January 20, 2025 • 30 mins
“With willing hearts and skillful hands, two amazing citizens take on the everyday needs of local vets.” Facebook Page- Operation Restore Hope
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Sylvia of Moss and this is Insight, a
presentation of iHeartMedia where we really do care about our
local communities and all our listeners who live here. You know,
over and over and over again you heard me talk
about how truly amazed I am with the big hearts
and generosity of the people who live here in central Pennsylvania.
They're constantly there to help so many people in organizations
(00:22):
in our area whenever there's a need to be met.
And one of the things that I'm often told by
the people who run many large local organizations that they
do all they can to address the issues that theirations
were created to do, but they wish they could do
a whole lot more because sometimes they don't have the staff,
the time, the funds to take care of a small
(00:43):
things that are considered small. They focus on their individual missions,
and a lot of those people well, quite often they
fall through the cracks. Can't begin to tell you how
excited I am to introduced to you two remarkable people
who have given an incredible amount of themselves to support
others in our local communities. Because of their experience, they
(01:03):
too have witnessed the many whose small but important needs
have not been met. The wonderful thing is that they
are going to do something about it. Heck, they started already.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And before we.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Talk about who my guests are and helping, who my
guests are helping, I wanted to introduce you to them.
First of all, Mary Abrazzi. Mary was the twenty twenty
three Woman of the Impact of Impact for the American
Heart Association, and right now she's a manner for that
organization's Go Red for Women campaign. She's also worked with
(01:36):
the Cumulanphoma Society's Women of the Year campaigns and their
Light the Night. Additionally, our Mary is an angel for
Pink Hands of Hope. I didn't know that that's an
organization helps women who are battling breast cancer. And guess
what else, she's a member of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra.
Or joining Mary is John Johnston. John is a successful
(01:59):
and deat Kate, a local businessman. He's had over get this,
thirty years, thirty years of serving in many positions for
numerous nonprofit organizations in our area. So you say, who
are these people the small but very important needs?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
What are their needs?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And why did John and Mary decide to support them?
We'll get the answers in a minute, but what you
must know is that it started with a conversation between
John and Mary, who are neighbors, and they have something
very honorable and significant in comming something. I'm certain that
when you hear about it, you're going to want to
support guys.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I am thrilled.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I am thrilled because anybody who listens to this program
knows I try to support everybody, and I have a
heart for all the clauses out there, but children invests,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I mean, I do anything for them.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So, first of all, a couple of years ago, as
they said, you guys are talking, you were, you know,
shooting the breeze. Tell us what came out of that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Well, it started out, as you know, for me personally,
it was a dream from years and years ago, and
a situation finally came up and I was able to
you know, co found this with my wife. Yeah, and
it was now we're on the hunt for you know,
good board members and officers, okay. And the first person
that came to mind was Mary, of course, and I
(03:22):
sent her a text and asked her, you know, would
you mind be in the chairman And she turned down
and I said, I'm going to give her five minutes.
Five minutes, I'm going to call her back. And before
that five minutes was up, she got a hold of
me and said, why not.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You are a former marine, right, no, no, no, you remember
you remember the CBS. Right, that's right, that's that's a
big deal thing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I know.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
My dad was part of that kind he was in
the second Marine Division of the Navy. So he said,
was like the CBS, that's pretty dangerous. You could be
What did you see while you were in the service
that you felt the veterans needed they weren't getting.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Okay, Well, the entire seven and a half years and
I was in we did a lot of things as
a battalion to help out our local community, and most
oftentimes it involved veterans, and pretty much as ink back then,
I made it a point that this is kind of
like what I want to do, and don't know how
you know, And then I, you know, got out of
(04:22):
the Navy and kind of waited around and loitered a
little bit, and again, you know, it finally came to
a point where it's time to act, because in that time,
we've had two wars and a lots happened and the
situation became more dire.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
There were more people that needed help. So we got
to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And I know the bets a lot of times because
I experienced with my dad. If you don't and a
lot of people don't know, call your congressman.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
They'll put everything up front for you.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But some of these poor men and women, they're waiting
for a couple of years to get even they get
their benefits. That's blow, you know, but you saw what
other kind of needs that the vets needed. When you
get out, what did you what did you come across?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The basic needs? I mean, that's really what it was.
You know, the struggles that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
They have, paying bills, yeah, making car payments, even eating
and of course, you know, you walk around some towns
you see some homeless folks and unfortunately the majority of
those are veterans and the yank's at your heart and
if you don't have the support, it's hard to do
(05:34):
everything by yourself, is what I'm trying to say. And
so the group was formed with the intent to help
eliminate some of that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Good good, Well, Mary, tell us about you. Your son
is the one that was marine tell us about its service.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
He was was a two thousand and one graduate of
Redland High School and shortly after he graduated, that was
around the time of nine to eleven, and he had
always wanted to do something in the military, probably the Marines,
and from the time he was a little boy, and
(06:10):
so as he was growing up and going through high school,
his one of his heroes was Arley Army and every
Sunday night we would have to watch me I'll call
and watch Arley Army blow stuff up. Well, it's made
a long story short. Pat decided to go into the
Marine Corps and he went into ordinance. And I always
(06:30):
called him my boy scout on steroids because he liked
to blow stuff up and basically that's what you do
in ordinance. So he did that for four years he
was in Alisad. That was well. He was of course
down in North Carolina at first, but his missions took
him to Alisad and then he was also onto MUSE
(06:54):
Marine Expeditionary Units. And so when he came back, he
decided after four years that that was enough that he
wanted to go back to school. So he did his
four years for Uncle Sam. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam, you know,
paid him back by helping him go through PITT and
getting his engineering degree. And now he is a professional engineer.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How is he?
Speaker 5 (07:18):
He's good. He's had his moments when he got back.
And I know he wouldn't mind me talking about this
because we talk about this all the time. But when
he first got back, he went right into college. Okay,
no downtime because he knew that if he had any
down time, he might not go back to school. So
he just came back, you know, dug in his the
(07:42):
bootstraps and whatever, and just went right into college. He
actually did five years to get his engineering degrees through Pitt,
got married, had a baby, got a job and whatever.
And then it wasn't until just a few years ago
that the demons started coming back.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
You know, how do they present them well through?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
I don't know the whole story because he doesn't tell
me a whole lot. They won't, the moms don't don't
hear a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
If they see anything, they don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
No, And that was I think part of his I
don't want to call it a problem, but that was
his problem. And I've seen it in so many other
joys as well, and women who have been over there
as well. They just don't want to talk about it
because they figure if they don't talk about it, it'll
go away. But eventually it goes back, it comes back,
and with him it did. Fortunately, he was able to
get really good counseling and did some very intense counseling.
(08:37):
And now I can say, I don't want to say
he's one hundred percent okay, because I think what you've experienced,
it's a part of you and it will never go away.
But how you deal with that has to change.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You also help the families, and I think what I've
learned over the years, you know, with all the people
I've talked to my own family too, and what I've
tried to educate myself about is that when these men
or women come home from war, they're not.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
The same people.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And families expect their son or daughter to come home
and things are just going.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
To resume the way they are. But how in the
world can they john how can they.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Well, it's a transitional period, been through it. Yeah, you're correct.
They do expect you to be the same because.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You left one way and you do come back the same,
but you know, you are a little different. Not just
from experience, but just things you would have seen, the
conversations you have with people you know, friend or foe.
But it's an adjustment. But the one thing I did
find comforting, and I'm fortunate because I have a good
(09:46):
family and a good friend base. They helped make everything real,
real easy. And that's you know, with Operation Restore Hope,
that's that's another thing that we do provide is an
year and just general conversation from someone who might know.
And then if we don't know ourselves, we can always
hook him up with somebody that would. And I found
(10:08):
that that actually the best counseling is to be amongst
those that share your same emotions and feelings.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I've said this many times when we've had veterans organizations
on I know my dad was in a place called Karawah.
I never knew that till I was maybe forty years old,
and he never talked about had nightmares every day except
during the day. He was a successful businessman. That didn't happen,
but there were triggers that sent him off with fireworks
on the fourth of July. I mean, he'd wake up
(10:41):
in the middle of the night and look at me.
I could hear him yell, and it was just terrible.
And he said to me, Sylvia, I would talk to
somebody it only I don't want He didn't want to
go see any any of these young kids' counselors because
what the heck They're going to pump me full of drugs.
I don't need that, you know, I got to watch
my mouth.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
He said, if there was somebody who saw what I saw,
that would be then I'd consider it, because I mean,
even watching more movies, you can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You can't. I mean, do you think that do you
think we do?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
You think the public, like we all say, be supporter
of that. I don't think they truly understand how bad
it can be, do you.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I don't think they truly understand. I think the movie industry,
while they are entertaining, I don't really think they consider.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
The effect it has on a lot of people. There's
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Veterans out there, and it's a trigger mechanism, that's right,
And it only takes one thing, maybe one sound, like
you said, with the fireworks and thunderstorms, you know, just
things smells. It's it's unreal. What what gets things going upstairs,
and he used.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
To say to us, please don't walk up behind me.
Things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
People don't And I remember him saying when he came home,
he came home from a large family and they expect
everything to be rigged. Nothing happened, you know, and he
couldn't talk about it because he didn't want to live
it again, you know. And so that's why I said
about your son, God bless him because he's a strong kid.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah, he and his family went to Disney World, I
think maybe two years ago, and they were walking down
Main Street or whatever, and he was unaware that there
was going to be a fireworks display this particular night.
And when it started, he said, it just like you said,
it triggered something. And he had a duck into one
(12:45):
of the little stores that was there and he said,
until things were over, he said, Then I realized, you
know what it was, he said, And I was okay,
and I could deal with that. But again, you know,
little things like that just trigger when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I mean, you guys guide together. What point you just said,
we're going to start this nonprofit. How'd you go about
doing it? And what's the name of your organization.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
The organization is Operation Restore Hope, and if you go
on to our Facebook page you can find out, you
know a little bit about our mission statement and the
things that we have done to help veterans. But our
mission is to help vets where they are, you know,
(13:28):
give some example with what they need. For instance, we've
had a couple people that have contacted us that the
one lady, she is a nurse at one of the
rehab hospitals here and she had a patient who was
a veteran who unfortunately had to have both legs amputated
and on his way home he was going to face
(13:52):
steps leading up to his home. Well, if you're in
a wheelchair, how do you get up those steps into
your home? So we can't we can't change the house,
you know, we we can't do that, but we can
build a wheelchair ramp.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You can make it different, and.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That's what we've done. We've we've done that a few
times for veterans so that they can at least get
into their home. You know, can we you know, remodel
an entire bathroom, No, but can we install grab bars? Absolutely?
You know, can we do little things like that?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
When you come home from the hospital and there's a
landscaping that needs to be done. The grass hasn't been mowed,
the shrubs haven't been you know, shorn down at all.
Can we do that, Yes, John has his own and
he is capable of doing that, and we have done
that in the past, you know, just to take a
little bit of a burden off of not just the
(14:44):
veterans but their families, you know, because the family's focus
is going to be on the vets when they, you know,
first come home. And that's what we try to do
to try to make things just a little bit easier
for them.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
When John talks about visible and invisible needs, what's the difference, John.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Well, I would say the visible needs are the ones that,
you know, again what Mary had just said, things that
maybe like the veteran is a male and he's used
to taking care of the maintenance around the home stuff
like that, now he can't. The spouse would render herself
(15:21):
helpless unless he's busy, you know, fussing with you know,
her ailing husband or whatever. And the sentinel for us
is things like this show that you're doing right now
and the listeners, because everybody knows someone that needs something,
so you reach out.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
But back to your original.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Question, visible invisible, Well, the invisible ones we kind of covered.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I'm a firm believer in the group thing.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The visible ones are a bill sitting in front of
your face that you can't handle. We may take care
of that for you. So you know, we understand that
we don't give away cash money, but will help you,
you know, with your car insurance, your car payment gets
(16:10):
you to from work, something like that. We do the
little things that a lot of people. We spoke about
the VA earlier. You have to wait a long time
and hence the ramp business that we're in. You know,
to get approval for a ramp from the VA could
take up to a year, year and a half.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
You need something in the meantime and small stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
What do you guys need? You need people to contact
you when they need those things. You also need people
to supply whatever the person needs right Yes, where are
you right now?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
What could you really use?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Well, we can always use help.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
We have a good pool of volunteers to help us out,
which is great, and they're faithful people to us and
our mission.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
What do we need mare, there's a lot out there.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Well, I think we need people to know who we are.
We need to get our name and our mission out,
which we're grateful for you for doing this for us.
And I think once people learn who we are and
what we do, then we'll be able to say, hey,
well we need you know, a little extra money to
(17:24):
be able to do this, or we need a few
extra hands to be able to do this. We do
the reads across America.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And it's wonderful.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Which it is a wonderful thing that you know, these
these veterans, you know who are in these cemeteries, to
know that they're not forgotten at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And you know what, Mary, those are things that the
whole family can do. That's what I get excited about
when you get kids involved in exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You're a school teacher.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
For a long time, I've talked to a lot of
school teachers that talk about kids self esteem. Boy, if
that volunteering and doing something like that, if that doesn't
do something their self is seeing nothing does.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
And so you know, we need help maybe with things
like that as well. You know, maybe you're not good
at carpentry work, Well that's okay, maybe you can do
something else. Maybe someone needs a haircut, Yeah, can you
or can you plant flowers?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
You know, can you? We had somebody contact us recently
that said that they have a basement. It's a widow
and she has a basement in her home that is
just overflowing with stuff and not stuff that anybody really wants,
but she needs to downsize and get rid of this stuff.
So we're going to be in contact with her try
to see if we can help maybe clean out her
(18:36):
her basement a little bit so that she doesn't have
so much to worry about when the time comes to
put the first sale sign on the house.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Are there a lot of family members that contacted for
things like that or is that most of your Somebody
calls about a veteran, Mostly.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
People calling us about veterans, people that they know, we don't.
The veterans usually don't know. They won't they won't know.
It's so it's somebody that knows.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Them ask you this, and your son probably knows this.
I can remember after the hell my daddy must have
gone through, and I said, Dad.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Would you go back? Absolutely? John explain that to me.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
It's one of those things that I smile while I
say this, because I don't think there's any greater pride
than putting a uniform on. And I would go back
to the situations that I was in in a heartbeat
if if the government would let me. You know, I'm
a little bit overage, but see, that's just.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I think my dad was in the sixties when I asked.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And I totally understand that. But your mind doesn't change
with your body, you know, the mind stays young.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I can still do this. I can still do that. Boy,
if it was me, i'd be doing this and.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It would be a shocked as to how much has changed.
But yeah, the mindset is there. So for me to
serve personally is with Operation Restore Hope. And that's the
best I could.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Do right now.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
This is exciting, kids, It is exciting.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You think it is, Okay, I'll tell you what's even
more is you know we talk about helping these veterans.
It doesn't end there. We get to know the families. Okay,
before you know it, we know the kids, grandkids' names,
their pest names, and even when our project is over,
(20:17):
we're still in contact following up.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
They can't get rid of us.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Now, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, I know you've got this great successful business and
Mary's been like running all the nonprofits in there. She's
you know, she's amazing, when in fact, one of my
arms with a mutual friend who's told me about her.
But how do you fit doing this into everything else
you're doing?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You make.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I retired. I quit my job after twenty years in
the automotive business. I decided to hang up the keys.
And the reason I well, I did it for a
number of reasons, age, of course, but I always said that,
man if I didn't have to work, I could do
a lot of really cool stuff. And this is one
(21:04):
of the cool things that I'm doing, so I stay
true to that.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Do you think we're teaching our kids about giving back enough?
That's a big deal to me. What do you think, Mary?
Speaker 5 (21:17):
I know I have personally, and I know that my
two children are Can I speak to anybody else? I
don't know. I know that their circle of friends, yes,
yes they do, but as a whole, I don't know.
We live in a society right now where everybody's all
about themselves. You know, if you look on social media,
(21:37):
you know all the selfies and they are self ease.
It's all about the self.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Hey, I see a lot of people my age that
are doing this.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
There's nothing wrong with selfies. I'm not saying that, but
what I'm but it's a reflection I think upon our
society is that you know, a lot of our younger
people are more about themselves, and I think we grew
up at a different time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And I think with all your volunteers, it's like if
they're all tied up, I'm sure somebody knows somebody where.
You're not going to let these people down, right, you
always take care of that must.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Be a world with two there's bravewards and everything that
we don't. And it's funny because the generation I was mentioning,
the pool of volunteers we have, we're all from the
same generation and a.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Lot of us that age would that be like fifty.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And above, okay, And those generations are a little bit
different because I think most of us were taught to
help and give go, you know, show your neighbor's driveway,
you know, for the old lady next door.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Absolutely, I'm still waiting for somebody to shove on my driveway.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
But I think that mindset has gone away. I don't
think that parents are doing that with youth that we
know today, and it's frightening to me. I agree, because
someday I would be that old guy that might need
his driveway.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Oh Mary will be here. Oh no, you're old. I'm
old here, I won't be here.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
How do we do it? Anyway? John, You're right.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Can you guys share some stories with us that moved
you the most while you were doing this?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
People have to I well, my biggest thing is people say,
not here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
We don't have crime, we don't have trafficking, we don't
have blooney.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
There are vets that need that.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And I'm sure there are kids that just got out
of service and men who are like seventy eighty ninety
years old and tell us about that, Like, what.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Is there anything that like to your job? What do
you think?
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Well? I think we got a call. John got a
call from somebody who who lived in the Mechanicsburg area
and her husband was very, very sick Marine Corps colonel
and that kind of you know, struck a chord with us.
And when he came home, he realized came home from
(24:10):
the hospital, he realized that his house had really fallen
into some disrepair around the outside of the house, and
not only the grass and the shrubs and the flowers
and whatever. But his Marine Corps flag was in tatters. Ah,
and you know, you blow on the wind, you know
for a long enough time, it's going to tatter. And
I think just looking at that really tugged at our heartstrings.
(24:34):
So we got even a new flag, and then of
course we did all the outside work as well, and
built him a ramp so that his wife could get
him from the van into the house, make it a
little bit easier. And unfortunately he didn't live long enough
to you know, totally enjoy everything. But it didn't matter,
you know, we just did it again, not just for
(24:56):
him but for the family. So yeah, things like that,
you know, those are the things that tug.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
At our heartstring. We you know, Dohnnah wanted to ask
you about this too.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I know, like with my father's generation, guys, how can
I put this? They don't want to talk about it.
I can do it myself. I remember my dad was
eighty some years old and he would whine about nobody's
helping them cut the grass, and when somebody would try
to help them and they don't do it right.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You know how that generation is?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Are these does this embarrass these that are in is
what I'm asking you. Are they grateful for I mean,
I know they're grateful, but all of them.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You're understand where I'm coming from.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
John, Yeah, I think a lot of times it's just
a pride thing. Yeah, and maybe they don't feel like
I'm the man of the house, you know kind of thing.
But once everything is said and done and you get
to them, you've surprised how much they open up, Oh yeah,
and start telling you stories.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And that's to me is when the fun begin.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And you know what you can always say to them,
when we get this taken care of, r you feel better.
We expect you to be doing this for somebody else too.
You know, there's so much there's.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
So much out there. Well, you are always you're always.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Open to no nations, right, but you've got to have
a couple bucks to get things going. You had a
golf turnout was is this gonna be a fifth year?
Speaker 5 (26:18):
This will be our fifth year, the fifth end?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Okay, how did you do with that?
Speaker 5 (26:22):
It's coming up August twenty third, and it will be
held with the Carlisle Barracks up in Carlisle, and generally
we have what about one hundred and ten, maybe one
hundred and twelve golfers. We'll let folks know about that,
and it's really a lot of fun. It's usually a
nine o'clock shotgun start, and we have events that happened
(26:45):
before that on that particular day, love what do you
call it? A cluster putt, cluster putt and just a
couple of you know, little things like that. We always
have a donuts and coffee for the people that are participating,
and then we have afterwards, we have lunch, and then
we have we give out the prizes, you know for
closest to the whole that was four things along those lines,
(27:06):
and then we have prizes that we give away as well.
And we've been told that our golf tournament is without
a doubt, one of the nicest ones in the area
because we've been doing it now for five years and
we do it right because we know what our golfers want,
We respect them, and we thank them for giving us
their time and money to do this.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
If somebody wants to get a hold of you, whether
they want to be a part of you know, they volunteered,
they know somebody that needs support.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Right now, you have Facebook page.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
By the end of this month, your website will be
up restore Hope dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Is it dot com Inc?
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Or is it it's our h USA dot org?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
How would someone get a hold of you now? If
they want to get more just the I think this
is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Because I'll tell you what it's not. It's not.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
All these little things are taken care of and it's
not a big push. It's not that you have to
volunteer that much. But I understand by volunteering as I
have that the more you do it, the more you
want it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's like it's like a drug, how about it?
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Indeed, yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
So how do they get a hold of you? Do
you have an email address, a phone number where they
can reach out?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Right now? The best thing would be to go onto
our Facebook page, okay, and you can message us through there.
By the end of this month, beginning of next month,
we will have our website up and running that is
set to launch. And John, we do have a phone number,
which space what is it's your number?
Speaker 4 (28:35):
It's my number, my personal number.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Okay, and if you want to give it up were
we want to have it?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Okay? That number is seven one seven six one four
nine three.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Six one, and you can always get a hold of
me Sylvia Moss s y L B I A M
A U S at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll get ahold
of these guys and I'll set your right up. But please,
this is such a simple thing for such an incredibly
important group of people in our area, and we got
(29:08):
to get this straight now, how about it?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I think it's wonderful, you know, as America, as we
tell our veterans thank you for your service, by the way,
thank you. But in my opinion, we have to come
up with better ways to show our veterans the depth
of the appreciation that we show from and this is
a perfect way to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Operation Restore Hope is a great start, so get in
touch with them. Check out the Facebook page John Johnson,
he's the founder and president.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Mary aberzizis how you like?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I said it right, Mary, chairman of the Word of
operations for Restore Hope. You can certainly count on me
to get the word out, and I encourage all my
listeners please get a hold of these guys. Remember to
catch inside on the many iHeart stations every Sunday and
find it anytime on your favorite iHeart podcas Are, your
favorite iHeart podcast, gapp, and several other podcast steps.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I'm so Vi Moss.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Thanks guys, this has been insight Thanks so much for listening.
To see you next week.
Hi, I'm Sylvia of Moss and this is Insight, a
presentation of iHeartMedia where we really do care about our
local communities and all our listeners who live here. You know,
over and over and over again you heard me talk
about how truly amazed I am with the big hearts
and generosity of the people who live here in central Pennsylvania.
They're constantly there to help so many people in organizations
(00:22):
in our area whenever there's a need to be met.
And one of the things that I'm often told by
the people who run many large local organizations that they
do all they can to address the issues that theirations
were created to do, but they wish they could do
a whole lot more because sometimes they don't have the staff,
the time, the funds to take care of a small
(00:43):
things that are considered small. They focus on their individual missions,
and a lot of those people well, quite often they
fall through the cracks. Can't begin to tell you how
excited I am to introduced to you two remarkable people
who have given an incredible amount of themselves to support
others in our local communities. Because of their experience, they
(01:03):
too have witnessed the many whose small but important needs
have not been met. The wonderful thing is that they
are going to do something about it. Heck, they started already.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And before we.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Talk about who my guests are and helping, who my
guests are helping, I wanted to introduce you to them.
First of all, Mary Abrazzi. Mary was the twenty twenty
three Woman of the Impact of Impact for the American
Heart Association, and right now she's a manner for that
organization's Go Red for Women campaign. She's also worked with
(01:36):
the Cumulanphoma Society's Women of the Year campaigns and their
Light the Night. Additionally, our Mary is an angel for
Pink Hands of Hope. I didn't know that that's an
organization helps women who are battling breast cancer. And guess
what else, she's a member of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra.
Or joining Mary is John Johnston. John is a successful
(01:59):
and deat Kate, a local businessman. He's had over get this,
thirty years, thirty years of serving in many positions for
numerous nonprofit organizations in our area. So you say, who
are these people the small but very important needs?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
What are their needs?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And why did John and Mary decide to support them?
We'll get the answers in a minute, but what you
must know is that it started with a conversation between
John and Mary, who are neighbors, and they have something
very honorable and significant in comming something. I'm certain that
when you hear about it, you're going to want to
support guys.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I am thrilled.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I am thrilled because anybody who listens to this program
knows I try to support everybody, and I have a
heart for all the clauses out there, but children invests,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I mean, I do anything for them.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So, first of all, a couple of years ago, as
they said, you guys are talking, you were, you know,
shooting the breeze. Tell us what came out of that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Well, it started out, as you know, for me personally,
it was a dream from years and years ago, and
a situation finally came up and I was able to
you know, co found this with my wife. Yeah, and
it was now we're on the hunt for you know,
good board members and officers, okay. And the first person
that came to mind was Mary, of course, and I
(03:22):
sent her a text and asked her, you know, would
you mind be in the chairman And she turned down
and I said, I'm going to give her five minutes.
Five minutes, I'm going to call her back. And before
that five minutes was up, she got a hold of
me and said, why not.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You are a former marine, right, no, no, no, you remember
you remember the CBS. Right, that's right, that's that's a
big deal thing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I know.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
My dad was part of that kind he was in
the second Marine Division of the Navy. So he said,
was like the CBS, that's pretty dangerous. You could be
What did you see while you were in the service
that you felt the veterans needed they weren't getting.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Okay, Well, the entire seven and a half years and
I was in we did a lot of things as
a battalion to help out our local community, and most
oftentimes it involved veterans, and pretty much as ink back then,
I made it a point that this is kind of
like what I want to do, and don't know how
you know, And then I, you know, got out of
(04:22):
the Navy and kind of waited around and loitered a
little bit, and again, you know, it finally came to
a point where it's time to act, because in that time,
we've had two wars and a lots happened and the
situation became more dire.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
There were more people that needed help. So we got
to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And I know the bets a lot of times because
I experienced with my dad. If you don't and a
lot of people don't know, call your congressman.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
They'll put everything up front for you.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But some of these poor men and women, they're waiting
for a couple of years to get even they get
their benefits. That's blow, you know, but you saw what
other kind of needs that the vets needed. When you
get out, what did you what did you come across?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The basic needs? I mean, that's really what it was.
You know, the struggles that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
They have, paying bills, yeah, making car payments, even eating
and of course, you know, you walk around some towns
you see some homeless folks and unfortunately the majority of
those are veterans and the yank's at your heart and
if you don't have the support, it's hard to do
(05:34):
everything by yourself, is what I'm trying to say. And
so the group was formed with the intent to help
eliminate some of that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Good good, Well, Mary, tell us about you. Your son
is the one that was marine tell us about its service.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
He was was a two thousand and one graduate of
Redland High School and shortly after he graduated, that was
around the time of nine to eleven, and he had
always wanted to do something in the military, probably the Marines,
and from the time he was a little boy, and
(06:10):
so as he was growing up and going through high school,
his one of his heroes was Arley Army and every
Sunday night we would have to watch me I'll call
and watch Arley Army blow stuff up. Well, it's made
a long story short. Pat decided to go into the
Marine Corps and he went into ordinance. And I always
(06:30):
called him my boy scout on steroids because he liked
to blow stuff up and basically that's what you do
in ordinance. So he did that for four years he
was in Alisad. That was well. He was of course
down in North Carolina at first, but his missions took
him to Alisad and then he was also onto MUSE
(06:54):
Marine Expeditionary Units. And so when he came back, he
decided after four years that that was enough that he
wanted to go back to school. So he did his
four years for Uncle Sam. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam, you know,
paid him back by helping him go through PITT and
getting his engineering degree. And now he is a professional engineer.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How is he?
Speaker 5 (07:18):
He's good. He's had his moments when he got back.
And I know he wouldn't mind me talking about this
because we talk about this all the time. But when
he first got back, he went right into college. Okay,
no downtime because he knew that if he had any
down time, he might not go back to school. So
he just came back, you know, dug in his the
(07:42):
bootstraps and whatever, and just went right into college. He
actually did five years to get his engineering degrees through Pitt,
got married, had a baby, got a job and whatever.
And then it wasn't until just a few years ago
that the demons started coming back.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
You know, how do they present them well through?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
I don't know the whole story because he doesn't tell
me a whole lot. They won't, the moms don't don't
hear a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
If they see anything, they don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
No, And that was I think part of his I
don't want to call it a problem, but that was
his problem. And I've seen it in so many other
joys as well, and women who have been over there
as well. They just don't want to talk about it
because they figure if they don't talk about it, it'll
go away. But eventually it goes back, it comes back,
and with him it did. Fortunately, he was able to
get really good counseling and did some very intense counseling.
(08:37):
And now I can say, I don't want to say
he's one hundred percent okay, because I think what you've experienced,
it's a part of you and it will never go away.
But how you deal with that has to change.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You also help the families, and I think what I've
learned over the years, you know, with all the people
I've talked to my own family too, and what I've
tried to educate myself about is that when these men
or women come home from war, they're not.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
The same people.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And families expect their son or daughter to come home
and things are just going.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
To resume the way they are. But how in the
world can they john how can they.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Well, it's a transitional period, been through it. Yeah, you're correct.
They do expect you to be the same because.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You left one way and you do come back the same,
but you know, you are a little different. Not just
from experience, but just things you would have seen, the
conversations you have with people you know, friend or foe.
But it's an adjustment. But the one thing I did
find comforting, and I'm fortunate because I have a good
(09:46):
family and a good friend base. They helped make everything real,
real easy. And that's you know, with Operation Restore Hope,
that's that's another thing that we do provide is an
year and just general conversation from someone who might know.
And then if we don't know ourselves, we can always
hook him up with somebody that would. And I found
(10:08):
that that actually the best counseling is to be amongst
those that share your same emotions and feelings.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I've said this many times when we've had veterans organizations
on I know my dad was in a place called Karawah.
I never knew that till I was maybe forty years old,
and he never talked about had nightmares every day except
during the day. He was a successful businessman. That didn't happen,
but there were triggers that sent him off with fireworks
on the fourth of July. I mean, he'd wake up
(10:41):
in the middle of the night and look at me.
I could hear him yell, and it was just terrible.
And he said to me, Sylvia, I would talk to
somebody it only I don't want He didn't want to
go see any any of these young kids' counselors because
what the heck They're going to pump me full of drugs.
I don't need that, you know, I got to watch
my mouth.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
He said, if there was somebody who saw what I saw,
that would be then I'd consider it, because I mean,
even watching more movies, you can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You can't. I mean, do you think that do you
think we do?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
You think the public, like we all say, be supporter
of that. I don't think they truly understand how bad
it can be, do you.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I don't think they truly understand. I think the movie industry,
while they are entertaining, I don't really think they consider.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
The effect it has on a lot of people. There's
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Veterans out there, and it's a trigger mechanism, that's right,
And it only takes one thing, maybe one sound, like
you said, with the fireworks and thunderstorms, you know, just
things smells. It's it's unreal. What what gets things going upstairs,
and he used.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
To say to us, please don't walk up behind me.
Things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
People don't And I remember him saying when he came home,
he came home from a large family and they expect
everything to be rigged. Nothing happened, you know, and he
couldn't talk about it because he didn't want to live
it again, you know. And so that's why I said
about your son, God bless him because he's a strong kid.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah, he and his family went to Disney World, I
think maybe two years ago, and they were walking down
Main Street or whatever, and he was unaware that there
was going to be a fireworks display this particular night.
And when it started, he said, it just like you said,
it triggered something. And he had a duck into one
(12:45):
of the little stores that was there and he said,
until things were over, he said, Then I realized, you
know what it was, he said, And I was okay,
and I could deal with that. But again, you know,
little things like that just trigger when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I mean, you guys guide together. What point you just said,
we're going to start this nonprofit. How'd you go about
doing it? And what's the name of your organization.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
The organization is Operation Restore Hope, and if you go
on to our Facebook page you can find out, you
know a little bit about our mission statement and the
things that we have done to help veterans. But our
mission is to help vets where they are, you know,
(13:28):
give some example with what they need. For instance, we've
had a couple people that have contacted us that the
one lady, she is a nurse at one of the
rehab hospitals here and she had a patient who was
a veteran who unfortunately had to have both legs amputated
and on his way home he was going to face
(13:52):
steps leading up to his home. Well, if you're in
a wheelchair, how do you get up those steps into
your home? So we can't we can't change the house,
you know, we we can't do that, but we can
build a wheelchair ramp.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You can make it different, and.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That's what we've done. We've we've done that a few
times for veterans so that they can at least get
into their home. You know, can we you know, remodel
an entire bathroom, No, but can we install grab bars? Absolutely?
You know, can we do little things like that?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
When you come home from the hospital and there's a
landscaping that needs to be done. The grass hasn't been mowed,
the shrubs haven't been you know, shorn down at all.
Can we do that, Yes, John has his own and
he is capable of doing that, and we have done
that in the past, you know, just to take a
little bit of a burden off of not just the
(14:44):
veterans but their families, you know, because the family's focus
is going to be on the vets when they, you know,
first come home. And that's what we try to do
to try to make things just a little bit easier
for them.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
When John talks about visible and invisible needs, what's the difference, John.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Well, I would say the visible needs are the ones that,
you know, again what Mary had just said, things that
maybe like the veteran is a male and he's used
to taking care of the maintenance around the home stuff
like that, now he can't. The spouse would render herself
(15:21):
helpless unless he's busy, you know, fussing with you know,
her ailing husband or whatever. And the sentinel for us
is things like this show that you're doing right now
and the listeners, because everybody knows someone that needs something,
so you reach out.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
But back to your original.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Question, visible invisible, Well, the invisible ones we kind of covered.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I'm a firm believer in the group thing.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The visible ones are a bill sitting in front of
your face that you can't handle. We may take care
of that for you. So you know, we understand that
we don't give away cash money, but will help you,
you know, with your car insurance, your car payment gets
(16:10):
you to from work, something like that. We do the
little things that a lot of people. We spoke about
the VA earlier. You have to wait a long time
and hence the ramp business that we're in. You know,
to get approval for a ramp from the VA could
take up to a year, year and a half.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
You need something in the meantime and small stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
What do you guys need? You need people to contact
you when they need those things. You also need people
to supply whatever the person needs right Yes, where are
you right now?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
What could you really use?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Well, we can always use help.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
We have a good pool of volunteers to help us out,
which is great, and they're faithful people to us and
our mission.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
What do we need mare, there's a lot out there.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Well, I think we need people to know who we are.
We need to get our name and our mission out,
which we're grateful for you for doing this for us.
And I think once people learn who we are and
what we do, then we'll be able to say, hey,
well we need you know, a little extra money to
(17:24):
be able to do this, or we need a few
extra hands to be able to do this. We do
the reads across America.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And it's wonderful.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Which it is a wonderful thing that you know, these
these veterans, you know who are in these cemeteries, to
know that they're not forgotten at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And you know what, Mary, those are things that the
whole family can do. That's what I get excited about
when you get kids involved in exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You're a school teacher.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
For a long time, I've talked to a lot of
school teachers that talk about kids self esteem. Boy, if
that volunteering and doing something like that, if that doesn't
do something their self is seeing nothing does.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
And so you know, we need help maybe with things
like that as well. You know, maybe you're not good
at carpentry work, Well that's okay, maybe you can do
something else. Maybe someone needs a haircut, Yeah, can you
or can you plant flowers?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
You know, can you? We had somebody contact us recently
that said that they have a basement. It's a widow
and she has a basement in her home that is
just overflowing with stuff and not stuff that anybody really wants,
but she needs to downsize and get rid of this stuff.
So we're going to be in contact with her try
to see if we can help maybe clean out her
(18:36):
her basement a little bit so that she doesn't have
so much to worry about when the time comes to
put the first sale sign on the house.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Are there a lot of family members that contacted for
things like that or is that most of your Somebody
calls about a veteran, Mostly.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
People calling us about veterans, people that they know, we don't.
The veterans usually don't know. They won't they won't know.
It's so it's somebody that knows.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Them ask you this, and your son probably knows this.
I can remember after the hell my daddy must have
gone through, and I said, Dad.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Would you go back? Absolutely? John explain that to me.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
It's one of those things that I smile while I
say this, because I don't think there's any greater pride
than putting a uniform on. And I would go back
to the situations that I was in in a heartbeat
if if the government would let me. You know, I'm
a little bit overage, but see, that's just.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I think my dad was in the sixties when I asked.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And I totally understand that. But your mind doesn't change
with your body, you know, the mind stays young.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I can still do this. I can still do that. Boy,
if it was me, i'd be doing this and.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It would be a shocked as to how much has changed.
But yeah, the mindset is there. So for me to
serve personally is with Operation Restore Hope. And that's the
best I could.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Do right now.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
This is exciting, kids, It is exciting.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You think it is, Okay, I'll tell you what's even
more is you know we talk about helping these veterans.
It doesn't end there. We get to know the families. Okay,
before you know it, we know the kids, grandkids' names,
their pest names, and even when our project is over,
(20:17):
we're still in contact following up.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
They can't get rid of us.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Now, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, I know you've got this great successful business and
Mary's been like running all the nonprofits in there. She's
you know, she's amazing, when in fact, one of my
arms with a mutual friend who's told me about her.
But how do you fit doing this into everything else
you're doing?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You make.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I retired. I quit my job after twenty years in
the automotive business. I decided to hang up the keys.
And the reason I well, I did it for a
number of reasons, age, of course, but I always said that,
man if I didn't have to work, I could do
a lot of really cool stuff. And this is one
(21:04):
of the cool things that I'm doing, so I stay
true to that.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Do you think we're teaching our kids about giving back enough?
That's a big deal to me. What do you think, Mary?
Speaker 5 (21:17):
I know I have personally, and I know that my
two children are Can I speak to anybody else? I
don't know. I know that their circle of friends, yes,
yes they do, but as a whole, I don't know.
We live in a society right now where everybody's all
about themselves. You know, if you look on social media,
(21:37):
you know all the selfies and they are self ease.
It's all about the self.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Hey, I see a lot of people my age that
are doing this.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
There's nothing wrong with selfies. I'm not saying that, but
what I'm but it's a reflection I think upon our
society is that you know, a lot of our younger
people are more about themselves, and I think we grew
up at a different time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And I think with all your volunteers, it's like if
they're all tied up, I'm sure somebody knows somebody where.
You're not going to let these people down, right, you
always take care of that must.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Be a world with two there's bravewards and everything that
we don't. And it's funny because the generation I was mentioning,
the pool of volunteers we have, we're all from the
same generation and a.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Lot of us that age would that be like fifty.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And above, okay, And those generations are a little bit
different because I think most of us were taught to
help and give go, you know, show your neighbor's driveway,
you know, for the old lady next door.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Absolutely, I'm still waiting for somebody to shove on my driveway.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
But I think that mindset has gone away. I don't
think that parents are doing that with youth that we
know today, and it's frightening to me. I agree, because
someday I would be that old guy that might need
his driveway.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Oh Mary will be here. Oh no, you're old. I'm
old here, I won't be here.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
How do we do it? Anyway? John, You're right.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Can you guys share some stories with us that moved
you the most while you were doing this?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
People have to I well, my biggest thing is people say,
not here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
We don't have crime, we don't have trafficking, we don't
have blooney.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
There are vets that need that.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And I'm sure there are kids that just got out
of service and men who are like seventy eighty ninety
years old and tell us about that, Like, what.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Is there anything that like to your job? What do
you think?
Speaker 5 (23:48):
Well? I think we got a call. John got a
call from somebody who who lived in the Mechanicsburg area
and her husband was very, very sick Marine Corps colonel
and that kind of you know, struck a chord with us.
And when he came home, he realized came home from
(24:10):
the hospital, he realized that his house had really fallen
into some disrepair around the outside of the house, and
not only the grass and the shrubs and the flowers
and whatever. But his Marine Corps flag was in tatters. Ah,
and you know, you blow on the wind, you know
for a long enough time, it's going to tatter. And
I think just looking at that really tugged at our heartstrings.
(24:34):
So we got even a new flag, and then of
course we did all the outside work as well, and
built him a ramp so that his wife could get
him from the van into the house, make it a
little bit easier. And unfortunately he didn't live long enough
to you know, totally enjoy everything. But it didn't matter,
you know, we just did it again, not just for
(24:56):
him but for the family. So yeah, things like that,
you know, those are the things that tug.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
At our heartstring. We you know, Dohnnah wanted to ask
you about this too.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I know, like with my father's generation, guys, how can
I put this? They don't want to talk about it.
I can do it myself. I remember my dad was
eighty some years old and he would whine about nobody's
helping them cut the grass, and when somebody would try
to help them and they don't do it right.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You know how that generation is?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Are these does this embarrass these that are in is
what I'm asking you. Are they grateful for I mean,
I know they're grateful, but all of them.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You're understand where I'm coming from.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
John, Yeah, I think a lot of times it's just
a pride thing. Yeah, and maybe they don't feel like
I'm the man of the house, you know kind of thing.
But once everything is said and done and you get
to them, you've surprised how much they open up, Oh yeah,
and start telling you stories.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And that's to me is when the fun begin.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And you know what you can always say to them,
when we get this taken care of, r you feel better.
We expect you to be doing this for somebody else too.
You know, there's so much there's.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
So much out there. Well, you are always you're always.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Open to no nations, right, but you've got to have
a couple bucks to get things going. You had a
golf turnout was is this gonna be a fifth year?
Speaker 5 (26:18):
This will be our fifth year, the fifth end?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Okay, how did you do with that?
Speaker 5 (26:22):
It's coming up August twenty third, and it will be
held with the Carlisle Barracks up in Carlisle, and generally
we have what about one hundred and ten, maybe one
hundred and twelve golfers. We'll let folks know about that,
and it's really a lot of fun. It's usually a
nine o'clock shotgun start, and we have events that happened
(26:45):
before that on that particular day, love what do you
call it? A cluster putt, cluster putt and just a
couple of you know, little things like that. We always
have a donuts and coffee for the people that are participating,
and then we have afterwards, we have lunch, and then
we have we give out the prizes, you know for
closest to the whole that was four things along those lines,
(27:06):
and then we have prizes that we give away as well.
And we've been told that our golf tournament is without
a doubt, one of the nicest ones in the area
because we've been doing it now for five years and
we do it right because we know what our golfers want,
We respect them, and we thank them for giving us
their time and money to do this.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
If somebody wants to get a hold of you, whether
they want to be a part of you know, they volunteered,
they know somebody that needs support.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Right now, you have Facebook page.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
By the end of this month, your website will be
up restore Hope dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Is it dot com Inc?
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Or is it it's our h USA dot org?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
How would someone get a hold of you now? If
they want to get more just the I think this
is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Because I'll tell you what it's not. It's not.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
All these little things are taken care of and it's
not a big push. It's not that you have to
volunteer that much. But I understand by volunteering as I
have that the more you do it, the more you
want it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's like it's like a drug, how about it?
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Indeed, yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
So how do they get a hold of you? Do
you have an email address, a phone number where they
can reach out?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Right now? The best thing would be to go onto
our Facebook page, okay, and you can message us through there.
By the end of this month, beginning of next month,
we will have our website up and running that is
set to launch. And John, we do have a phone number,
which space what is it's your number?
Speaker 4 (28:35):
It's my number, my personal number.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Okay, and if you want to give it up were
we want to have it?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Okay? That number is seven one seven six one four
nine three.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Six one, and you can always get a hold of
me Sylvia Moss s y L B I A M
A U S at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll get ahold
of these guys and I'll set your right up. But please,
this is such a simple thing for such an incredibly
important group of people in our area, and we got
(29:08):
to get this straight now, how about it?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I think it's wonderful, you know, as America, as we
tell our veterans thank you for your service, by the way,
thank you. But in my opinion, we have to come
up with better ways to show our veterans the depth
of the appreciation that we show from and this is
a perfect way to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Operation Restore Hope is a great start, so get in
touch with them. Check out the Facebook page John Johnson,
he's the founder and president.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Mary aberzizis how you like?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I said it right, Mary, chairman of the Word of
operations for Restore Hope. You can certainly count on me
to get the word out, and I encourage all my
listeners please get a hold of these guys. Remember to
catch inside on the many iHeart stations every Sunday and
find it anytime on your favorite iHeart podcas Are, your
favorite iHeart podcast, gapp, and several other podcast steps.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I'm so Vi Moss.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Thanks guys, this has been insight Thanks so much for listening.
To see you next week.
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