
pm at the Wyvern Hotel, Perch three sixty rooftop one
o one East Rata Esplanade in punt of Quarda, Florida.
This fundraiser will benefit Warrior Wellness that helps keep warriors

(51:58):
in the fight, help veterans a fit, provide gym memberships,
personal training, swimming lessons, and holistic health services to those
who served.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
And that's our show for today.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
Thank you so much for joining us, whether you're on
one hundred point nine FMWCCF or via the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
We'll see you next time. Rally Pointers fall Out