Helping Heroes When They Need it the Most. Sandra Lehmkuhler Talks to A&G

Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is a fantastic organization that serves our nation's injured military heroes when they need help transitioning back to civilian life. The CEO and Founder of WFFS, Sandra Lehmkuhler, joined the Armstrong & Getty Show to explain the foundation's mission this year.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio and the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Armstrong, Lady Armstrong and Jetty Show. And this
is a big week for us, a big week for you,
opportunity to do something good helping out Warrior Foundation Freedom Station.
I'll let you a litttle pitch before you even know

(00:22):
what we're talking about, and that this time of year.
Speaking for myself, but I think I'm speaking for a
lot of people. There's a tendency to throw around a
little dough on yourself, whether you're eating out or buying
this or that, or you're going somewhere or whatever, little
self indulgence this time of year. How about you through
a little money towards something good. YEP. Warrior Foundation Freedom

(00:44):
Station a fantastic organization that serves our nation's heroes when
they need it the most. The seriously injured, post traumatic
stress and traumatic brain injury victims, those undergoing physical or
occupational therapy, transitioning warriors have been medically retired in our
in the community, trying to figure out at that just
rough moment of their lives what they're going to do

(01:06):
with the rest of their lives. And Warrior Foundation Freedom
Station performs miracles and saves lives every day and is
incredibly efficient with your money. Uh. To tell you a
little more and to get things rolling officially, please welcome
back to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Sandy lem Cooler,
the CEO and founder of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Hello, Sandy,
how are you hi? Mary? Christmas? You guys, we can

(01:28):
say that right, sure, absolutely, you can say anything on
our show you want. And and one of the reasons,
Sandy says, Merry Christmas. Well, we'll let you explain. What
does Warrior Foundation Freedom Station do every Christmas? That's so special? Well,
I have to share with you. And this last year
in particular, UM, a lot of our warriors are going

(01:49):
up at the hospital. We're talking about active duty as
well as medically retired warriors, so it's kind of two
different segues um. But the warriors up at the Eric's
Um in particular this year. I go up there every year,
as I'm up there frequently, but they said, ma'am, we
really want to go home, we really want to go

(02:11):
home for Christmas. And these are young warriors. They can't
afford a flight plus other things that they are paying
for in life. And I get that the government covers
a lot of it, but it is still something that
I think our country can do better. Our country can
get these young men and young women home to wake

(02:33):
up in their own bed, with their in their own state,
with their own family. I mean, who doesn't want that
flare that tradition of sitting around the table with their family.
And so they said to me a couple of things, ma'am,
we really want to go home. Can we go home
this year again? And I said, I will do my best.

(02:54):
I will ask Armstrong and Getty, the Secret Santa's of
the world, help us to help us get these warriors home.
So we also, you know, we have a foundation that
also helps our warriors not only during the holidays but
all year long. And so I just wanted to share

(03:16):
with you that they're already kind of thinking airplane home,
big marine blanket, big Navy blanket, big Air Force blanket,
big Army blanket over their shoulder, getting off the plane
and having their family there to meet them. And so
what does it cost an average I know, you keep
track of this to send a warrior home. Just to

(03:37):
give people an idea of what their donations are doing.
I try to average it out. You know, flights are
all over the place right now, costwise, but truly, about
six hundred and three dollars is what we're averaging to
send them home around trip, to send them one way.
You know what I've got to I've gotta jump in.
I gotta jump in right here, Sammy, this is how

(03:59):
careful Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is with your money. You
ask Sandy what's the average, and she says about six
d and three dollars. I mean, that is how tight
they pinched the pennies to make sure every cent of
your donations goes to the actual heroes. And and you know,
just another point, A lot of these guys are dealing

(04:19):
with traumatic physical injuries or brain injuries. They're rehabbing, their
undergoing surgeries, the rest of it. It's it is definitely
the hardest time they will ever live in their lives.
And the idea that we will send them home to
be with mom and dad and sister and brother and
see their old buddies and reconnect with who they are
and and find that strength from their families. I mean,
you've seen the effect that has, Sandy, I have, and

(04:43):
I will share with you that you know, luckily, that
times have changed. We have a little bit different injury
and sometimes these warriors that are up at the hospital
are not allowed to be able to go home. So
we are going to bring in family members, bring them
to San Diego so that they can be with their
warrior for the holiday. So it doesn't necessarily have to

(05:05):
be Christmas. It can be Thanksgiving, it can be New
Year's But when the doctors allow them to have visitors
and see their family members, we're going to bring them in.
And we have a location called Legacy House that we
put them in if the Fisher House is full, So
it's not only we send them home, but we bring
mom or dad here if need be. That's absolutely fantastic.

(05:29):
By the way, if this is starting to strike a
chord with you, got Armstrong and Getty dot com. We
got a big banner there. It's simple to donate, just
takes you a couple of minutes. Indeed, and you know
the point I was trying to make a second ago
is just that, uh, and Sandy has told us about this.
After that visit home or the folks coming to see
that that wounded a warrior, um the guys who are
getting tired and discouraged with their physical therapy and the rehab,

(05:52):
and they're learning to deal with their prosthetic limbs or whatever.
It's just a jolt of energy and can really be
a powerful force for healing. So give as generously as
you can. Aren't strong and getty dot com. It's extremely
obvious where to click and the rest of it, and
and give as generously as you can. They feel unstoppable

(06:12):
again when they come back. They're just unstoppable. And that's
what we want our military to know, is that we
support them and our country loves them, and we want
them not to see any disability but only see possibility.
And that's truly what I worked hard for, right Sandy

(06:33):
lem Cooler, the founder and CEO of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Sandy,
we appreciate it, and we'll talk to you a little
later in the week. Perfect. Thank you so much. You guys,
truly you do make their Christmas and you do help
us make the magic of Christmas. Up in the halls
of the barracks. We will be decorating up there early
so that they can kind of get in the spirit. Awesome, excellent, excellent, alright, terrific. Well,

(06:57):
the folks get the credit, go to Armstrong and get
dot com and and just you know, real quickly, I
think there are probably you folks are so aware of
what's going on in the world and the news and
the rest of it that you're thinking, well, wait a minute.
Where I mean, there are the terrible injuries and deaths
in Afghanistan, but that's over more or less, and Iraq
is mostly over. So is there a need? You know,

(07:19):
we've talked about this. We are in something like eighty countries,
it might be more eight now. Some of them are nice,
stable military bases where you know, there's not a lot
of fighting going on. There's lots of training, which can
be dangerous and that sort of thing. But we have
special forces, we have Navy seals, we have marines all
over the world engaging al qaied to al shabab Uh.

(07:43):
It's stuff we're never gonna hear about. And the need continues.
So again, good arm Strong and Gutta dot com. And
also in terms of the location where you foundation Freedom
Station in the San Diego area, but wherever you're listening
in the country, you could have you know, somebody graduated
from your local high school joined the military, went to
Iraq or Afghanistan or any of the places Joe mentioned
and needs the benefit of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station and

(08:06):
they end up in San Diego. So I mean it's
a it's a nationwide thing. Well right, yeah, that's the
one of the super giant military hospitals. Um. And it's
uh and yeah, I don't know. If you're familiar with
the military, you go where they tell you to go.
So we're gonna try to raise a half a million
dollars just off the Armstrong and Getty show by itself,

(08:27):
which is a big ask. I mean, that's a lot
of money. Um. I'm at the website and we are
currently at now we just kicked this off like an
hour ago. We're currently at eighteen thousand dollars on our
way to five hundred. But you know, obviously we need
to average about a hundred grand a day to get there. Uh.
We like the tradition. Hopefully that can get going of
people with wacky names when they donate, because you can

(08:49):
put whatever you want to show up. I mean, you
can be anonymous if you want to donate anonymously, but
if you want to have a wacky name in there,
that's that's pretty common. Um. You know, Cornpop eight hundred
dollars whatever. Sure, Sure, the Hunt Hunter Biden's School of Art,
and we might be right. And what we've seen in
the past is a lot of people end up donating
money just to get their wacky name mentioned. So people donate,

(09:12):
you know, might donate dollars really just they could get
But that's fine. It all adds up so act. So
we get enough few people that think you're funny with
your wacky names, everybody donate, and five bucks at a time,
we end up with a heck of a lot of money.
But I'm looking at some of the donations already. Here's
a supporter who donated two thousand dollars, Thank you very much.
It's freaking awesome. But plenty of twenty five dollars and

(09:33):
all that sort of stuff. Charlotte Bailey bucks, thank you
very much. Thanks Charlotte. But we'll be talking about this
all week long. Something tells me a certain young Brandon
it's going to be very generous this year. Oh boy,
let's go, Brandon. Brandon might donate half the money that
we end up with. Tho