March 31, 2025 • 32 mins
The heart and soul of the Warrior Retreat beats through its remarkable volunteer community. With only one full-time executive director and six part-time staff members, this extraordinary sanctuary for wounded veterans thrives thanks to the dedication of over 1,300 volunteers who contributed their time and talents last year alone.
Volunteer Coordinator Faith Lillemo guides listeners through the thirteen different volunteer pathways that keep the retreat running - from bakers creating homemade treats for guest families to maintenance crews ensuring the 37-acre property remains in pristine condition. The monthly Beautification Days draw up to 125 community members who tackle everything from weeding gardens to testing playground equipment for incoming warrior families.
What makes this volunteer army truly special is that many never meet the warriors they're serving. From quilting guilds crafting handmade blankets to corporate teams like Home Depot Foundation and PenFed providing crucial support, these behind-the-scenes heroes demonstrate extraordinary commitment to veterans they may never encounter face-to-face.
Navy veteran John Wall offers a powerful perspective as someone who experienced the retreat firsthand during his recovery. Initially reluctant to visit, he found not just a beautiful property but a supportive family that helped him reconnect with his wife after a year of separation due to deployment and hospitalization. Today, he volunteers at the retreat, completing a meaningful full-circle journey.
Whether you can commit to weekly service or just a single day each year, the Warrior Retreat welcomes your support. Visit their website to learn about upcoming Beautification Days, schedule a tour to see the impact firsthand, or contact volunteer@willingwarriors.org to discover how your unique skills might benefit wounded warriors and their families. The retreat's impressive 94% pass-through rate ensures your contribution directly supports those who've served our nation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Larry Zilliox (00:00):
Good morning.
I'm your host, larry Ziliak,director of Culinary Services
here at the Warrior Retreat, andthis week we're joined by John
Wall, who's going to be myco-host, and Faith Lillimo,
who's our volunteer coordinatorhere at the Warrior Retreat, and
we're going to take some timeduring this episode to talk
about all the differentvolunteer opportunities that we
(00:23):
have here at the Warrior Retreatand the events coming up,
different ways that ourcommunity can help us out here
at the Warrior Retreat.
So, john and Faith, welcome tothe podcast.
Faith Lillemo (00:35):
Thank you, Larry.
Larry Zilliox (00:37):
Thank you, larry John, if you would just take a
minute or so to just tell ourlisteners a little bit about
your background.
John Wall (00:43):
Yeah, I appreciate this opportunity.
I spent 21 years in the UnitedStates Navy and I was a couple
years ago.
I was deployed and recently wassustained a traumatic brain
injury while I was deployed andthat led me to some recovery
time at Walter Reed.
And while I was at Walter ReedI was able to connect with the
(01:04):
Willing Lawyer Retreat and spendsome time here, and then that's
been a couple of years and hereI am as a co-host with you,
larry, so I appreciate it.
Larry Zilliox (01:15):
It's awesome.
I'm just so happy to have youso I don't have to ask all the
questions.
That's great.
Yeah, you and your wife Erinjoined us for a stay, which was
great, and then you've beenvolunteering here for a good
while now too.
John Wall (01:30):
Yeah, For a few years .
You know, after we stayed herewe took some time down, some
downtime and then did the wholetransition process, got back
into the workforce and then,when we can, we come out to the
events and support them andvolunteer and do what we can.
Larry Zilliox (01:47):
Well, it's always good to have alumni involved
and fortunately you live in thearea which is great Faith.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour role here at the retreat
and how you coordinate thevolunteers.
Faith Lillemo (02:03):
Oh, thanks so much for having me, larry.
I love what I do as a volunteercoordinator.
My goal is to promote themission statement that we have,
which is to provide thecost-free retreat stays and
other programs that positivelyimpact the lives of the wounded,
ill and injured militaryservice members, veterans and
their families throughcoordinating volunteers.
(02:23):
So the volunteers are the heartof this organization.
We only have seven part-timestaff and everything that gets
done here is done by volunteers.
So what that looks like is onWednesdays we have the most
volunteers coming to reset theretreat center for the next
guest days.
We have grounds team people.
(02:44):
We have maintenance peoplecoming.
We have staging crews gettingthe houses prepared, making beds
, putting out presents and giftsfor the families that are
coming.
It takes a village to make thisretreat center happen, and so
what I do is I coordinate 13different areas of volunteerism
under the direct supervision ofour operations director, diane
(03:06):
Polk, so I coordinate with herto see what the needs are and
see where the volunteers areneeded most.
So right now, if I were to goover the 13 different areas, we
have admin volunteers that comein.
We have bakers on call thatwill bake goods for guest stays.
That will bake goods for gueststays and also when we have our
Mighty Oaks PTS counselinggroups that come in, they bake a
(03:30):
lot of bars and cookies.
It's fantastic.
We have community ambassadorsthat are people who help us with
table events, they help withtours and they talk to people
about the retreat and what we'redoing and try to partner with
more companies in the community.
More individuals help us togrow in strength and numbers
(03:52):
Also give people a sense ofcommunity and feel like they're
doing a good thing.
We also have volunteers thathelp specifically with events,
fundraising.
We have gardening people.
We have both a flower gardenand an organic vegetable garden
on site here.
We have our grounds teammembers and we have guest
(04:12):
services, guest staycoordinators who act as liaisons
between the retreat and theguest stays.
They actually help coordinateand talk to the warriors that
come in and help create anitinerary so that things run
smoothly and that the warriorknows what to expect when they
get here.
We also partner with differentactivity.
Larry Zilliox (04:32):
We partner with different activity providers
yeah, activity providers.
Faith Lillemo (04:38):
And so the guest aid coordinator acts as a
liaison to set up activities forthe warrior and his or her
families.
We also have house prep andstaging volunteers.
We have maintenance volunteersboth indoor maintenance and
outdoor maintenance, working onour lawnmowers and fixing things
(04:58):
.
We have photography volunteersand we have sous chefs that
volunteer.
So it's pretty amazing and wecontinue to grow, and if people
have more ideas of differentareas that we need to have a
volunteer crew, people arewelcome to give me some new
ideas.
I would be happy to hear it.
Larry Zilliox (05:17):
Great.
How many volunteers do we haveroughly?
Faith Lillemo (05:22):
Oh, that's a loaded question.
I worked with 1,300 last yearand that is touch points.
Some of them come one time fora beautification day, which our
beautification days are a way tovolunteer on one Saturday per
month from 9 to noon, Marchthrough November, and people can
sign up for that through SignUp Genius on our website.
But some people I see weeklyand some people I see only once
(05:47):
a year.
They come at Christmas time tohelp set up for Christmas.
So in total I counted 1300.
Now on a weekly basis it's 40to 50 people.
John Wall (05:57):
Wow, that's amazing.
Faith that is.
That is awesome.
I didn't realize.
You know, it takes like trulynot a village or community but a
whole county to come out hereand take care of the grounds,
you know, and it's so amazing tosee what gives you that
appreciation of when you stayhere now.
You know what really goes intothe place and how many people
(06:20):
come out here and really workreally hard and obviously it's
all volunteer.
You know donations and stuff.
So we're definitely, you know,staying here myself.
That's a huge blessing and weprobably couldn't do that right
and be where we're at today asan organization.
I have a quick question for you.
So, out of the 1300, is ittypically individuals or is it
(06:41):
organizations?
Are they just in the state ofVirginia?
Are they outside of theVirginia?
It's a loaded question.
Faith Lillemo (06:47):
It's a wonderfully loaded question.
Thank you, you're welcome.
Well, here's what that numbercomprises.
It comprises individuals thathelp on a weekly basis.
It comprises families that comeout on beautification days,
community service organizationsthat come out on beautification
days.
It comprises corporate groupsthat come and have their own
(07:08):
separate service day.
I set up about 50 differentcommunity service days for
companies and community serviceorganizations, such as churches,
gouts, soccer teams and whatnot, to come on the property and
work on a specific project.
That's in addition to ourbeautification days, which is in
(07:30):
addition to our weeklyvolunteers that come every
Wednesday and Thursday and hitthe reset button and help us
make things happen.
Larry Zilliox (07:37):
So with the beautification days, as you said
, they're pretty much monthlybetween March and November, and
our out-tempo for our guest days, just so our listeners are
clear.
We usually do three guest daysin a row and then take a week
off, and it's during that weekoff, on Saturday, that we ask
(07:58):
the community to come out andhelp us with the grounds to put
mulch down, to paint, to weedthe place is a weed factory in
the summer, so we definitelyneed help with that.
The best way for the communityto sign up for Beautification
Day would be to go through ourwebpage under Events and
(08:22):
there'll be a tab there forBeautification day, and it's a
signup genius.
Is that right?
Faith Lillemo (08:28):
That's correct, yeah.
Larry Zilliox (08:29):
So typically the signup genius is a hundred
spaces, but we often get morethan that.
Faith Lillemo (08:36):
That is correct.
We used to have only 30 spacesavailable on our signup genius,
and when I started a little overthree years ago, I moved it to
100 slots because I realizedthere were so many individuals,
families and organizations thatwere contacting me and wanting
to come out, so which is areally great problem to have we
have so many people who areinterested in supporting us.
(08:56):
So I opened up the slots to 100.
And even at that I still havemore people that want to come
out.
And so what I do is I look atthe calendar, which I study a
lot.
I study our calendar all thetime and I try to place those
volunteers in a place where theycan support an event that's
coming up, because we need helpwith setup, we need help with
(09:19):
cleanup, and so I just make thematch and there you go.
John Wall (09:25):
Sounds like you got this all under control.
Faith Lillemo (09:29):
Not really.
I just work really hard andit's something I truly enjoy.
John Wall (09:32):
That's amazing.
Speaking of our listeners, isthere any other platforms that
they're able to tap into thatwill get them the information
for the retreat so they canreach out if they need to?
Will get them the informationfor the retreat so they can
reach out if they need to.
Faith Lillemo (09:46):
If they go on our willingwarriorsorg, our website
, and they fill out thevolunteer information.
It will come to me.
So anything at volunteer atwillingwarriorsorg will come to
me.
I will respond and I have atemplate which goes over the
different areas that they canvolunteer.
Some are needed right now, someare an as-needed basis, so it's
(10:09):
best just to talk to me first.
I'll help make the match and Ireally encourage people to just
give something a whirl and, ifthey want to try another area of
volunteering out, to try thattoo.
Some of our volunteersvolunteer in three to four
different areas.
Larry Zilliox (10:23):
Oh, wow, that's amazing the volunteers that we
get on Beautification Day.
Is there an age limit oranything like that, or we just
everybody's welcome?
Faith Lillemo (10:34):
Well, we love to have families come out, so I
encourage you know, if peoplehave children five and up, to
bring their children and tovolunteer as a family, because
it's such a wonderful way toinfuse the importance of
thinking of others, caring forothers and just how good it
feels to serve other people anda good cause.
Larry Zilliox (10:57):
To kind of instill that giving back
mentality in their children.
Absolutely and say hey, doesn'tthis feel good to help and give
back mentality in theirchildren?
Absolutely.
And say hey doesn't this feelgood to help and give back?
And I will say that for thelittle kids, we generally have
two jobs for them, and numberone is pick up sticks.
Faith Lillemo (11:16):
Yes.
Larry Zilliox (11:16):
Because that's important.
We have a lot of sticks allover the grass and they're not
good for the lawnmower, so weneed the sticks picked up and
that usually lasts a half anhour or so before they're burnt
out on that.
But the most important job wehave for them is to test the
playground equipment to makesure that it's in working order
for the next family and the kidsthat are coming in a week or so
(11:39):
later and they really wear theequipment out.
They put it through its paces.
Let me tell you.
Faith Lillemo (11:46):
I have such a good time at Beautification Day.
It's really amazing to see theteens that come out and they're
shoveling dirt and they'rehauling wheelbarrows and working
together.
We have such ase teams theJ-ROTC teams to young men's
service league groups, tofamilies, to individuals, to
(12:10):
corporate groups all mixed up,comprising usually 75 to 125
people per beautification day.
We also have a church thatcomes out, shepherd of the Hills
Church.
They come out and bring snacksand waters for everybody and
it's a community effort.
People pitch in here, there andeverywhere.
John Wall (12:30):
I believe you just recently had a beautification
day.
Is that correct?
Faith Lillemo (12:34):
Yes, we just launched our first one, on March
8th.
John Wall (12:36):
That's amazing, and you have another one coming up
in the future.
Faith Lillemo (12:39):
I, assume April 26th.
Larry Zilliox (12:41):
Okay, awesome.
So one of my favorite groupsthat comes out is the Young
Men's Service League of SouthLoudoun, and they do a number of
things for us One they puttogether some more packages for
the guests, which are chocolateand graham crackers and
marshmallows, because we havesix fire pits here at the
(13:01):
retreat and they get usedconstantly and that's great.
That's waiting for them on thecounter.
But these young men's serviceleagues and there's a bunch of
them around I think it's anationwide organization.
Actually there's five chaptersin the area, five chapters, yeah
, and this is an organizationthat's made up of young teenage
(13:23):
men with their moms volunteerwith their moms and the moms
come out and they work just ashard, if not harder, than the
kids, and it's just great to seethem out and being here doing
something together.
I would add, too, that we tryto capture as much of that as we
(13:43):
can, photographing things, andwe create an album on our Flickr
page called of BeautificationDays, so that the volunteers who
come out they can downloadthose pictures, they can see and
hopefully share them with theirfriends and relatives and say,
hey, we had a good time out atthe Warrior Retreat, think about
going out and volunteering.
(14:04):
What are some of the corporategroups that come out that really
support us?
Faith Lillemo (14:09):
We have some wonderful corporate supporters.
We have Juniper, we haveLockheed Martin, we have AWS, we
have NOVAC, we have QBE, wehave BAE.
We have just a variety oforganizations that come out.
Larry Zilliox (14:27):
Home Depot Foundation.
Faith Lillemo (14:29):
Oh, the Home Depot Foundation, absolutely.
They've been very generous withus.
We were able to build a bigwell.
They built us a big shed in thebackyard.
They give to us for many thingswith building the Grand Lodge.
They've helped put in theflooring here.
They've helped with the mulchthat was put out.
(14:49):
They come and they bringvolunteers, so they donate the
the money and they provide thevolunteers.
Larry Zilliox (14:54):
So home depot is pretty amazing that way yeah,
and another one that comes tomind is i-66 express oh sure and
the team that works out thereon 66 in the express lanes
maintaining them.
But boy, they come out withtheir heavy equipment and their
front loaders and everything andthey do jobs for us that you
know we couldn't reallyaccomplish on beautification day
(15:14):
.
We just don't have the heavyequipment and they're front
loaders and everything and theydo jobs for us that you know we
couldn't really accomplish onbeautification day.
We just don't have theequipment for it.
But they're out here with theskid sear and they're moving.
Can think of one time we had ahuge tree come down on one of
our trails and the root balljust up upended half the trail
and they got down there andpushed it off and filled it in
and they had the trail back inorder like in a couple of hours.
(15:38):
So they're they're just a hugeand and many other people are
veterans and we find that a lotwith companies that come out to
support us, they'll bring theiremployees out for a service day
usually a work day and many ofthe employees that come out AWS
(15:59):
Micron comes out.
They have a complete section ofveterans Micron veterans
organization.
So yeah, we get just sometremendous support.
Faith Lillemo (16:09):
Well, Micron not only supports us here, but they
also serve breakfast at ourWarrior Ride.
They provide all the food.
John Wall (16:16):
Yeah, we'll make sure we don't leave out two
organizations that are dear tomy heart, and that's PenFed.
Faith Lillemo (16:23):
Oh, my goodness, yes.
John Wall (16:24):
We wouldn't be here without them.
And then also NextPoint Groupwho, I believe, helps us with
the bike ride right every year,oh, they are Sponsors and I'm
sure many other things.
So I want to make sure we givea shout out to those.
Larry Zilliox (16:37):
Oh yes, they're awesome I believe NextPoint is
one of our presenting sponsorsfor the bike ride.
Faith Lillemo (16:43):
I think they are the presenting sponsor.
They're the top of the triangle.
Larry Zilliox (16:47):
Yeah, it's awesome.
Faith Lillemo (16:48):
Yes.
Larry Zilliox (16:49):
And we couldn't do this not only without the
volunteers, but without all thecorporate support.
We're not getting any federalfunding.
So I think people out there ourlisteners need to know that
this is a community supportedeffort.
Here.
We just happen to be the luckyones that get to take what the
(17:12):
community gives us and offer itto the warriors.
We're sort of the tip of thespear there and we're very
fortunate to be able.
it's not lost on us how lucky weare to be able to do this job
and be the ones that say, hey,here's a $6.5 million 37 acre
estate for you to enjoy.
Right, and it's because of thegenerosity of the community.
Faith Lillemo (17:38):
And I'd also like to point out that we do have a
94% pass-through rate because wehave so many amazing volunteers
and corporate groups thatsupport us.
We have just a greatpass-through rate with when
people do donate to us.
Most all the money goes to theWarriors and their families and
programs for them.
Larry Zilliox (17:58):
Yeah Well, nobody's getting rich here,
that's for sure.
John Wall (18:04):
That's good to know.
Let's be true to what we'rehere for, that's right.
Larry Zilliox (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, we're just yeah.
Everybody on staff has thismission in their heart.
There's absolutely no doubtabout it.
You know, and even like, dianehas two active duty sons in the
army.
You know, and, uh, we, we justwe're just so fortunate to be
able to do this.
Faith Lillemo (18:29):
Well, and I have a brother who was in the Army
and my dad was in the Army, myuncles were in the Army,
father-in-law who was in the AirForce and my grandpa was
actually in the Air Corps which,I come to learn, was before the
Air Force was called the AirForce, it was called the Air
Corps, which is—.
Larry Zilliox (18:47):
Army Air Corps.
Faith Lillemo (18:49):
Army Air Corps.
I just learned that the otherday.
Isn't that neat.
John Wall (18:53):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Yeah, I mean same for me, youknow, I get.
We have generational family,both on on my family side, on my
mom and dad's side, and also onmy wife's side.
Her family has generationalfolks who have served, I think,
even back to the Revolution War,according to my life and
genealogy that she's goingthrough.
So, you know, this place is,it's amazing.
(19:16):
The people here, you know, arejust top notch in my opinion.
I really, I really believe that, you know, they're just
everybody here is, you know,including volunteers that I've
worked with.
It's just they pour theirhearts and souls into this place
to make sure that the you know,the wounded, ill and injured
that come here, and someveterans I believe we host
(19:38):
veterans here too as well makesure that they get some downtime
.
So it's amazing, you know, andI would recommend anybody to
definitely get involved and, youknow, help the organization out
, help the organization out, andif you're a veteran, or even if
you're, you know, listening tous out, you're on base somewhere
and you know someone that needsto get away from the medical
(19:59):
world you know, reach out.
Larry Zilliox (20:08):
Yeah, for sure.
You know most of our volunteershave some form of military
connection and you know theoverwhelming majority of people
out there are good, decentpeople that want to help.
They want to give back.
Very often they just don't knowhow, and we're trying to.
We get the word out as often aswe can.
That's what the podcast reallyis all about, and to say that
(20:31):
you know, if you're in theNorthern Virginia area and you'd
like to do some volunteering,and, to be clear, you don't.
There's no set requirement whenit comes to volunteering.
We have volunteers that show upseveral times a week.
We have volunteers that comeonce a year.
When we think of Mary, who doesthe Christmas setup?
Maureen, maureen, sorry.
(20:51):
Who does the Christmas set up?
Maureen, maureen, sorry.
We have a lot of Marys andMaureens here.
So there's no, you know you'renot required a certain amount of
volunteer time.
You want to come and see whatyou can do?
I do.
I remember the story of one ofour favorite volunteers who
called and said well, I'd liketo do something, I'd like to
(21:14):
help somehow.
And um, she said but you know Iwork all week and okay, well,
what about the weekend?
I got the grandkids on theweekend and and it was sort of
like, well, I don't know what wecan do, you know?
But then it turns out that thatbonnie works from home and she
(21:34):
has an amazing pool in herbackyard and it's right near the
retreat and she offers the poolto the guests and during the
summer we call it Bonnie'sPrivate Pool and the guest stay
coordinator can set up a timefor them to go over and she's
very gracious.
They have access to the bathroomand towels and some snacks and
(21:58):
they have a great time overthere and that's not something
we can offer them here.
We don't have a pool, butthat's her way of volunteering
and she rarely sets foot when wehave volunteer appreciation
events.
Then she'll come to the retreatand get to see everybody and
meet everybody, but she'svolunteering from a distance and
she's helping out in that waytoo.
Faith Lillemo (22:21):
That's a good point.
There's a lot of people who dovolunteer that never come and
work here during the week or ona monthly basis, but they do
things from their homes or intheir community groups.
For example, we have fivequilting guilds that give us
beautiful quilts to give to thewarrior and his or her families.
We have a blind nun who knitsbeautiful blankets with another
(22:47):
lady and that gal brings theblankets in.
I mean, talk about inspiring.
You know she can't even see,and here she is knitting quilt
blankets for us to give out tothe families.
I think that's just sobeautiful.
John Wall (23:00):
That is very beautiful and that's great, and
you know what I have one, soit's.
You know we keep it on ourcouch at home and it's just a
reminder.
You know, and they really truly, these volunteers pour their
hearts into this and correct meright or wrong.
Some of them actually, or ifnot all of them, they pray over
those blankets for healing,right?
Is that true?
Faith Lillemo (23:21):
We have a lot of prayer shawls that are prayed
over that is correct beforethey're given to us and then
given to the families.
Larry Zilliox (23:27):
It's a blessing.
We have a good number ofvolunteers that do things either
here at the retreat or away buthelp us in a bunch of different
ways that never get to see ormeet the warriors, and that's a
special gift when they'rewilling to give up their time,
(23:49):
money, effort to help peoplethey'd never meet or see, money
effort to help people they'dnever meet or see.
And it's another reason whywe're very fortunate that in our
work here we get to workdirectly with the families and
we get to meet the warriors and,best of all, we get to see the
difference that this place andthe things that our volunteers
(24:11):
do make in the lives of thesefamilies.
It changes them.
We see how they look when theyget here and how they look when
they leave and sometimes it'salmost like a different,
completely different person.
And a real shout out to thosevolunteers that will do that but
(24:34):
never get the gratitude ofmeeting and seeing the results
of their work, and I view themas very special volunteers.
Faith Lillemo (24:42):
I completely agree with you, larry, and there
are a few ways that thosevolunteers can see the families.
If they go on our Flickr site,where we have all our albums in
chronological order, they canactually see the families that
have been here.
They can see the activities,the beautification days.
They can see the fundraisingevents that we do.
(25:04):
If people want to see what goeson here, they can absolutely do
that by going to our Flickralbum.
Larry Zilliox (25:11):
So, as we kind of wrap up, I want to kind of end
on a couple of notes.
One is the best way to learnabout the retreat is to come
visit the retreat to take a tour.
We can talk all day about theretreat, you can look at
pictures of the retreat, butit's a whole different ballgame
when you get out here and yousee what the Warriors see with
(25:34):
their families.
And so I know, john, if youwould just talk for a minute
about what the impact was whenyou first got here, what you
thought for you and Aaron whenyou arrived.
John Wall (25:46):
Well, honestly, it was hard to get me here, first
of all until the wife told me Ihad to go and I said, yes, ma'am
, no, I mean, once I got here,you know I uh, when I was still
at Walter Reed recovering, I hada lot of issues, um, with
sensory and stuff like that, andI wasn't sure coming to
(26:10):
something like this, cause I hadsecluded myself to try to
manage my environment so thingswould not get worse.
And you know, I came here andit actually was, I think, a home
away from home dinner,thanksgiving dinner.
Yeah, it was a Thanksgivingdinner.
When I first came here, Ihadn't even stayed here.
I don't even think I had signedup to stay here at that point
(26:33):
and I was struggling while I washere.
I don't even think I had signedup to stay here at that point.
Um and uh, I was strugglingwhile I was here, and so I
stepped outside and um, withoutyou know providing too many
details, and I was just outthere by myself on the main
house and uh just sitting thereenjoying the view, and uh, take
some time.
And then, you know, diane anduh and Sarah came out and
checked on me and just, you know, just sat there with me and
(26:57):
just talked to me a little bitand asked me how I was doing,
and you know, and just showed methat they just really cared
about me as a person.
You know, they had lots ofguests.
I don't even know how manyguests here that day About 80.
Yeah, that's a lot many guestshere that day About 80.
Yeah, that's a lot.
Uh, and so you know they justthey showed me that you know
(27:17):
they truly cared and, um, that'swhen I knew, yeah, yeah, I
gotta come stay.
And so I think a few monthslater, when there was
availability, my wife and Istayed and we actually stayed in
the second house that was builtand, forgive me, I'm forgiving
you, pen-fed house, pen-fedhouse.
That really helped us becausewe never had a real transition.
(27:39):
You know, I flew out of Africainto Germany and Germany to
Walter Reed, and then it wasgame on day one, and so we
really got to utilize some ofthe resources here that actually
helped reintegrate us as acouple.
We had been away for about ayear, a little over a year, and
(28:00):
then a couple years at thehospital, so a total of three
years roughly.
And so it's just one appointmentafter another after another all
day long and my wife was tryingto manage time in different
locations and you know, tryingto keep the household running
and then trying to be my medicalcaregiver and go to different
(28:22):
appointments, and this justreally took, you know, the world
off our shoulders to just kindof bring her and I back together
and work on us and spend somequality time together and then
bring our families here.
So yes it it was, uh, it wasreally uh an amazing uh time and
uh it it gave me some newperspective here and.
(28:43):
I really enjoyed it and so, uh,I honestly I'm glad I'm doing,
I'm, I'm your co-host, you knowthis and I can actually, you
know, tell the world now, hey,thank you, thank you for you
know all the people andeverything that they provided
that day, because, who knows,you know you could be somewhere
else.
You're dealing with otherthings that you didn't know that
(29:04):
you were dealing with and youwere able to get you know some
support here, yeah, it wasamazing and I got to make sure I
say this this is family.
Now, you know, once you comehere and you spend time, and you
come back.
You are family.
Whether you're a service member, a veteran or a um, a supporter
(29:24):
, a volunteer, you are ourfamily.
We are family here and you know, know, my wife and I, uh, we
truly uh, even though we'reclose here and we'd like to come
more often, uh, we think aboutyou guys all the time and we're
always curious what's going onand, uh, we always miss everyone
.
It's just a blessing to comehere, so well we're.
Larry Zilliox (29:44):
We're glad you're still in the area and you're
able to contribute from whateverfits into your schedule, and
it's just great to have and wedo have a number of veterans,
alumni that have stayed with us,that come back and help from
time to time with events, and Ithink of Zach and his wife out
(30:05):
in the Midwest and his explosiveart program, and he contributes
paintings to the gala and comesout for the gala.
That's always fun.
Faith Lillemo (30:16):
So he and his wife are actually in charge of
registration this year at thegala.
Larry Zilliox (30:21):
We're definitely putting them to work.
Faith Lillemo (30:24):
Wow, they're volunteers.
John Wall (30:26):
That's amazing.
We get to see them again.
You know that's a, that's anice little trip for them, but
I'm glad that we can see themevery year, or however long they
keep doing that for yeah, justgreat, great, great family yeah
um.
Larry Zilliox (30:38):
So, to wrap things up, think about coming
out for a tour.
If you have a question, emailfaith at volunteer at
willingwarriorsorg.
You can call the office Mondaythrough Friday, nine in the
morning till two, which is571-248-0008.
(30:59):
Go to the webpage, look upevents.
Beautification Day sign up forBeautification Day.
There's plenty of ways to help.
Don't think that we don't havesomething for you to do, because
everything takes volunteers.
We give out probably a couplethousand cards a year, but we
have to have a volunteer whosits down and looks at each card
(31:22):
and makes sure they'reappropriate.
Sometimes the older kids liketo make cards up that have
exploding tanks and weird things, so we take those out, but that
takes man hours, and so you cancontribute, you can help and
please, if you have anyquestions, reach out to Faith
(31:42):
and she'll get you squared away.
She'll get you volunteering.
Well, listen, john, thanks forjoining us and co-hosting.
That's been great and, faith,as always, you're just a joy to
talk to really.
Faith Lillemo (31:57):
Oh, thank you, Larry, I'll pay you later.
John Wall (32:00):
Thanks, Larry.
Larry Zilliox (32:01):
All right, Bye.
Well for our listeners, we'llhave an episode again next
Monday morning at 0500.
Until then, if you have anyquestions or suggestions, you
can reach us at podcast atwillingwarriorsorg.
We'll see you in a week.
Thanks for listening.
Good morning.
I'm your host, larry Ziliak,director of Culinary Services
here at the Warrior Retreat, andthis week we're joined by John
Wall, who's going to be myco-host, and Faith Lillimo,
who's our volunteer coordinatorhere at the Warrior Retreat, and
we're going to take some timeduring this episode to talk
about all the differentvolunteer opportunities that we
(00:23):
have here at the Warrior Retreatand the events coming up,
different ways that ourcommunity can help us out here
at the Warrior Retreat.
So, john and Faith, welcome tothe podcast.
Faith Lillemo (00:35):
Thank you, Larry.
Larry Zilliox (00:37):
Thank you, larry John, if you would just take a
minute or so to just tell ourlisteners a little bit about
your background.
John Wall (00:43):
Yeah, I appreciate this opportunity.
I spent 21 years in the UnitedStates Navy and I was a couple
years ago.
I was deployed and recently wassustained a traumatic brain
injury while I was deployed andthat led me to some recovery
time at Walter Reed.
And while I was at Walter ReedI was able to connect with the
(01:04):
Willing Lawyer Retreat and spendsome time here, and then that's
been a couple of years and hereI am as a co-host with you,
larry, so I appreciate it.
Larry Zilliox (01:15):
It's awesome.
I'm just so happy to have youso I don't have to ask all the
questions.
That's great.
Yeah, you and your wife Erinjoined us for a stay, which was
great, and then you've beenvolunteering here for a good
while now too.
John Wall (01:30):
Yeah, For a few years .
You know, after we stayed herewe took some time down, some
downtime and then did the wholetransition process, got back
into the workforce and then,when we can, we come out to the
events and support them andvolunteer and do what we can.
Larry Zilliox (01:47):
Well, it's always good to have alumni involved
and fortunately you live in thearea which is great Faith.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour role here at the retreat
and how you coordinate thevolunteers.
Faith Lillemo (02:03):
Oh, thanks so much for having me, larry.
I love what I do as a volunteercoordinator.
My goal is to promote themission statement that we have,
which is to provide thecost-free retreat stays and
other programs that positivelyimpact the lives of the wounded,
ill and injured militaryservice members, veterans and
their families throughcoordinating volunteers.
(02:23):
So the volunteers are the heartof this organization.
We only have seven part-timestaff and everything that gets
done here is done by volunteers.
So what that looks like is onWednesdays we have the most
volunteers coming to reset theretreat center for the next
guest days.
We have grounds team people.
(02:44):
We have maintenance peoplecoming.
We have staging crews gettingthe houses prepared, making beds
, putting out presents and giftsfor the families that are
coming.
It takes a village to make thisretreat center happen, and so
what I do is I coordinate 13different areas of volunteerism
under the direct supervision ofour operations director, diane
(03:06):
Polk, so I coordinate with herto see what the needs are and
see where the volunteers areneeded most.
So right now, if I were to goover the 13 different areas, we
have admin volunteers that comein.
We have bakers on call thatwill bake goods for guest stays.
That will bake goods for gueststays and also when we have our
Mighty Oaks PTS counselinggroups that come in, they bake a
(03:30):
lot of bars and cookies.
It's fantastic.
We have community ambassadorsthat are people who help us with
table events, they help withtours and they talk to people
about the retreat and what we'redoing and try to partner with
more companies in the community.
More individuals help us togrow in strength and numbers
(03:52):
Also give people a sense ofcommunity and feel like they're
doing a good thing.
We also have volunteers thathelp specifically with events,
fundraising.
We have gardening people.
We have both a flower gardenand an organic vegetable garden
on site here.
We have our grounds teammembers and we have guest
(04:12):
services, guest staycoordinators who act as liaisons
between the retreat and theguest stays.
They actually help coordinateand talk to the warriors that
come in and help create anitinerary so that things run
smoothly and that the warriorknows what to expect when they
get here.
We also partner with differentactivity.
Larry Zilliox (04:32):
We partner with different activity providers
yeah, activity providers.
Faith Lillemo (04:38):
And so the guest aid coordinator acts as a
liaison to set up activities forthe warrior and his or her
families.
We also have house prep andstaging volunteers.
We have maintenance volunteersboth indoor maintenance and
outdoor maintenance, working onour lawnmowers and fixing things
(04:58):
.
We have photography volunteersand we have sous chefs that
volunteer.
So it's pretty amazing and wecontinue to grow, and if people
have more ideas of differentareas that we need to have a
volunteer crew, people arewelcome to give me some new
ideas.
I would be happy to hear it.
Larry Zilliox (05:17):
Great.
How many volunteers do we haveroughly?
Faith Lillemo (05:22):
Oh, that's a loaded question.
I worked with 1,300 last yearand that is touch points.
Some of them come one time fora beautification day, which our
beautification days are a way tovolunteer on one Saturday per
month from 9 to noon, Marchthrough November, and people can
sign up for that through SignUp Genius on our website.
But some people I see weeklyand some people I see only once
(05:47):
a year.
They come at Christmas time tohelp set up for Christmas.
So in total I counted 1300.
Now on a weekly basis it's 40to 50 people.
John Wall (05:57):
Wow, that's amazing.
Faith that is.
That is awesome.
I didn't realize.
You know, it takes like trulynot a village or community but a
whole county to come out hereand take care of the grounds,
you know, and it's so amazing tosee what gives you that
appreciation of when you stayhere now.
You know what really goes intothe place and how many people
(06:20):
come out here and really workreally hard and obviously it's
all volunteer.
You know donations and stuff.
So we're definitely, you know,staying here myself.
That's a huge blessing and weprobably couldn't do that right
and be where we're at today asan organization.
I have a quick question for you.
So, out of the 1300, is ittypically individuals or is it
(06:41):
organizations?
Are they just in the state ofVirginia?
Are they outside of theVirginia?
It's a loaded question.
Faith Lillemo (06:47):
It's a wonderfully loaded question.
Thank you, you're welcome.
Well, here's what that numbercomprises.
It comprises individuals thathelp on a weekly basis.
It comprises families that comeout on beautification days,
community service organizationsthat come out on beautification
days.
It comprises corporate groupsthat come and have their own
(07:08):
separate service day.
I set up about 50 differentcommunity service days for
companies and community serviceorganizations, such as churches,
gouts, soccer teams and whatnot, to come on the property and
work on a specific project.
That's in addition to ourbeautification days, which is in
(07:30):
addition to our weeklyvolunteers that come every
Wednesday and Thursday and hitthe reset button and help us
make things happen.
Larry Zilliox (07:37):
So with the beautification days, as you said
, they're pretty much monthlybetween March and November, and
our out-tempo for our guest days, just so our listeners are
clear.
We usually do three guest daysin a row and then take a week
off, and it's during that weekoff, on Saturday, that we ask
(07:58):
the community to come out andhelp us with the grounds to put
mulch down, to paint, to weedthe place is a weed factory in
the summer, so we definitelyneed help with that.
The best way for the communityto sign up for Beautification
Day would be to go through ourwebpage under Events and
(08:22):
there'll be a tab there forBeautification day, and it's a
signup genius.
Is that right?
Faith Lillemo (08:28):
That's correct, yeah.
Larry Zilliox (08:29):
So typically the signup genius is a hundred
spaces, but we often get morethan that.
Faith Lillemo (08:36):
That is correct.
We used to have only 30 spacesavailable on our signup genius,
and when I started a little overthree years ago, I moved it to
100 slots because I realizedthere were so many individuals,
families and organizations thatwere contacting me and wanting
to come out, so which is areally great problem to have we
have so many people who areinterested in supporting us.
(08:56):
So I opened up the slots to 100.
And even at that I still havemore people that want to come
out.
And so what I do is I look atthe calendar, which I study a
lot.
I study our calendar all thetime and I try to place those
volunteers in a place where theycan support an event that's
coming up, because we need helpwith setup, we need help with
(09:19):
cleanup, and so I just make thematch and there you go.
John Wall (09:25):
Sounds like you got this all under control.
Faith Lillemo (09:29):
Not really.
I just work really hard andit's something I truly enjoy.
John Wall (09:32):
That's amazing.
Speaking of our listeners, isthere any other platforms that
they're able to tap into thatwill get them the information
for the retreat so they canreach out if they need to?
Will get them the informationfor the retreat so they can
reach out if they need to.
Faith Lillemo (09:46):
If they go on our willingwarriorsorg, our website
, and they fill out thevolunteer information.
It will come to me.
So anything at volunteer atwillingwarriorsorg will come to
me.
I will respond and I have atemplate which goes over the
different areas that they canvolunteer.
Some are needed right now, someare an as-needed basis, so it's
(10:09):
best just to talk to me first.
I'll help make the match and Ireally encourage people to just
give something a whirl and, ifthey want to try another area of
volunteering out, to try thattoo.
Some of our volunteersvolunteer in three to four
different areas.
Larry Zilliox (10:23):
Oh, wow, that's amazing the volunteers that we
get on Beautification Day.
Is there an age limit oranything like that, or we just
everybody's welcome?
Faith Lillemo (10:34):
Well, we love to have families come out, so I
encourage you know, if peoplehave children five and up, to
bring their children and tovolunteer as a family, because
it's such a wonderful way toinfuse the importance of
thinking of others, caring forothers and just how good it
feels to serve other people anda good cause.
Larry Zilliox (10:57):
To kind of instill that giving back
mentality in their children.
Absolutely and say hey, doesn'tthis feel good to help and give
back mentality in theirchildren?
Absolutely.
And say hey doesn't this feelgood to help and give back?
And I will say that for thelittle kids, we generally have
two jobs for them, and numberone is pick up sticks.
Faith Lillemo (11:16):
Yes.
Larry Zilliox (11:16):
Because that's important.
We have a lot of sticks allover the grass and they're not
good for the lawnmower, so weneed the sticks picked up and
that usually lasts a half anhour or so before they're burnt
out on that.
But the most important job wehave for them is to test the
playground equipment to makesure that it's in working order
for the next family and the kidsthat are coming in a week or so
(11:39):
later and they really wear theequipment out.
They put it through its paces.
Let me tell you.
Faith Lillemo (11:46):
I have such a good time at Beautification Day.
It's really amazing to see theteens that come out and they're
shoveling dirt and they'rehauling wheelbarrows and working
together.
We have such ase teams theJ-ROTC teams to young men's
service league groups, tofamilies, to individuals, to
(12:10):
corporate groups all mixed up,comprising usually 75 to 125
people per beautification day.
We also have a church thatcomes out, shepherd of the Hills
Church.
They come out and bring snacksand waters for everybody and
it's a community effort.
People pitch in here, there andeverywhere.
John Wall (12:30):
I believe you just recently had a beautification
day.
Is that correct?
Faith Lillemo (12:34):
Yes, we just launched our first one, on March
8th.
John Wall (12:36):
That's amazing, and you have another one coming up
in the future.
Faith Lillemo (12:39):
I, assume April 26th.
Larry Zilliox (12:41):
Okay, awesome.
So one of my favorite groupsthat comes out is the Young
Men's Service League of SouthLoudoun, and they do a number of
things for us One they puttogether some more packages for
the guests, which are chocolateand graham crackers and
marshmallows, because we havesix fire pits here at the
(13:01):
retreat and they get usedconstantly and that's great.
That's waiting for them on thecounter.
But these young men's serviceleagues and there's a bunch of
them around I think it's anationwide organization.
Actually there's five chaptersin the area, five chapters, yeah
, and this is an organizationthat's made up of young teenage
(13:23):
men with their moms volunteerwith their moms and the moms
come out and they work just ashard, if not harder, than the
kids, and it's just great to seethem out and being here doing
something together.
I would add, too, that we tryto capture as much of that as we
(13:43):
can, photographing things, andwe create an album on our Flickr
page called of BeautificationDays, so that the volunteers who
come out they can downloadthose pictures, they can see and
hopefully share them with theirfriends and relatives and say,
hey, we had a good time out atthe Warrior Retreat, think about
going out and volunteering.
(14:04):
What are some of the corporategroups that come out that really
support us?
Faith Lillemo (14:09):
We have some wonderful corporate supporters.
We have Juniper, we haveLockheed Martin, we have AWS, we
have NOVAC, we have QBE, wehave BAE.
We have just a variety oforganizations that come out.
Larry Zilliox (14:27):
Home Depot Foundation.
Faith Lillemo (14:29):
Oh, the Home Depot Foundation, absolutely.
They've been very generous withus.
We were able to build a bigwell.
They built us a big shed in thebackyard.
They give to us for many thingswith building the Grand Lodge.
They've helped put in theflooring here.
They've helped with the mulchthat was put out.
(14:49):
They come and they bringvolunteers, so they donate the
the money and they provide thevolunteers.
Larry Zilliox (14:54):
So home depot is pretty amazing that way yeah,
and another one that comes tomind is i-66 express oh sure and
the team that works out thereon 66 in the express lanes
maintaining them.
But boy, they come out withtheir heavy equipment and their
front loaders and everything andthey do jobs for us that you
know we couldn't reallyaccomplish on beautification day
(15:14):
.
We just don't have the heavyequipment and they're front
loaders and everything and theydo jobs for us that you know we
couldn't really accomplish onbeautification day.
We just don't have theequipment for it.
But they're out here with theskid sear and they're moving.
Can think of one time we had ahuge tree come down on one of
our trails and the root balljust up upended half the trail
and they got down there andpushed it off and filled it in
and they had the trail back inorder like in a couple of hours.
(15:38):
So they're they're just a hugeand and many other people are
veterans and we find that a lotwith companies that come out to
support us, they'll bring theiremployees out for a service day
usually a work day and many ofthe employees that come out AWS
(15:59):
Micron comes out.
They have a complete section ofveterans Micron veterans
organization.
So yeah, we get just sometremendous support.
Faith Lillemo (16:09):
Well, Micron not only supports us here, but they
also serve breakfast at ourWarrior Ride.
They provide all the food.
John Wall (16:16):
Yeah, we'll make sure we don't leave out two
organizations that are dear tomy heart, and that's PenFed.
Faith Lillemo (16:23):
Oh, my goodness, yes.
John Wall (16:24):
We wouldn't be here without them.
And then also NextPoint Groupwho, I believe, helps us with
the bike ride right every year,oh, they are Sponsors and I'm
sure many other things.
So I want to make sure we givea shout out to those.
Larry Zilliox (16:37):
Oh yes, they're awesome I believe NextPoint is
one of our presenting sponsorsfor the bike ride.
Faith Lillemo (16:43):
I think they are the presenting sponsor.
They're the top of the triangle.
Larry Zilliox (16:47):
Yeah, it's awesome.
Faith Lillemo (16:48):
Yes.
Larry Zilliox (16:49):
And we couldn't do this not only without the
volunteers, but without all thecorporate support.
We're not getting any federalfunding.
So I think people out there ourlisteners need to know that
this is a community supportedeffort.
Here.
We just happen to be the luckyones that get to take what the
(17:12):
community gives us and offer itto the warriors.
We're sort of the tip of thespear there and we're very
fortunate to be able.
it's not lost on us how lucky weare to be able to do this job
and be the ones that say, hey,here's a $6.5 million 37 acre
estate for you to enjoy.
Right, and it's because of thegenerosity of the community.
Faith Lillemo (17:38):
And I'd also like to point out that we do have a
94% pass-through rate because wehave so many amazing volunteers
and corporate groups thatsupport us.
We have just a greatpass-through rate with when
people do donate to us.
Most all the money goes to theWarriors and their families and
programs for them.
Larry Zilliox (17:58):
Yeah Well, nobody's getting rich here,
that's for sure.
John Wall (18:04):
That's good to know.
Let's be true to what we'rehere for, that's right.
Larry Zilliox (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, we're just yeah.
Everybody on staff has thismission in their heart.
There's absolutely no doubtabout it.
You know, and even like, dianehas two active duty sons in the
army.
You know, and, uh, we, we justwe're just so fortunate to be
able to do this.
Faith Lillemo (18:29):
Well, and I have a brother who was in the Army
and my dad was in the Army, myuncles were in the Army,
father-in-law who was in the AirForce and my grandpa was
actually in the Air Corps which,I come to learn, was before the
Air Force was called the AirForce, it was called the Air
Corps, which is—.
Larry Zilliox (18:47):
Army Air Corps.
Faith Lillemo (18:49):
Army Air Corps.
I just learned that the otherday.
Isn't that neat.
John Wall (18:53):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Yeah, I mean same for me, youknow, I get.
We have generational family,both on on my family side, on my
mom and dad's side, and also onmy wife's side.
Her family has generationalfolks who have served, I think,
even back to the Revolution War,according to my life and
genealogy that she's goingthrough.
So, you know, this place is,it's amazing.
(19:16):
The people here, you know, arejust top notch in my opinion.
I really, I really believe that, you know, they're just
everybody here is, you know,including volunteers that I've
worked with.
It's just they pour theirhearts and souls into this place
to make sure that the you know,the wounded, ill and injured
that come here, and someveterans I believe we host
(19:38):
veterans here too as well makesure that they get some downtime
.
So it's amazing, you know, andI would recommend anybody to
definitely get involved and, youknow, help the organization out
, help the organization out, andif you're a veteran, or even if
you're, you know, listening tous out, you're on base somewhere
and you know someone that needsto get away from the medical
(19:59):
world you know, reach out.
Larry Zilliox (20:08):
Yeah, for sure.
You know most of our volunteershave some form of military
connection and you know theoverwhelming majority of people
out there are good, decentpeople that want to help.
They want to give back.
Very often they just don't knowhow, and we're trying to.
We get the word out as often aswe can.
That's what the podcast reallyis all about, and to say that
(20:31):
you know, if you're in theNorthern Virginia area and you'd
like to do some volunteering,and, to be clear, you don't.
There's no set requirement whenit comes to volunteering.
We have volunteers that show upseveral times a week.
We have volunteers that comeonce a year.
When we think of Mary, who doesthe Christmas setup?
Maureen, maureen, sorry.
(20:51):
Who does the Christmas set up?
Maureen, maureen, sorry.
We have a lot of Marys andMaureens here.
So there's no, you know you'renot required a certain amount of
volunteer time.
You want to come and see whatyou can do?
I do.
I remember the story of one ofour favorite volunteers who
called and said well, I'd liketo do something, I'd like to
(21:14):
help somehow.
And um, she said but you know Iwork all week and okay, well,
what about the weekend?
I got the grandkids on theweekend and and it was sort of
like, well, I don't know what wecan do, you know?
But then it turns out that thatbonnie works from home and she
(21:34):
has an amazing pool in herbackyard and it's right near the
retreat and she offers the poolto the guests and during the
summer we call it Bonnie'sPrivate Pool and the guest stay
coordinator can set up a timefor them to go over and she's
very gracious.
They have access to the bathroomand towels and some snacks and
(21:58):
they have a great time overthere and that's not something
we can offer them here.
We don't have a pool, butthat's her way of volunteering
and she rarely sets foot when wehave volunteer appreciation
events.
Then she'll come to the retreatand get to see everybody and
meet everybody, but she'svolunteering from a distance and
she's helping out in that waytoo.
Faith Lillemo (22:21):
That's a good point.
There's a lot of people who dovolunteer that never come and
work here during the week or ona monthly basis, but they do
things from their homes or intheir community groups.
For example, we have fivequilting guilds that give us
beautiful quilts to give to thewarrior and his or her families.
We have a blind nun who knitsbeautiful blankets with another
(22:47):
lady and that gal brings theblankets in.
I mean, talk about inspiring.
You know she can't even see,and here she is knitting quilt
blankets for us to give out tothe families.
I think that's just sobeautiful.
John Wall (23:00):
That is very beautiful and that's great, and
you know what I have one, soit's.
You know we keep it on ourcouch at home and it's just a
reminder.
You know, and they really truly, these volunteers pour their
hearts into this and correct meright or wrong.
Some of them actually, or ifnot all of them, they pray over
those blankets for healing,right?
Is that true?
Faith Lillemo (23:21):
We have a lot of prayer shawls that are prayed
over that is correct beforethey're given to us and then
given to the families.
Larry Zilliox (23:27):
It's a blessing.
We have a good number ofvolunteers that do things either
here at the retreat or away buthelp us in a bunch of different
ways that never get to see ormeet the warriors, and that's a
special gift when they'rewilling to give up their time,
(23:49):
money, effort to help peoplethey'd never meet or see, money
effort to help people they'dnever meet or see.
And it's another reason whywe're very fortunate that in our
work here we get to workdirectly with the families and
we get to meet the warriors and,best of all, we get to see the
difference that this place andthe things that our volunteers
(24:11):
do make in the lives of thesefamilies.
It changes them.
We see how they look when theyget here and how they look when
they leave and sometimes it'salmost like a different,
completely different person.
And a real shout out to thosevolunteers that will do that but
(24:34):
never get the gratitude ofmeeting and seeing the results
of their work, and I view themas very special volunteers.
Faith Lillemo (24:42):
I completely agree with you, larry, and there
are a few ways that thosevolunteers can see the families.
If they go on our Flickr site,where we have all our albums in
chronological order, they canactually see the families that
have been here.
They can see the activities,the beautification days.
They can see the fundraisingevents that we do.
(25:04):
If people want to see what goeson here, they can absolutely do
that by going to our Flickralbum.
Larry Zilliox (25:11):
So, as we kind of wrap up, I want to kind of end
on a couple of notes.
One is the best way to learnabout the retreat is to come
visit the retreat to take a tour.
We can talk all day about theretreat, you can look at
pictures of the retreat, butit's a whole different ballgame
when you get out here and yousee what the Warriors see with
(25:34):
their families.
And so I know, john, if youwould just talk for a minute
about what the impact was whenyou first got here, what you
thought for you and Aaron whenyou arrived.
John Wall (25:46):
Well, honestly, it was hard to get me here, first
of all until the wife told me Ihad to go and I said, yes, ma'am
, no, I mean, once I got here,you know I uh, when I was still
at Walter Reed recovering, I hada lot of issues, um, with
sensory and stuff like that, andI wasn't sure coming to
(26:10):
something like this, cause I hadsecluded myself to try to
manage my environment so thingswould not get worse.
And you know, I came here andit actually was, I think, a home
away from home dinner,thanksgiving dinner.
Yeah, it was a Thanksgivingdinner.
When I first came here, Ihadn't even stayed here.
I don't even think I had signedup to stay here at that point
(26:33):
and I was struggling while I washere.
I don't even think I had signedup to stay here at that point.
Um and uh, I was strugglingwhile I was here, and so I
stepped outside and um, withoutyou know providing too many
details, and I was just outthere by myself on the main
house and uh just sitting thereenjoying the view, and uh, take
some time.
And then, you know, diane anduh and Sarah came out and
checked on me and just, you know, just sat there with me and
(26:57):
just talked to me a little bitand asked me how I was doing,
and you know, and just showed methat they just really cared
about me as a person.
You know, they had lots ofguests.
I don't even know how manyguests here that day About 80.
Yeah, that's a lot many guestshere that day About 80.
Yeah, that's a lot.
Uh, and so you know they justthey showed me that you know
(27:17):
they truly cared and, um, that'swhen I knew, yeah, yeah, I
gotta come stay.
And so I think a few monthslater, when there was
availability, my wife and Istayed and we actually stayed in
the second house that was builtand, forgive me, I'm forgiving
you, pen-fed house, pen-fedhouse.
That really helped us becausewe never had a real transition.
(27:39):
You know, I flew out of Africainto Germany and Germany to
Walter Reed, and then it wasgame on day one, and so we
really got to utilize some ofthe resources here that actually
helped reintegrate us as acouple.
We had been away for about ayear, a little over a year, and
(28:00):
then a couple years at thehospital, so a total of three
years roughly.
And so it's just one appointmentafter another after another all
day long and my wife was tryingto manage time in different
locations and you know, tryingto keep the household running
and then trying to be my medicalcaregiver and go to different
(28:22):
appointments, and this justreally took, you know, the world
off our shoulders to just kindof bring her and I back together
and work on us and spend somequality time together and then
bring our families here.
So yes it it was, uh, it wasreally uh an amazing uh time and
uh it it gave me some newperspective here and.
(28:43):
I really enjoyed it and so, uh,I honestly I'm glad I'm doing,
I'm, I'm your co-host, you knowthis and I can actually, you
know, tell the world now, hey,thank you, thank you for you
know all the people andeverything that they provided
that day, because, who knows,you know you could be somewhere
else.
You're dealing with otherthings that you didn't know that
(29:04):
you were dealing with and youwere able to get you know some
support here, yeah, it wasamazing and I got to make sure I
say this this is family.
Now, you know, once you comehere and you spend time, and you
come back.
You are family.
Whether you're a service member, a veteran or a um, a supporter
(29:24):
, a volunteer, you are ourfamily.
We are family here and you know, know, my wife and I, uh, we
truly uh, even though we'reclose here and we'd like to come
more often, uh, we think aboutyou guys all the time and we're
always curious what's going onand, uh, we always miss everyone
.
It's just a blessing to comehere, so well we're.
Larry Zilliox (29:44):
We're glad you're still in the area and you're
able to contribute from whateverfits into your schedule, and
it's just great to have and wedo have a number of veterans,
alumni that have stayed with us,that come back and help from
time to time with events, and Ithink of Zach and his wife out
(30:05):
in the Midwest and his explosiveart program, and he contributes
paintings to the gala and comesout for the gala.
That's always fun.
Faith Lillemo (30:16):
So he and his wife are actually in charge of
registration this year at thegala.
Larry Zilliox (30:21):
We're definitely putting them to work.
Faith Lillemo (30:24):
Wow, they're volunteers.
John Wall (30:26):
That's amazing.
We get to see them again.
You know that's a, that's anice little trip for them, but
I'm glad that we can see themevery year, or however long they
keep doing that for yeah, justgreat, great, great family yeah
um.
Larry Zilliox (30:38):
So, to wrap things up, think about coming
out for a tour.
If you have a question, emailfaith at volunteer at
willingwarriorsorg.
You can call the office Mondaythrough Friday, nine in the
morning till two, which is571-248-0008.
(30:59):
Go to the webpage, look upevents.
Beautification Day sign up forBeautification Day.
There's plenty of ways to help.
Don't think that we don't havesomething for you to do, because
everything takes volunteers.
We give out probably a couplethousand cards a year, but we
have to have a volunteer whosits down and looks at each card
(31:22):
and makes sure they'reappropriate.
Sometimes the older kids liketo make cards up that have
exploding tanks and weird things, so we take those out, but that
takes man hours, and so you cancontribute, you can help and
please, if you have anyquestions, reach out to Faith
(31:42):
and she'll get you squared away.
She'll get you volunteering.
Well, listen, john, thanks forjoining us and co-hosting.
That's been great and, faith,as always, you're just a joy to
talk to really.
Faith Lillemo (31:57):
Oh, thank you, Larry, I'll pay you later.
John Wall (32:00):
Thanks, Larry.
Larry Zilliox (32:01):
All right, Bye.
Well for our listeners, we'llhave an episode again next
Monday morning at 0500.
Until then, if you have anyquestions or suggestions, you
can reach us at podcast atwillingwarriorsorg.
We'll see you in a week.
Thanks for listening.
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