June 23, 2025 • 24 mins
What if saving a veteran's life could be as simple as a 40-cent dog tag? That's exactly what Ben Guinan and Robert Adamczyk from Dog Tags 4 Life are doing with their groundbreaking suicide prevention initiative.
The program began after a sobering moment during a national veterans' organization meeting when one member had to abruptly leave because a fellow post member had attempted suicide. Another participant mentioned experiencing a similar tragedy just weeks earlier. This reality check sparked a crucial question: How many veterans even know about the new 988+1 crisis line that launched in July 2022? After informal polling revealed almost no awareness, Dog Tags 4 Life was born.
Their approach is beautifully simple – military-style dog tags engraved with "Veterans Crisis Line - Dial 988 Then Press 1 - You're Not Alone." Veterans can wear them or attach them to keychains, creating both a visual and tactile reminder that help is always available. What started as a modest effort has exploded into a nationwide movement with over 55,000 tags distributed across 48 states.
The impact has been profound. One mother shared how her son called to say goodbye, intending to end his life. Seeing the dog tag on her desk, she frantically told him, "Dial 988, then press 1!" He made the call, and counselors kept him on the line until his post commander arrived. Another veteran wrote simply, "I held onto this dog tag physically. I heard it jingling, and that's why I made the call. Thank you for saving my life."
Perhaps most impressive is the organization's efficiency—operating with just three volunteer board members, it ensures every donation goes directly toward producing and shipping more tags. There are no salaries or massive overhead, just a direct pipeline getting life-saving resources into veterans' hands.
Visit DT4life.org to donate or request tags for the veterans in your life. For just pennies, you could provide the reminder that saves someone during their darkest moment.
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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 Zilliox,Director of Culinary Services,
here at the Warrior Retreat atBull Run, and this week our
guests are Ben Guymon and RobertAdamczyk, and they are with an
organization called Dog Tagsalso with the VFW local post
here and we'll talk a little bitabout that.
But I ran into you guys acouple of years ago and I really
(00:24):
loved what you were doing.
It's an anti-suicide programand basically it puts the crisis
line 988 plus 1, on a dog tagwhich veterans can wear or keep
on their keys.
I always have that reminder ofwhere that number is, in case
they forgot.
Now we have a program here wecalled Operation Save the Number
(00:44):
number is in case they forgot.
Now we have a program here wecalled Operation Save the Number
.
Hope is spelled 988 plus one toget them to put it in their
phone and their buddy's phone.
But this is a fantastic program.
So welcome to the podcast.
Well, thanks for having us,larry.
Robert Adamczyk (00:57):
Absolutely Thank you so tell us a little
bit about how this got startedand talk a little bit about your
post too, because myrecollection is that this came
through the post and yourassociation with the post.
So it certainly came out of theVFW.
There's an organization calledthe Military Order of the Cootie
which is the honor degree ofthe VFW.
(01:18):
I'm a national officer in thatorganization and I was on a
national Zoom meeting not longafter the 988 number came out
and one of the people on themeeting said I'm sorry, guys, I
got to go.
One of my post members justtried to commit suicide.
I got to go deal with this andhe left the Zoom meeting.
(01:39):
And when that happened, anothermember of the Zoom meeting said
yeah, that just happened to metwo weeks ago.
One of our post members died andI just got to thinking of.
You know, it happens way toooften.
I mean, one is too many there'svarying reports of is it 16?
, is it 22?
, is it more than that?
But I'm just thinking well,what can I possibly do about
(02:03):
this?
And a couple of days later Iwas watching a documentary about
someone who was volunteering ona crisis line.
It was a different crisis line,but I got to thinking about it.
The 988 number came out in Julyand this was happening around
of 2022.
And in February 2023 is whenthis was happening, and I was
thinking I wonder how manypeople even know that that
(02:23):
number exists.
So I went out to our VFW andthe Elks Lodge and a couple
other places and just kind ofdid an informal poll of asking
people do you know what thephone number is for the Veterans
Crisis Line?
No.
Do you know what the phonenumber is for the Suicide
Prevention Line?
No.
Did you know they were the samenumber?
No.
Have you ever heard of 988 plus1?
(02:45):
No.
Wow.
Okay, so maybe I could come upwith some idea that would get
the number out into the hands ofpeople.
And you know, from there I'mrunning through well, what kind
of thing could I do that wouldbe inexpensive but people would
actually recognize and be ableto take with them?
And somehow the idea of the dogtag came to me, and after that
(03:09):
it was all right.
How do we do this?
Can we put together a 501c tothree to make this happen?
If you do that, I need at leastthree people, so I needed to
find one more, because I knew Ihad Ben without even talking to
him, so I needed to find onemore.
We found another guy from ourpost who volunteered when he
even heard about the idea.
Can I be involved?
So that's Charles Marlow Romeo.
(03:31):
He's our third board member andfrom there it's really taken
off.
We've now distributed dog tagsto 48 states and over 55,000 dog
tags.
Larry Zilliox (03:44):
Wow, holy cow, it has taken off, and so, ben, is
there any sign of it slowingdown?
Ben Guinan (03:52):
Not at all.
From what I understand, whatcheck keeps filling us in with
the numbers that come in for thedonations?
People are just logging in,finding our website, seeing the
donation links and just sayingwhat a wonderful cause.
Let me see what I can do tohelp.
And so we've been very, verylucky to have the support of the
(04:12):
general populace of veteransand veteran adjacent people that
love this program, and we'vebeen able to continue it through
those generous donations.
Robert Adamczyk (04:21):
And another thing is one of the decisions
early on was to put the websiteaddress on the dog tag, and the
point of that was if someonesees this, thinks it's a great
idea and wants to get more tohelp continue spreading the word
, they know how to get incontact with us.
Larry Zilliox (04:38):
Let me just read what the dog tag says, so our
listeners know it.
It starts with veterans crisisline, dial 988.
Then press one you're not alonedt4lifeorg.
So, listeners, that's the webpage, dt4lifeorg.
(05:00):
And our regular listeners knowthat I always direct everybody
to the webpage and you're goingto see that donate button on
there.
I want you to bang on thatbutton and give what you can.
Um, because this is a.
It's an amazing program andthis tag could save somebody's
(05:22):
life.
And how much does this tag cost?
Robert Adamczyk (05:25):
Depending on how many we order.
40 cents, so for 40 cents.
Larry Zilliox (05:33):
you could put this in the hands of somebody
who will remember that numberand give that number a call and
maybe put a pause in what theywere thinking.
And that's really what it's allabout.
It's same with Operation Savethe Number.
It's look, I'm putting thisnumber in your phone.
If you're having a bad day, youcall me, but if I don't answer,
(05:54):
don't go through with whatyou're thinking.
You know if you're having a badday, take this tag and hold it
in your hand.
You know Absolutely.
You know.
If you're having a bad day,take this tag and hold it in
your hand.
You know absolutely If you're.
If you're a friend or arelative of a veteran, go to the
Web page, make a donation, getsome tags and give them to your
family members and your friends,the people that you work with,
(06:15):
who are veterans who haven'theard about this program.
Give them a tag.
I think makes a great Christmaspresent.
Robert Adamczyk (06:24):
We really never expected to hear the impact
that this had, but a couple ofmonths ago I got an email from
someone who was a mother and shesaid thank you so much for your
program.
Last night my son called me tosay goodbye because he couldn't
take it anymore and he was goingto end his life.
(06:45):
And I'm not trained for thatkind of thing.
I had no idea what to do, but Isaw your dog tag sitting on my
desk and I yelled at him dial988, then press one.
Dial 988, then press one.
And he did, and they kept himon the line until their post
commander made it over to hishouse and he talked him down,
and so she was just so thankfulthat that was there, because she
(07:08):
had no idea what to do if itwasn't for that tag.
Larry Zilliox (07:11):
Yeah and Ben, I'm sure you hear stories like that
all the time.
Ben Guinan (07:16):
There was one early on Check out an email and we had
discussed between the two of uswhen we thought this might be a
successful program and thecomment all three of us actually
agreed upon is if we helped oneperson, yeah, sure, and we got
an email very early on.
He said thank you.
I held onto this dog tagphysically.
(07:37):
I heard it jingling and that'swhy I made the call.
Thank you all for saving mylife.
Larry Zilliox (07:43):
Yeah Well, listeners again, 40 cents is
what it takes to save aveteran's life, to get them the
help that they need.
And one of the benefits of the988 plus one line is that that
is answered by VA counselors andthat creates a record in the VA
system for them.
So now VA knows them.
(08:05):
Not only does the VA have arecord of them, and the
counselor also, because peoplejust don't up and one day decide
well, you know, I just thinkI'll just kill myself today.
It's because they're in pain,it's because of traumatic brain
injury, it's because ofsubstance abuse issues, because
(08:28):
they're self-medicating.
It's always the product of alot of things.
And putting them in touch with988 plus one gives them contact
with a system that can help withother issues, and that's what
counselors do.
And the benefit of the line isthat once they're hooked into
(08:49):
the system, then if it's ahousing issue, if it's a justice
involved issue, if it's asubstance abuse issue, they will
try to get them help on anumber of different levels,
because if you don't fix thoseproblems, they're going to be
right back to where they werewhen they called you for the
first reason.
And so I think just putting themin touch with 988 plus one is
(09:12):
huge.
The other thing that I likeabout this line is that it's a
great resource for active dutysoldiers, especially our tier
one operators, because these areguys that have issues but will
never self-identify because ittakes them out of the game and
(09:33):
so they don't want that.
So they just leave their issuesunchecked, untreated, when they
could call 988 plus one or theycan go to a vet center, and
that vet center is not tied inwith the regular VA and
certainly not tied in with DOD.
They can get help through thiswithout their unit, their
(09:54):
command, knowing that they arein peer group counseling or
anything like that.
So, and just getting the wordout is just amazing.
Robert Adamczyk (10:05):
And that's the big thing for us.
Just to make clear, we are notassociated with the crisis line
at all.
We've done this independently,where, if someone else wanted to
make tags like this it's notlike we have any kind of
copyright on this or anythingwe're like sure.
I'll tell you the company ifyou want to know.
Larry Zilliox (10:26):
Well, make sure, though, you do put the web page
on the bottom, because that'swhere the funding comes in and,
let's face it, it just doesn'thappen without funding, right?
It just doesn't happen withoutfunding, right.
So, you know, make dog tags,but make sure you put that
DT4lifeorg on them.
You know and I say, copy thisjust what these words are,
(10:49):
because, amazingly, it fitsright on the dog tag.
Robert Adamczyk (10:53):
And the nice thing is so early on because we
are a 501c3 nonprofitorganization.
Early on I did the paperwork inNew York State to become tax
exempt in New York, which iswhere the company is that makes
these dog tags for us.
And it's the same company thatmakes the ball chain necklaces
for the military's dog tags.
(11:13):
It's the same company thatprovides them the chains so kind
of keeping it in the family inthat respect.
Chains so kind of keeping it inthe family.
In that respect.
Sure, it really surprised us howfar and wide this has gotten
with not a whole lot ofadvertisement.
I mean just to give you an ideaof some of the places this tag
has made it to.
The people have requested tagsAir Force Academy, army Reserve
(11:38):
Units, the American Foundationfor Suicide Prevention, several
American legions, chasing Zero,dav, dvs, elks Lodge, garrison
East Foundation, marine CorpsLeague, VFW and its auxiliary
SEAL, spouse Alliance, studentVeterans Alliance, veterans
Remembrance Memorial, women'sVeterans Network.
Several state and localgovernments have contacted us
(11:59):
for these tags.
It's really taken off, I think.
Whenever I talked to Beninitially I said if we ever
distribute 5,000 of these thingsI'll be stunned.
And we're now at 55,000, and Ihave 15,000 sitting at my house
to process right now.
Wow.
Larry Zilliox (12:17):
And so, Ben, how do you usually send them out?
It's not one at a time.
Are you sending out like 10, ahundred?
Ben Guinan (12:24):
Well, it really depends on the requests that
come in.
Um, there are some requeststhat come in for a thousand and
that we package those and wesend them.
And part of the money that wetake in from donations, of what
we use to pay for that shipping,we try not to.
We try we try to keep all thecost within the donation money
that we come in.
Now, if anything goes over that, that just comes out of our
(12:45):
pocket because this is soimportant to us.
Well, that's got to stop.
Robert Adamczyk (12:51):
It hasn't happened in a long time.
It hasn't happened in a longtime In the very early days.
When we sort them out, we putthem in Ziploc bags of 50 tags
per and then we put those fourof those into a gallon Ziploc
bag and there's a plug forZiploc if you can't send us some
free bags.
You want to be a sponsor.
But so in processing them, wethought, well, we'll just pay
(13:17):
for the bags out of our ownpocket.
And well, we also want thesebusiness cards to go with it.
They have the crisis linenumber on it.
We'll pay those out of our ownpocket.
Well then we started gettingsome traction and taking off and
getting more and more donationsand we went okay, we're, I
think we're good.
Now the company can pay forthese things.
Yeah, for sure.
Larry Zilliox (13:36):
Really.
I mean, the overhead here isminimal.
You guys are not paid employees, it's a nonprofit.
It's just the three of you,right?
So you know, I mean reallylisteners go to the webpage, um
(13:57):
uh, dt4lifeorg.
Make a donation.
You know there's a lot of VSOsin this country almost 47,000.
And there's some ones that aredoing amazing work.
And you know, I I talked to a,a gentleman the other day.
He has an amazing nonprofit.
He's got 40 employees, you know, and, but they are doing crazy
(14:23):
good work.
And so you want to donate todog Tags for Life because 99%,
100% of it goes to getting thesedog tags into the right hands.
There's no salaries, there's notrips to the Bahamas for a
corporate meeting, there'snothing like that.
(14:43):
It's just them ordering theseup and then taking the time to
package them up and ship themout.
Now, what about volunteers?
If somebody wants to volunteerand help you do that, how would
they do?
Robert Adamczyk (14:59):
that.
So we have had people locallyhelp with that.
The logistical challenge withthat is so let me give you a
little backstory on how weprocess these ourselves.
So they come in the lastshipment came nine boxes.
So divide 15,000 up betweennine boxes.
(15:19):
Each one of those boxes has alarge plastic bag in it with one
ninth of the tags in that bag.
Wow, and the tags are each inone little small Ziploc plastic
bag with one tag and one ring,and the tag is not on the ring.
When we tried this initially, weput 50 of the tags in the
(15:42):
plastic bags in our display case.
It just we went no, that's notgoing to work.
They really need to be on therings before we send them out.
So, yes, what you're thinkingis true.
Between me, ben Romeo and acouple of local people who help
us from time to time, we havetaken 55,000 tags out of the bag
(16:05):
, put them on the ring and thenput them in bags of 50.
Ring and then put them in bagsof 50.
That's the work.
But the challenge, if anyoneelse wanted to help, is getting
them from where we have themcentrally over to them to then
help, and then actually shippingthem out from there.
I've got the accountinformation to get cheaper
(16:25):
shipping through UPS, or we'vegot the label printer to do the
shipments for the post officeand it's just more efficient to
do it locally in that respect.
Larry Zilliox (16:35):
Well, I'm almost thinking that what you need are
groups to come in and just theputting on the ring on the tag,
or getting it out of the plastic, you know, to bring a group of
scouts in, or I mean the post.
I'm sure that you could use thepost.
Robert Adamczyk (16:53):
We have had that in several occasions.
We've had groups down at theVFW and the local Elks Lodge
down the street from us in DaleCity and other various people
here and there have helped.
Local schools helped out hereand there.
So we have had some help alongthe way.
One thing I did want to pointout Larry's exactly right Go to
(17:18):
dogtagsforlifeorg but keep inmind that's DT, the number for
lifeorg and more importantlyreally, or as important as
hitting the donate button, iscontact us to get some tags to
distribute yourself, because wegenerally send them out in
batches of 50.
Some tags to distributeyourself, because we generally
send them out in batches of 50.
Larry Zilliox (17:36):
That's, it just works really well, Grab 50 of
them for yourself and pass themto every veteran, you know?
Yeah, Well, what I'm hoping isthat you guys will set up a
table here for our Corvette showJuly 19th Saturday and locally
people can come out to theCorvette show and get tags.
Robert Adamczyk (17:50):
I missed the last one, but the one before
that I was here with a table.
Ben Guinan (17:54):
Yeah, so we need to do that again, and this year the
national convention actuallygot moved to August, so we'll be
in town and absolutely we willbe there.
Larry Zilliox (18:05):
Okay.
So, listeners, there's yourchance to come and get some tags
.
I mean, you know before youshow up here.
Well, one, you're going to havea great time.
There's going to be 250 or moreCorvettes and classic cars on
the property.
You get a free lunch, you cantour the houses, there'll be a
number of VSOs here, but DogTags for Life will be here.
(18:27):
So before you come, sit downand mentally make a note, think
okay, who can I give a tag to?
There's Joe at work, that's one, uncle Bob, that's two, and
start counting them off and then, when you get here, you let
them know how many you need andmaybe get a few extra for people
you forgot and go home andstart giving them out because
(18:49):
they're not doing any good.
Sitting in check's garage,absolutely, and I'm sure your
wife is ready for you to findsomeplace else for all this
stuff Actually right now they'resitting in, so again it's
(19:13):
DT4lifeorg.
Go to the webpage, check it out.
If you're not local, order sometags, they will get them out to
you.
What is about the time, Ben,that it takes to get things
turned around and out to people?
Ben Guinan (19:29):
Realistically it takes very, very little time.
As an IT consultant I do workfrom home quite a bit of the
time.
So if the check gets an orderin, he can get the tag ready to
go.
I can box the stuff up, I cantake it to UPS on lunch break
and it's gone almost in the nextday or two.
Okay, so within a week you'vegot about a quarter.
Larry Zilliox (19:47):
Very quick turnaround?
Yeah, okay.
So within a week you've got avery quick turnaround.
Yeah, okay.
So that's great.
So think about that too.
If you're a listener out thereat a post, a VFW post, an
American Legion post or yourorganization, you know you're
thinking of just a veteransgroup at a company and you've
got 15 veterans and they'regoing to have a monthly meeting,
(20:09):
order some up and then the nextmeeting hand them out and get
the word out and they then canorder some for their friends.
There's no excuse now.
Really, everybody knows aboutit.
All 12 of our listeners aregoing to know about it.
Robert Adamczyk (20:26):
One thing I would like to point out.
If any of your listeners are inUtah or Rhode Island, I was
going to ask what are the twostates?
Please contact me.
You would think it would beHawaii and Alaska.
It's not.
We've distributed tags there.
We are missing Utah and RhodeIsland, and if I get Utah I will
drive to Rhode Island.
Larry Zilliox (20:43):
Okay, well, listeners, if you're in one of
those states, you have a mailingaddress in one of those states,
and I know we have listeners inUtah.
I know that for a fact.
Um, very odd thing is uh, I canlook at all the analytics for
the podcast.
93% of listeners are here inthe United States, but we have
(21:05):
listeners in in Sweden, inGermany, in France, in Japan,
which baffles me.
The only thing I can think ofis those are active duty
soldiers who are posted there.
But I was really surprised whenI saw that.
So there's no excuse.
It's not like there's noveterans in Utah.
That's ridiculous that we don'thave all 50 states Listen.
(21:29):
I can't thank you guys enoughfor coming, stopping by, sitting
down and letting everybody knowabout this amazing, amazing
organization.
100% of your donation goestowards helping veterans and
saving lives at roughly 40 centsapiece.
Just the thought that you couldsave somebody's life for 40
(21:51):
cents just baffles me.
I mean, I don't know how youcan't make a donation to Dog
Tags for Life.
So I'm just going to start witheach of you.
I'm going to start, ben, withyou.
What's the one thing you wanteverybody to know about?
Dog Tags for Life?
Ben Guinan (22:07):
The thing that really made me get into this
program immediately after Chucktold me about it is they're for
the greatest guy go-I.
It's things I've had to dealwith, but what I love about the
dog tags is it's something youcan hold onto.
It's not a piece of paper, it'ssomething you can feel and that
one line on there, you are notalone.
(22:29):
That's what I would like peopleto take away from this.
Check how about you.
Robert Adamczyk (22:33):
So for me, something that was unexpected
that we discovered after westarted putting them on people's
keychains is when you pick upyour keys and you jingle them,
they make a certain sound.
When that keychain has a dogtag on it, it changes the sound
that it makes and once you'veheard it, you can't unhear it.
You notice that sound everytime you pick up your keys.
(22:55):
You know that tag is there andyou know what it says.
Larry Zilliox (22:58):
I know everybody hears me coming and at our post.
Robert Adamczyk (23:03):
Before I turn the corner they're hi, good
morning Lou.
And at our post, when we hearpeople get up and pick up their
keys, we can hear it.
They got a tag, they got a tag,they got a tag.
It just changes the tone ofthat and that was really
unexpected.
But very good, wow, very happythat.
Larry Zilliox (23:13):
All right, well, listen.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Listeners, again it'sDT4lifeorg.
Go to the webpage, make adonation order, some tags, give
them to your friends and lovedones, and 40 cents a piece.
You're going to save a life.
I guarantee it.
Well, listeners, that's it forthis week.
(23:35):
You can find us on most majorplatforms.
We're also on YouTube andWreaths Across America, so thank
you for listening.
Good morning.
I'm your host, Larry Zilliox,Director of Culinary Services,
here at the Warrior Retreat atBull Run, and this week our
guests are Ben Guymon and RobertAdamczyk, and they are with an
organization called Dog Tagsalso with the VFW local post
here and we'll talk a little bitabout that.
But I ran into you guys acouple of years ago and I really
(00:24):
loved what you were doing.
It's an anti-suicide programand basically it puts the crisis
line 988 plus 1, on a dog tagwhich veterans can wear or keep
on their keys.
I always have that reminder ofwhere that number is, in case
they forgot.
Now we have a program here wecalled Operation Save the Number
(00:44):
number is in case they forgot.
Now we have a program here wecalled Operation Save the Number
.
Hope is spelled 988 plus one toget them to put it in their
phone and their buddy's phone.
But this is a fantastic program.
So welcome to the podcast.
Well, thanks for having us,larry.
Robert Adamczyk (00:57):
Absolutely Thank you so tell us a little
bit about how this got startedand talk a little bit about your
post too, because myrecollection is that this came
through the post and yourassociation with the post.
So it certainly came out of theVFW.
There's an organization calledthe Military Order of the Cootie
which is the honor degree ofthe VFW.
(01:18):
I'm a national officer in thatorganization and I was on a
national Zoom meeting not longafter the 988 number came out
and one of the people on themeeting said I'm sorry, guys, I
got to go.
One of my post members justtried to commit suicide.
I got to go deal with this andhe left the Zoom meeting.
(01:39):
And when that happened, anothermember of the Zoom meeting said
yeah, that just happened to metwo weeks ago.
One of our post members died andI just got to thinking of.
You know, it happens way toooften.
I mean, one is too many there'svarying reports of is it 16?
, is it 22?
, is it more than that?
But I'm just thinking well,what can I possibly do about
(02:03):
this?
And a couple of days later Iwas watching a documentary about
someone who was volunteering ona crisis line.
It was a different crisis line,but I got to thinking about it.
The 988 number came out in Julyand this was happening around
of 2022.
And in February 2023 is whenthis was happening, and I was
thinking I wonder how manypeople even know that that
(02:23):
number exists.
So I went out to our VFW andthe Elks Lodge and a couple
other places and just kind ofdid an informal poll of asking
people do you know what thephone number is for the Veterans
Crisis Line?
No.
Do you know what the phonenumber is for the Suicide
Prevention Line?
No.
Did you know they were the samenumber?
No.
Have you ever heard of 988 plus1?
(02:45):
No.
Wow.
Okay, so maybe I could come upwith some idea that would get
the number out into the hands ofpeople.
And you know, from there I'mrunning through well, what kind
of thing could I do that wouldbe inexpensive but people would
actually recognize and be ableto take with them?
And somehow the idea of the dogtag came to me, and after that
(03:09):
it was all right.
How do we do this?
Can we put together a 501c tothree to make this happen?
If you do that, I need at leastthree people, so I needed to
find one more, because I knew Ihad Ben without even talking to
him, so I needed to find onemore.
We found another guy from ourpost who volunteered when he
even heard about the idea.
Can I be involved?
So that's Charles Marlow Romeo.
(03:31):
He's our third board member andfrom there it's really taken
off.
We've now distributed dog tagsto 48 states and over 55,000 dog
tags.
Larry Zilliox (03:44):
Wow, holy cow, it has taken off, and so, ben, is
there any sign of it slowingdown?
Ben Guinan (03:52):
Not at all.
From what I understand, whatcheck keeps filling us in with
the numbers that come in for thedonations?
People are just logging in,finding our website, seeing the
donation links and just sayingwhat a wonderful cause.
Let me see what I can do tohelp.
And so we've been very, verylucky to have the support of the
(04:12):
general populace of veteransand veteran adjacent people that
love this program, and we'vebeen able to continue it through
those generous donations.
Robert Adamczyk (04:21):
And another thing is one of the decisions
early on was to put the websiteaddress on the dog tag, and the
point of that was if someonesees this, thinks it's a great
idea and wants to get more tohelp continue spreading the word
, they know how to get incontact with us.
Larry Zilliox (04:38):
Let me just read what the dog tag says, so our
listeners know it.
It starts with veterans crisisline, dial 988.
Then press one you're not alonedt4lifeorg.
So, listeners, that's the webpage, dt4lifeorg.
(05:00):
And our regular listeners knowthat I always direct everybody
to the webpage and you're goingto see that donate button on
there.
I want you to bang on thatbutton and give what you can.
Um, because this is a.
It's an amazing program andthis tag could save somebody's
(05:22):
life.
And how much does this tag cost?
Robert Adamczyk (05:25):
Depending on how many we order.
40 cents, so for 40 cents.
Larry Zilliox (05:33):
you could put this in the hands of somebody
who will remember that numberand give that number a call and
maybe put a pause in what theywere thinking.
And that's really what it's allabout.
It's same with Operation Savethe Number.
It's look, I'm putting thisnumber in your phone.
If you're having a bad day, youcall me, but if I don't answer,
(05:54):
don't go through with whatyou're thinking.
You know if you're having a badday, take this tag and hold it
in your hand.
You know Absolutely.
You know.
If you're having a bad day,take this tag and hold it in
your hand.
You know absolutely If you're.
If you're a friend or arelative of a veteran, go to the
Web page, make a donation, getsome tags and give them to your
family members and your friends,the people that you work with,
(06:15):
who are veterans who haven'theard about this program.
Give them a tag.
I think makes a great Christmaspresent.
Robert Adamczyk (06:24):
We really never expected to hear the impact
that this had, but a couple ofmonths ago I got an email from
someone who was a mother and shesaid thank you so much for your
program.
Last night my son called me tosay goodbye because he couldn't
take it anymore and he was goingto end his life.
(06:45):
And I'm not trained for thatkind of thing.
I had no idea what to do, but Isaw your dog tag sitting on my
desk and I yelled at him dial988, then press one.
Dial 988, then press one.
And he did, and they kept himon the line until their post
commander made it over to hishouse and he talked him down,
and so she was just so thankfulthat that was there, because she
(07:08):
had no idea what to do if itwasn't for that tag.
Larry Zilliox (07:11):
Yeah and Ben, I'm sure you hear stories like that
all the time.
Ben Guinan (07:16):
There was one early on Check out an email and we had
discussed between the two of uswhen we thought this might be a
successful program and thecomment all three of us actually
agreed upon is if we helped oneperson, yeah, sure, and we got
an email very early on.
He said thank you.
I held onto this dog tagphysically.
(07:37):
I heard it jingling and that'swhy I made the call.
Thank you all for saving mylife.
Larry Zilliox (07:43):
Yeah Well, listeners again, 40 cents is
what it takes to save aveteran's life, to get them the
help that they need.
And one of the benefits of the988 plus one line is that that
is answered by VA counselors andthat creates a record in the VA
system for them.
So now VA knows them.
(08:05):
Not only does the VA have arecord of them, and the
counselor also, because peoplejust don't up and one day decide
well, you know, I just thinkI'll just kill myself today.
It's because they're in pain,it's because of traumatic brain
injury, it's because ofsubstance abuse issues, because
(08:28):
they're self-medicating.
It's always the product of alot of things.
And putting them in touch with988 plus one gives them contact
with a system that can help withother issues, and that's what
counselors do.
And the benefit of the line isthat once they're hooked into
(08:49):
the system, then if it's ahousing issue, if it's a justice
involved issue, if it's asubstance abuse issue, they will
try to get them help on anumber of different levels,
because if you don't fix thoseproblems, they're going to be
right back to where they werewhen they called you for the
first reason.
And so I think just putting themin touch with 988 plus one is
(09:12):
huge.
The other thing that I likeabout this line is that it's a
great resource for active dutysoldiers, especially our tier
one operators, because these areguys that have issues but will
never self-identify because ittakes them out of the game and
(09:33):
so they don't want that.
So they just leave their issuesunchecked, untreated, when they
could call 988 plus one or theycan go to a vet center, and
that vet center is not tied inwith the regular VA and
certainly not tied in with DOD.
They can get help through thiswithout their unit, their
(09:54):
command, knowing that they arein peer group counseling or
anything like that.
So, and just getting the wordout is just amazing.
Robert Adamczyk (10:05):
And that's the big thing for us.
Just to make clear, we are notassociated with the crisis line
at all.
We've done this independently,where, if someone else wanted to
make tags like this it's notlike we have any kind of
copyright on this or anythingwe're like sure.
I'll tell you the company ifyou want to know.
Larry Zilliox (10:26):
Well, make sure, though, you do put the web page
on the bottom, because that'swhere the funding comes in and,
let's face it, it just doesn'thappen without funding, right?
It just doesn't happen withoutfunding, right.
So, you know, make dog tags,but make sure you put that
DT4lifeorg on them.
You know and I say, copy thisjust what these words are,
(10:49):
because, amazingly, it fitsright on the dog tag.
Robert Adamczyk (10:53):
And the nice thing is so early on because we
are a 501c3 nonprofitorganization.
Early on I did the paperwork inNew York State to become tax
exempt in New York, which iswhere the company is that makes
these dog tags for us.
And it's the same company thatmakes the ball chain necklaces
for the military's dog tags.
(11:13):
It's the same company thatprovides them the chains so kind
of keeping it in the family inthat respect.
Chains so kind of keeping it inthe family.
In that respect.
Sure, it really surprised us howfar and wide this has gotten
with not a whole lot ofadvertisement.
I mean just to give you an ideaof some of the places this tag
has made it to.
The people have requested tagsAir Force Academy, army Reserve
(11:38):
Units, the American Foundationfor Suicide Prevention, several
American legions, chasing Zero,dav, dvs, elks Lodge, garrison
East Foundation, marine CorpsLeague, VFW and its auxiliary
SEAL, spouse Alliance, studentVeterans Alliance, veterans
Remembrance Memorial, women'sVeterans Network.
Several state and localgovernments have contacted us
(11:59):
for these tags.
It's really taken off, I think.
Whenever I talked to Beninitially I said if we ever
distribute 5,000 of these thingsI'll be stunned.
And we're now at 55,000, and Ihave 15,000 sitting at my house
to process right now.
Wow.
Larry Zilliox (12:17):
And so, Ben, how do you usually send them out?
It's not one at a time.
Are you sending out like 10, ahundred?
Ben Guinan (12:24):
Well, it really depends on the requests that
come in.
Um, there are some requeststhat come in for a thousand and
that we package those and wesend them.
And part of the money that wetake in from donations, of what
we use to pay for that shipping,we try not to.
We try we try to keep all thecost within the donation money
that we come in.
Now, if anything goes over that, that just comes out of our
(12:45):
pocket because this is soimportant to us.
Well, that's got to stop.
Robert Adamczyk (12:51):
It hasn't happened in a long time.
It hasn't happened in a longtime In the very early days.
When we sort them out, we putthem in Ziploc bags of 50 tags
per and then we put those fourof those into a gallon Ziploc
bag and there's a plug forZiploc if you can't send us some
free bags.
You want to be a sponsor.
But so in processing them, wethought, well, we'll just pay
(13:17):
for the bags out of our ownpocket.
And well, we also want thesebusiness cards to go with it.
They have the crisis linenumber on it.
We'll pay those out of our ownpocket.
Well then we started gettingsome traction and taking off and
getting more and more donationsand we went okay, we're, I
think we're good.
Now the company can pay forthese things.
Yeah, for sure.
Larry Zilliox (13:36):
Really.
I mean, the overhead here isminimal.
You guys are not paid employees, it's a nonprofit.
It's just the three of you,right?
So you know, I mean reallylisteners go to the webpage, um
(13:57):
uh, dt4lifeorg.
Make a donation.
You know there's a lot of VSOsin this country almost 47,000.
And there's some ones that aredoing amazing work.
And you know, I I talked to a,a gentleman the other day.
He has an amazing nonprofit.
He's got 40 employees, you know, and, but they are doing crazy
(14:23):
good work.
And so you want to donate todog Tags for Life because 99%,
100% of it goes to getting thesedog tags into the right hands.
There's no salaries, there's notrips to the Bahamas for a
corporate meeting, there'snothing like that.
(14:43):
It's just them ordering theseup and then taking the time to
package them up and ship themout.
Now, what about volunteers?
If somebody wants to volunteerand help you do that, how would
they do?
Robert Adamczyk (14:59):
that.
So we have had people locallyhelp with that.
The logistical challenge withthat is so let me give you a
little backstory on how weprocess these ourselves.
So they come in the lastshipment came nine boxes.
So divide 15,000 up betweennine boxes.
(15:19):
Each one of those boxes has alarge plastic bag in it with one
ninth of the tags in that bag.
Wow, and the tags are each inone little small Ziploc plastic
bag with one tag and one ring,and the tag is not on the ring.
When we tried this initially, weput 50 of the tags in the
(15:42):
plastic bags in our display case.
It just we went no, that's notgoing to work.
They really need to be on therings before we send them out.
So, yes, what you're thinkingis true.
Between me, ben Romeo and acouple of local people who help
us from time to time, we havetaken 55,000 tags out of the bag
(16:05):
, put them on the ring and thenput them in bags of 50.
Ring and then put them in bagsof 50.
That's the work.
But the challenge, if anyoneelse wanted to help, is getting
them from where we have themcentrally over to them to then
help, and then actually shippingthem out from there.
I've got the accountinformation to get cheaper
(16:25):
shipping through UPS, or we'vegot the label printer to do the
shipments for the post officeand it's just more efficient to
do it locally in that respect.
Larry Zilliox (16:35):
Well, I'm almost thinking that what you need are
groups to come in and just theputting on the ring on the tag,
or getting it out of the plastic, you know, to bring a group of
scouts in, or I mean the post.
I'm sure that you could use thepost.
Robert Adamczyk (16:53):
We have had that in several occasions.
We've had groups down at theVFW and the local Elks Lodge
down the street from us in DaleCity and other various people
here and there have helped.
Local schools helped out hereand there.
So we have had some help alongthe way.
One thing I did want to pointout Larry's exactly right Go to
(17:18):
dogtagsforlifeorg but keep inmind that's DT, the number for
lifeorg and more importantlyreally, or as important as
hitting the donate button, iscontact us to get some tags to
distribute yourself, because wegenerally send them out in
batches of 50.
Some tags to distributeyourself, because we generally
send them out in batches of 50.
Larry Zilliox (17:36):
That's, it just works really well, Grab 50 of
them for yourself and pass themto every veteran, you know?
Yeah, Well, what I'm hoping isthat you guys will set up a
table here for our Corvette showJuly 19th Saturday and locally
people can come out to theCorvette show and get tags.
Robert Adamczyk (17:50):
I missed the last one, but the one before
that I was here with a table.
Ben Guinan (17:54):
Yeah, so we need to do that again, and this year the
national convention actuallygot moved to August, so we'll be
in town and absolutely we willbe there.
Larry Zilliox (18:05):
Okay.
So, listeners, there's yourchance to come and get some tags
.
I mean, you know before youshow up here.
Well, one, you're going to havea great time.
There's going to be 250 or moreCorvettes and classic cars on
the property.
You get a free lunch, you cantour the houses, there'll be a
number of VSOs here, but DogTags for Life will be here.
(18:27):
So before you come, sit downand mentally make a note, think
okay, who can I give a tag to?
There's Joe at work, that's one, uncle Bob, that's two, and
start counting them off and then, when you get here, you let
them know how many you need andmaybe get a few extra for people
you forgot and go home andstart giving them out because
(18:49):
they're not doing any good.
Sitting in check's garage,absolutely, and I'm sure your
wife is ready for you to findsomeplace else for all this
stuff Actually right now they'resitting in, so again it's
(19:13):
DT4lifeorg.
Go to the webpage, check it out.
If you're not local, order sometags, they will get them out to
you.
What is about the time, Ben,that it takes to get things
turned around and out to people?
Ben Guinan (19:29):
Realistically it takes very, very little time.
As an IT consultant I do workfrom home quite a bit of the
time.
So if the check gets an orderin, he can get the tag ready to
go.
I can box the stuff up, I cantake it to UPS on lunch break
and it's gone almost in the nextday or two.
Okay, so within a week you'vegot about a quarter.
Larry Zilliox (19:47):
Very quick turnaround?
Yeah, okay.
So within a week you've got avery quick turnaround.
Yeah, okay.
So that's great.
So think about that too.
If you're a listener out thereat a post, a VFW post, an
American Legion post or yourorganization, you know you're
thinking of just a veteransgroup at a company and you've
got 15 veterans and they'regoing to have a monthly meeting,
(20:09):
order some up and then the nextmeeting hand them out and get
the word out and they then canorder some for their friends.
There's no excuse now.
Really, everybody knows aboutit.
All 12 of our listeners aregoing to know about it.
Robert Adamczyk (20:26):
One thing I would like to point out.
If any of your listeners are inUtah or Rhode Island, I was
going to ask what are the twostates?
Please contact me.
You would think it would beHawaii and Alaska.
It's not.
We've distributed tags there.
We are missing Utah and RhodeIsland, and if I get Utah I will
drive to Rhode Island.
Larry Zilliox (20:43):
Okay, well, listeners, if you're in one of
those states, you have a mailingaddress in one of those states,
and I know we have listeners inUtah.
I know that for a fact.
Um, very odd thing is uh, I canlook at all the analytics for
the podcast.
93% of listeners are here inthe United States, but we have
(21:05):
listeners in in Sweden, inGermany, in France, in Japan,
which baffles me.
The only thing I can think ofis those are active duty
soldiers who are posted there.
But I was really surprised whenI saw that.
So there's no excuse.
It's not like there's noveterans in Utah.
That's ridiculous that we don'thave all 50 states Listen.
(21:29):
I can't thank you guys enoughfor coming, stopping by, sitting
down and letting everybody knowabout this amazing, amazing
organization.
100% of your donation goestowards helping veterans and
saving lives at roughly 40 centsapiece.
Just the thought that you couldsave somebody's life for 40
(21:51):
cents just baffles me.
I mean, I don't know how youcan't make a donation to Dog
Tags for Life.
So I'm just going to start witheach of you.
I'm going to start, ben, withyou.
What's the one thing you wanteverybody to know about?
Dog Tags for Life?
Ben Guinan (22:07):
The thing that really made me get into this
program immediately after Chucktold me about it is they're for
the greatest guy go-I.
It's things I've had to dealwith, but what I love about the
dog tags is it's something youcan hold onto.
It's not a piece of paper, it'ssomething you can feel and that
one line on there, you are notalone.
(22:29):
That's what I would like peopleto take away from this.
Check how about you.
Robert Adamczyk (22:33):
So for me, something that was unexpected
that we discovered after westarted putting them on people's
keychains is when you pick upyour keys and you jingle them,
they make a certain sound.
When that keychain has a dogtag on it, it changes the sound
that it makes and once you'veheard it, you can't unhear it.
You notice that sound everytime you pick up your keys.
(22:55):
You know that tag is there andyou know what it says.
Larry Zilliox (22:58):
I know everybody hears me coming and at our post.
Robert Adamczyk (23:03):
Before I turn the corner they're hi, good
morning Lou.
And at our post, when we hearpeople get up and pick up their
keys, we can hear it.
They got a tag, they got a tag,they got a tag.
It just changes the tone ofthat and that was really
unexpected.
But very good, wow, very happythat.
Larry Zilliox (23:13):
All right, well, listen.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Listeners, again it'sDT4lifeorg.
Go to the webpage, make adonation order, some tags, give
them to your friends and lovedones, and 40 cents a piece.
You're going to save a life.
I guarantee it.
Well, listeners, that's it forthis week.
(23:35):
You can find us on most majorplatforms.
We're also on YouTube andWreaths Across America, so thank
you for listening.
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