February 10, 2025 • 30 mins
“The dream is complete, but the journey continues as VOPA (Veteran’s Outreach of PA) asks for your continued support to address the unique challenges of local homeless veterans.”
http://www.veteransoutreachofpa.org
http://www.veteransoutreachofpa.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Sylvia Moss.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is inside a presentation of iHeartMedia, where we really
do care about local communities and all of our listeners
who live here. You know, every time I think about
the organization we're going to talk about today, and I
do that pretty often, I've become overwhelmed with so many emotions,
like sad because for the people that the organization helps,
(00:21):
and these are the folks have gone through a whole
lot for all of us, Pride, for the dedicated leaders
of the organization who have changed so many lives in
such a short period of time. I'm really grateful for
the generosity of all the residents and businesses here right
here in central Pennsylvania who have donated and supported this
remarkable organization. They've given them donation, gifts in kind and
(00:44):
actual physical labor. And finally, I'm really honored that Veterans
Outreach of Pennsylvania has continued to allow me to share
their mission with them. Well, but now everybody's heard about
Veterans Village, but it's time for an update, So let's
begin with the introductions.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Ha ha. Tom.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
When I first met Tom Zimmern about five years ago,
I fell.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Immediate connection to him.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That's because nobody's as humble or has a heart as
big as this guy. Tom's the co founder and immediate
past chair of Veteran's Outreach of Pennsylvania. Deborah Donna, who's
with us today. She is the interim executive director of
Veterans Outreach. She's also a former member of their board,
and her background is really impressive. It includes a distinguished
(01:26):
career in state government experience at the college professor. She
was the director of Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and
Perry Counties, and she knows about this as she's well
suited this because she's seen a lot of trauma. She's
always been a dedicated volunteer who support the homeless, kids
in foster care and as I said, victims of domestic
(01:47):
violent Most importantly, Dev's an attorney who has a history
of serving the armed forces because people and her family
are veterans.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Okay, guys, here's a deal.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Before we get an update on what's going on, I'd
like to ask you so people understand what your organization about.
On any given night, right here in Harrisburg area, there's
at least thirty veterans, so they're on the streets they're homeless.
It's a really complicated issue where veterans are concerned. A
lot of places give them a place to sleep at night,
(02:18):
and that's just to start. But deb let me ask
you first, you know all about providing services. Can you
share with this some of the issues that veterans based
when they come in their deb and you also have
therapeutic services. Tell us about those and how they help
the vets.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Absolutely, and thank you so much for having this here
to anytime. Yes, we are different than some of the
other organizations that you might hear about. First of all,
we're a local organization and one of the key words
that you might hear is that we're the therapeutic model,
(02:54):
and what that means is we're a therapeutic community. In
the model, it creates supportive, structured living environment where people
work together to overcome challenges. And some of the challenges
that we see with the veterans that we serve obviously
include homelessness, addiction or mental health issues, and having this
(03:16):
therapeutic model really helps them overcome some of these challenges.
And what we do we provide them not only with
obviously shelter and food, but also they have daily group
counseling sessions and also individual sessions, and also we refer
them to medical support staff if they need medication for
(03:40):
maybe some of their mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, Tom, I know we talked about post traumatic stresses
or a lot of these beds have that, and there's
also trauma being on the streets and not having place
to go. Try to explain because I tell people about
what this is all the time and they just can't.
Some people can't understand what it does.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
TSD and severe depression is one of the main issues
that happens with our veterans, those our medical conditions that
people can't actually see the effect that is having on
our veterans. And we as Americans and as our government
(04:20):
sent our young men and women to war when they're
eighteen eighty yeah, kids eighteen nineteen twenty years old and
trained them to be these soldiers and to do things
to protect us. And what they see and what they
experience cannot just be turned off with a light switch,
and a lot of them cannot talk to other people
(04:42):
about it. And it's when they close their eyes and
they can't. You get into a situation or maybe a
trigger mechanism or something happens that they hear a car
backfire and it brings them back to when they were
in the war and it was a bomb and they
kind of just don't know how to deal with it.
So what we do, what Veterans Outreach is that we
are We can't eliminate those things, but what we need
(05:05):
to do is we need to train our veterans and
teach our veterans how to cope with those mechanisms and
given the tools that's necessary to be able to live
a life of dignity and pride that they deserve. Every
veteran is different, there is no cookie cutter. But I
feel as Americans we need to step up and help
because we're the ones that put them in that situation
(05:27):
and we wouldn't have this great country or this freedom
that we have if it wasn't for them. So it's
right it's our time as Americans to give back.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
We know you mentioned about them coming home and experiencing
all of that stuff, but the thing is, families expect
this kid to left, and that's why a lot of
families break up because these poor guys are suffering with this.
They don't know what to do, They don't know how
to get out of it. They go to sleep at night,
they see what they saw on more and I'm going
to have to check to see if their services out
(05:55):
there to help families deal with that particular issue, because
I know it causes a lot of problems.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
There is and a lot of people. We talk about
our veterans who are homeless. However, it does affect It
affects the wives, it affects the children, it affects the
moms and dads, and our soldiers sometimes don't come back
the same as they were when they left and they
don't know how to deal with that. And so, you
know what veterans outreach, we talk about healing, We talk
(06:20):
about mind, body, and soul. You know, it's one thing,
and Dead mentioned about the medical part of it, but
it's also you know, reconnecting them. A lot of them
don't have a great support system or that support system
has been burned and they felt isolated and didn't know
where to turn and ultimately it was a black hole
and they became homeless. And you know, we wanted to
(06:41):
really focus on those ten to fifteen percent of veterans
that haven't succeeded in the great infrastructure that is out
there for our veterans, and that's why we created Veterans
Outreach of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh I thank god did that Devin? I wanted to
ask you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You talked about medical and one of the things you
guys are rolling too is creating partnerships with other people
who the vets. You have something going on with UPMC.
Tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, we do. We have a program with UPMC. In fact,
they are starting I think this week, Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Aren't they to.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Come the second Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Second Wednesday? Okay?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And what are they going to do there? What happens,
why are they referred there? And how will you PMC open?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
So we actually is an outreach program. So it's for
our veterans and also veterans at risk in Central PA.
And we partnered with UPMC, who is now going to
be providing medical services at our facility. So if you're
a veteran, you can come down and be part of
our community and take care of those services. Veterans Outreach
(07:44):
is not only about our fifteen veterans and our tiny
homes that we have and it's those that are living there,
but we do have that outreach program and UPMC is
one of those organizations that is going to be providing
services for us free of charge.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And it's just I mean, yeah, it's very generous, and
it's also one that we want to be able to
help in. Our goal this year is to help an
additional one hundred to one hundred and twenty five additional veterans.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Wow, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, you know, looking back when you first came in
and you had to raise all this money, I thought, oh, God,
bless them.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, guess what, Holy, what you've done over the last
couple of years, people just jumped. I think about some
of the businesses that've been so generous, the ones that
have come and worked there. And I think about also,
like Renewed by Anderson, not only did they donate money,
their employees came and work to help you out physical work.
(08:36):
And I heard a story about you that it's midnight
and you're off there digging.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So seriously, Well, it definitely and you hear me say
this quite a bit, but it does take a village.
And in the case with Renewal by Anderson, which is
one of many organizations that stepped up, they provided ninety
six windows and seventeen doors for our community and all
the labor included all the materials, and they did the
(09:04):
install and they actually came down on a Friday at
seven o'clock in the morning and they brought one hundred
and twenty five employees. Wow, and I think and I
think they were done by one o'clock. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
so they were done by one o'clock. And it was
just it was just amazing to see all these trucks
and vans and they had smaller inner teams that you know,
(09:27):
they were strategically placed on the property. Uh some of
them one of them had a runner, one of them
had an install or the other had you know. So
it was just really really amazing. I mean, there's great organizations.
Diploma Construction did all of the siding and all of
the roofing, and they were doing it and I think
they might have twenty employees. So they were working on
Saturdays and Sundays because they had jobs, you know, during
(09:50):
the way and the and their employees volunteered. They're the flooring,
you know, Harrisburg Wall and Flooring did all of the
laying of the materials from Mohawk Flooring, Vision Resources, Ralphie Jones,
Bob Means you know, I can't go on it's I mean,
I think there was over forty different organizations and it's
(10:12):
just amazing how the community has really stepped up and helped.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, you know, or anybody who knows me knows that
one of the big things that I'm into pushing all
that time is we need to get kids involved. Tell
me about this. I remember there was a little girl.
I think she was like, how old were she? The
nine years old?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
So her first year, first year, nine years old, last year.
And she's from I want to say Schoogo County, not
Schoogo County, but up the river. She's not even from
this county. Her father is as a veteran, and she
wanted to help her father's friends and they talked about,
you know, some of them aren't so fortunate. And she
(10:49):
did a fundraiser around Christmas time and she raised over
sixty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Oh my god, that's incredible as.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
A nine year old. And then this year she came
back and I think she raised another forty five hundred dollars.
But she also bought gifts for the veterans.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh plus, or isn't that wonderful? There is hope in
the world. Most recently you had some kids to marry
school there, right.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
We did actually, and last year the Cumberland Perry Votech
School built our two fire pits that we have on
the property. Each one weighs I think two thousand pounds.
It's unbelievable. But that was their senior project. So that started,
you know, in twenty twenty four or I'm sorry twenty
twenty three, and then we got them last year. And
then recently we just had the Dolphin County vote Tech
(11:31):
students there and they built us at sixteen x twelve
shed to help with storage. And I think coming March
we have an Eagle Scout project that's going to build
our second shed. So it is about getting the community
involved but also our younger generation. And it's been amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And Tom, you don't even know this.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Jet.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I just got an email this morning. A student from
Bucknell University is in a management class and they get
to pick a cause they did some recent search and
they would like to do a fundraiser for us.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh wow, this yeah, this spring.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So I'm going to respond back to them and invite
them to become involved.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Well that's that really warms my heart. The kids to
get involved.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
But you know what, it seems to me that's the one.
I mean, everybody donates around it helps out with all
the issues. But what is it about venmans? A lot
of these kids don't even know the horror of what
a lot of these bets go through.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, you know, I do think that they don't know
on first hand. However, they do know that their grandfather
or their grandmother, or their aunt or uncle or somebody served,
and they also know that that when that person through,
the stories of the families and sitting around the table
have not been the same and that they were affected
(12:48):
some way somehow, and that that's kind of how I
start a lot of our conversations or when I do presentations,
you know, I ask how many veterans are in the group,
and typically it's about twenty twenty five percent, And then
I said, well how many how many people here have
a veteran that served in the family, And ultimately it's
eighty to ninety percent. So I think that that part
of handing down that tradition is key. I also think
(13:12):
that you know, recently, the wars that we were in
with Iraq in Afghanistan, I brought it to their attention,
and kids are curious now with social media and posting,
they get involved.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You opened up for a business, if you will. Last June,
you took your first person that came in. How many
they have now? How many your homes are filled?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
As of this coming Friday, we will have thirteen of
the fifteen homes. Yeah, actually we have two intakes I
think today and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well okay, devil, let me ask you this question. Okay,
they arrive, what must they go through.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
When they arrive?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
There is an intake process okay, and they actually meet
with the peer support staff and the Stacy who was
our coordinator for the she deals with the veterans. And
what they do is they come in, they are taken
(14:15):
to a location they're given, They have a private shower
that they can take and their belongings. We actually have
a duffel bag or something that we put it put
in and then actually give them some nice, fresh, clean
clothes that we've gotten donated. And then they are actually
(14:39):
go down to one of the tiny homes that they're
assigned to. And one thing that is amazing to me
is you they are so many of them are so
tired the first day or two. All they want to
do is sleep and then come up and have food.
They're exhausted, really exhausted, and some of them at first
(14:59):
don't don't really open up because they're kind of quiet.
They don't know what to expect. But as they get
more acclimated and the staff and the participants work very
closely together to welcome that new person into the community.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And they're evaluated so anything they might need in as
Tom said that everybody has individual needs.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
If you don't have that service there, you find it
for them. How about it?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
That is true, and I just want to have a
little bit about that too. We learned, and you know,
and this is all about lessons learned. You know, we
did start taking our first veterans in the beginning of June.
We took five to get started. You know, we have
fifteen tiny homes, so we took five. And we did
that on purposes being a startup organization, where if we
(15:47):
were to try to get all fifteen at one time,
it would have been total chaos, total disaster. But we
learned a lot with our staff as well as the participants.
But part of that process when they first get there
is we do what we call a soft intake. And
by what that means is a lot of our veterans
have been through organizations and different processes as I mentioned, yeah,
(16:10):
and they don't trust you and they've been lied to
and we said, oh this is great, you're going to
succeed here, and this is what they heard time after time,
and they don't believe you. So what we do a
soft intake, and what that basically means is, I think
they can slay for two nights and three days without
a lot of paperwork. So we really when we first started,
we were doing the heavy paperwork, the anxiety levels were phenomenal,
(16:32):
off the charts. They you know, we didn't have that
trust built and it just wasn't good. You could tell.
So we said, we're going to do a softer and
let them you know, we do the intake, but we
don't really push it too far, and then let them
see how it is. Go to a couple group meetings,
meet the other veterans, work with the staff, and then
after three days then we make a decision is this
(16:54):
for you or is this not? And if it's not
for you, let's get you to where you need to go.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Do they have typical issues like you said, everybody's individual.
Let me ask you, Matushes said this, when they come
in there, Tom said, there aren't ready to open up.
It is that a typical thing that they don't want
to open up right away, that's what they have in common.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yes, I think so, And I think it goes to
what Tom was saying in terms of lack of trust
of other folks because they might not have received the
services that they really needed with other organizations.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well, if people, I mean, we celebrate our veterans and
if we don't come through to them, how can you
blame them? I mean, it's it's ridiculous. Thank god you
guys started this. I heard that you had a graduation
or you're gonna have a graduation of one of the
people that tell us about that if you count without
without count who is Yes, we did.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Actually we are so proud of him. We had a
graduation before the holidays. And actually this individual now has
come back to us and he is hired as one
of our counselors. No kid, yeah, perfect, every you know,
everybody just loves him.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And that's Tom's dream.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You get him too, seriously, get him in there, get
them everything they made, get them their their emotional, mental, physical,
help back together again and then come back and support
people what they've gone through. I think that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
So yeah, that's that's part of the dream.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Okay, tell me the other part time.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Is for them to be on the board of directors
and to run this operation.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Obvious they've been there.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You know that's going to take a couple of years.
But you know, kind of kind of a little bit
about this is and I want to explain or expand
on what Deb said, is that the gentleman went through
the four phases. We have the phase one, which is
the introduction phase, and that's like sixty days long, and
that's where we develop the trust. But that's also sleeping,
feeling safe, putting their head on a pillow at night,
(18:56):
feeding them three times a meal, getting them healthy, and
also getting them in front of doctors, you know, being
able to dental, eye and then ERA medical and getting
those taken care and to build that trust up. And
that's that's number one. So that's phase one. Phase two
is that individual service plan that you talked about, and
that's where they work with our clinical team and we
(19:17):
put a program together with them to address the individual
issues that cause them to become homeless and give them
those resources and the services and the programming and guide
them and be a hand up so they're being held accountable.
And then they go into phase three. Phase three is
getting them a job. And there's a lot of great
organizations around here. We've partnered up with UPMC, with Hershey,
(19:39):
with te Connectivity with Renewed by Anderson who want to
hire veterans. A lot of townships want to hire veterans.
Phase four is getting them housing, you know, and getting
them a place.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
And then they graduate temporary.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Oh it is because I think a lot of those
permanent places that you have to pay for that you're
starting to show up.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
How does that give someone your sense of independence? It can't.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, this gives them hope. And the one gentleman who
just passed the work or not just I'm sorry, just
just graduated, basically said to me. He said, off the record,
for ten years, I went to bed and I didn't
care if I woke up, he said, But you gave
me a purpose.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Oh God, isn't that wonderful.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But he went back to school and he got's counseling certificate.
You know, it's not like we just hired him just
to hire him. But he went back there was a job.
You know, he studied, he got his certificate, and he
graduated and two weeks later we hired him.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, you know, I got to mention this because this
really burned me up. But as I said, you're going
to see some places popping up up there. But tell
us why Veterans Outreach is so different than these places.
Other than the fact that it's temporary. At Veterans Outreach,
you don't enable because I think put in giving somebody
everything they need just getting off the street, you're not
(20:51):
doing anything. You're enable and to stay that way. So
tell us what else, why would be better?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
So it's it's it's family. It's true. It's making them
feel like a human being again, it's giving them a
purpose to live. They've reached a point in their life
where they don't have the support system, where they've been
where they feel they've been lied to, where they feel
that they've been taken advantage of. And you know, it's
(21:17):
kind of funny, and it's not funny. But if you
talk to any veteran, and I want to say for
the majority of them, if you talk about going to
war and they talk about going back. They would all
raise their hand and go back, no matter how bad
that they've been trying after what he was over it.
And you know, so we are just that that organization,
(21:39):
that therapeutic model that guides them and cares and doesn't charge,
and make them feel and give them a purpose. And
to me, that is what's different. And it's also not
on a timeline. It's based on performance, but being with
the clinical team that we have, we hold them accountable
and as long as they are making progress, they have
(21:59):
a place to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You know, I was very impressed with Angel when she
came in. Tell us about her and what she does.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
So I'll let them tell a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Angel is our clinical director and she works very closely
with our peer support staff residential facilitators to help guide
them through the processes of what our veterans need in
terms of training. Also, she also helps a lot with
(22:32):
the outreach to their service organizations to see how possible
they could support them or support us.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
For example, I shared with you about the new mental
health facility that's off Cameron Street that's going to be
of benefit I think to both agencies. Sure to us
because if we have an individual that might need overnight,
has has some concerns or some triggers, and vice versa,
(23:02):
if they're going to have folks come in that might
be able to utilize our services. So her her job
is basically to oversee all the therapeutic model in terms
of how we provide their services and where we need
to do some more outreached, you know, based on what
means they have. For example, I know Angel just shared
(23:25):
with me recently that one of the participants his sister
has an art gallery and she I think, down in York,
and what she does is she does art therapy. So
the participants talked about this in one of their group
sessions and she's going to start coming to the facility
(23:46):
to do art therapy.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh that's wonderful. I know.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Music therapy is remarkable. Remember years ago I was at
a nursing home. I took my son along and he
was just born. He was the only kid. But anyway,
there was a guy there people Every every week they
bring the people into the activity center.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
A lot of them have had strokes.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
This gentleman sat down, started playing as the piano and
played song like a bicycle bill for two these people
that didn't speak for your started singing, Holy don't it?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
That was fantastic. So I know that's very effective.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So what are the kind of resources you need like
that to support the individual needs.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
So we do a lot of life skills. You know,
we have financial literacy. We have banks and credit unions
that are signing up to teach our veterans how to
live within their means. We have hr companies that want
to come down and teach them how to interview so
they can be prepared for these these interviews. When again,
(24:42):
where they get laptops that were donated that we then
have it people come down and teach them how to
use the laptops. We have art therapy. We're gonna have
art therapy. We have we're working on music therapy. As
a matter of fact, the person who sung are at
our ribbon cutting, Dave Bray USA, A oh yeah, he came.
He came with an acoustic guitar the week before Christmas
(25:06):
just for our veterans and put on a little concert.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That is awesome. We'll run out of time.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I speak to you all day if I could, but
I want to get some things in here. I know
about some of your events because I've been there and
the one that takes place this year, well you had
I think it's your Is it third or fourth year
for Derby Day? Yes, tell us about that quickly if
you can so.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Derby Day is I think that.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
It is the biggest single fundraiser for Veterans Outreach. We
are the beneficiary. It's put on by Greystone. It's actually
the running of the one hundred and fifty first Kentucky
Derby on May third. It's always the first Saturday. It's
at the Range in Greystone brew House, which I think
(25:48):
they're changing their name right now, oh okay, And it's
on their golf course in Dillsburg. And it is a
great event. You can buy individual tickets, you can become
a sponsor, you can do all kinds. There's lots of
the food is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Games, food booth, giveaways, contests and if you want to,
you can a lot of people get dressed up.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And you didn't have contests for best stressed.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Absolutely, and now it's just amazing. And their goal this
year is to raise one hundred thousand dollars for US. Okay, yeah,
I think last year we were in the seventies but
they really want to step it up. We need people
to support it. We want it's a fun event. It's
you know, the spring. It's really the first major thing
that we have.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, you know, you have a lot of things and
when people forget about these. Yes you're helping all these veterans,
but it's like I've heard about this. I thought about
my dad's when we used to leave the door open
and you say, shut the damn door.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Not eating the whole time with guess what you need
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You need money for utilities, things that people don't think about,
for transportation, you need things to keep things going right.
So you have this fifteen for fifteen program. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So and you're absolutely correct. Our budget for twenty twenty
five is going to be over a million dollars and
that is you know, it sounds like a lot, and
it is, but it's worth it. Our veterans are worth it.
It is a twenty four to seven facility, so we
have staffing twenty four to seven. There are challenges. We
have programming, we have services, we have expenses. You know,
(27:19):
to run the organization. It costs money. But if you
go to our website, veterans outreach APA dot com and
you go to the how do I contribute? Tab? You
can sign up for fifteen dollars a month and it
will charge you each and every month fifteen dollars on
your credit card. And that actually equates to one dollar
(27:40):
a month per tiny home. And if we got enough
people to do that, if we got a thousand people Sylvia,
that would raise one hundred and eighty thousand dollars for
us for operationals.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So, oh, you'll do it.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Wait, so everybody on the thing, if you go to
our website again Veterans Outreach a PA dot org, and
you go to the contribute page or tab and click
on the fifteen for fifteen and sign up, that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, what else?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Because I saw you were looking for clothes, underwear, coats,
things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Can we still take that stuff?
Speaker 3 (28:12):
We had a wonderful group of individuals right before Christmas
donating everything that you just said. What we are going
to do probably the end of this month is start
again to ask folks to donate specific items. Okay, so
if you would go to our website or follow us
(28:33):
on social media and we will post some of the
key things that we need at this.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Time, okay, and I'm sure we'll be in letting them
here on all the Ihearts stations, don't sweet. I got
to ask you a question. You're looking back five years,
okay from when you started.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
How do you feel?
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I feel humble. I feel gratitude. You know. When we
broke around, a lot of people said to you did
it and I was like, no, we didn't. We built it.
But I'm not going to be happy until we start
serving our veterans.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And that's why it's been so successful, because this wasn't
something to make money.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
It was to serve veterans.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Absolutely absolutely so. Our veterans are thriving and we've been very,
very happy, and that has made me feel so good.
It makes me so feeling. I go down there and
they look you in the eye and shake your hand
and say thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
My guests again have been Tom Zimmern, co founder, and
Geb Gone, who in director of Veterans Outreached for Pennsylvania.
Thanks guys for coming in and don't forget is Veterans
Outreach of PA dot org and to the residents and
businesses of Central Pennsylvania. You're the one that fild asked
Tom again more information Veterans Outreach a PA dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been insight see you next
week of the people of a pot
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Or something
Hi, I'm Sylvia Moss.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is inside a presentation of iHeartMedia, where we really
do care about local communities and all of our listeners
who live here. You know, every time I think about
the organization we're going to talk about today, and I
do that pretty often, I've become overwhelmed with so many emotions,
like sad because for the people that the organization helps,
(00:21):
and these are the folks have gone through a whole
lot for all of us, Pride, for the dedicated leaders
of the organization who have changed so many lives in
such a short period of time. I'm really grateful for
the generosity of all the residents and businesses here right
here in central Pennsylvania who have donated and supported this
remarkable organization. They've given them donation, gifts in kind and
(00:44):
actual physical labor. And finally, I'm really honored that Veterans
Outreach of Pennsylvania has continued to allow me to share
their mission with them. Well, but now everybody's heard about
Veterans Village, but it's time for an update, So let's
begin with the introductions.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Ha ha. Tom.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
When I first met Tom Zimmern about five years ago,
I fell.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Immediate connection to him.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That's because nobody's as humble or has a heart as
big as this guy. Tom's the co founder and immediate
past chair of Veteran's Outreach of Pennsylvania. Deborah Donna, who's
with us today. She is the interim executive director of
Veterans Outreach. She's also a former member of their board,
and her background is really impressive. It includes a distinguished
(01:26):
career in state government experience at the college professor. She
was the director of Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and
Perry Counties, and she knows about this as she's well
suited this because she's seen a lot of trauma. She's
always been a dedicated volunteer who support the homeless, kids
in foster care and as I said, victims of domestic
(01:47):
violent Most importantly, Dev's an attorney who has a history
of serving the armed forces because people and her family
are veterans.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Okay, guys, here's a deal.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Before we get an update on what's going on, I'd
like to ask you so people understand what your organization about.
On any given night, right here in Harrisburg area, there's
at least thirty veterans, so they're on the streets they're homeless.
It's a really complicated issue where veterans are concerned. A
lot of places give them a place to sleep at night,
(02:18):
and that's just to start. But deb let me ask
you first, you know all about providing services. Can you
share with this some of the issues that veterans based
when they come in their deb and you also have
therapeutic services. Tell us about those and how they help
the vets.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Absolutely, and thank you so much for having this here
to anytime. Yes, we are different than some of the
other organizations that you might hear about. First of all,
we're a local organization and one of the key words
that you might hear is that we're the therapeutic model,
(02:54):
and what that means is we're a therapeutic community. In
the model, it creates supportive, structured living environment where people
work together to overcome challenges. And some of the challenges
that we see with the veterans that we serve obviously
include homelessness, addiction or mental health issues, and having this
(03:16):
therapeutic model really helps them overcome some of these challenges.
And what we do we provide them not only with
obviously shelter and food, but also they have daily group
counseling sessions and also individual sessions, and also we refer
them to medical support staff if they need medication for
(03:40):
maybe some of their mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, Tom, I know we talked about post traumatic stresses
or a lot of these beds have that, and there's
also trauma being on the streets and not having place
to go. Try to explain because I tell people about
what this is all the time and they just can't.
Some people can't understand what it does.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
TSD and severe depression is one of the main issues
that happens with our veterans, those our medical conditions that
people can't actually see the effect that is having on
our veterans. And we as Americans and as our government
(04:20):
sent our young men and women to war when they're
eighteen eighty yeah, kids eighteen nineteen twenty years old and
trained them to be these soldiers and to do things
to protect us. And what they see and what they
experience cannot just be turned off with a light switch,
and a lot of them cannot talk to other people
(04:42):
about it. And it's when they close their eyes and
they can't. You get into a situation or maybe a
trigger mechanism or something happens that they hear a car
backfire and it brings them back to when they were
in the war and it was a bomb and they
kind of just don't know how to deal with it.
So what we do, what Veterans Outreach is that we
are We can't eliminate those things, but what we need
(05:05):
to do is we need to train our veterans and
teach our veterans how to cope with those mechanisms and
given the tools that's necessary to be able to live
a life of dignity and pride that they deserve. Every
veteran is different, there is no cookie cutter. But I
feel as Americans we need to step up and help
because we're the ones that put them in that situation
(05:27):
and we wouldn't have this great country or this freedom
that we have if it wasn't for them. So it's
right it's our time as Americans to give back.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
We know you mentioned about them coming home and experiencing
all of that stuff, but the thing is, families expect
this kid to left, and that's why a lot of
families break up because these poor guys are suffering with this.
They don't know what to do, They don't know how
to get out of it. They go to sleep at night,
they see what they saw on more and I'm going
to have to check to see if their services out
(05:55):
there to help families deal with that particular issue, because
I know it causes a lot of problems.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
There is and a lot of people. We talk about
our veterans who are homeless. However, it does affect It
affects the wives, it affects the children, it affects the
moms and dads, and our soldiers sometimes don't come back
the same as they were when they left and they
don't know how to deal with that. And so, you
know what veterans outreach, we talk about healing, We talk
(06:20):
about mind, body, and soul. You know, it's one thing,
and Dead mentioned about the medical part of it, but
it's also you know, reconnecting them. A lot of them
don't have a great support system or that support system
has been burned and they felt isolated and didn't know
where to turn and ultimately it was a black hole
and they became homeless. And you know, we wanted to
(06:41):
really focus on those ten to fifteen percent of veterans
that haven't succeeded in the great infrastructure that is out
there for our veterans, and that's why we created Veterans
Outreach of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh I thank god did that Devin? I wanted to
ask you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You talked about medical and one of the things you
guys are rolling too is creating partnerships with other people
who the vets. You have something going on with UPMC.
Tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yes, we do. We have a program with UPMC. In fact,
they are starting I think this week, Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Aren't they to.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Come the second Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Second Wednesday? Okay?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And what are they going to do there? What happens,
why are they referred there? And how will you PMC open?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
So we actually is an outreach program. So it's for
our veterans and also veterans at risk in Central PA.
And we partnered with UPMC, who is now going to
be providing medical services at our facility. So if you're
a veteran, you can come down and be part of
our community and take care of those services. Veterans Outreach
(07:44):
is not only about our fifteen veterans and our tiny
homes that we have and it's those that are living there,
but we do have that outreach program and UPMC is
one of those organizations that is going to be providing
services for us free of charge.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And it's just I mean, yeah, it's very generous, and
it's also one that we want to be able to
help in. Our goal this year is to help an
additional one hundred to one hundred and twenty five additional veterans.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Wow, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, you know, looking back when you first came in
and you had to raise all this money, I thought, oh, God,
bless them.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, guess what, Holy, what you've done over the last
couple of years, people just jumped. I think about some
of the businesses that've been so generous, the ones that
have come and worked there. And I think about also,
like Renewed by Anderson, not only did they donate money,
their employees came and work to help you out physical work.
(08:36):
And I heard a story about you that it's midnight
and you're off there digging.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So seriously, Well, it definitely and you hear me say
this quite a bit, but it does take a village.
And in the case with Renewal by Anderson, which is
one of many organizations that stepped up, they provided ninety
six windows and seventeen doors for our community and all
the labor included all the materials, and they did the
(09:04):
install and they actually came down on a Friday at
seven o'clock in the morning and they brought one hundred
and twenty five employees. Wow, and I think and I
think they were done by one o'clock. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
so they were done by one o'clock. And it was
just it was just amazing to see all these trucks
and vans and they had smaller inner teams that you know,
(09:27):
they were strategically placed on the property. Uh some of
them one of them had a runner, one of them
had an install or the other had you know. So
it was just really really amazing. I mean, there's great organizations.
Diploma Construction did all of the siding and all of
the roofing, and they were doing it and I think
they might have twenty employees. So they were working on
Saturdays and Sundays because they had jobs, you know, during
(09:50):
the way and the and their employees volunteered. They're the flooring,
you know, Harrisburg Wall and Flooring did all of the
laying of the materials from Mohawk Flooring, Vision Resources, Ralphie Jones,
Bob Means you know, I can't go on it's I mean,
I think there was over forty different organizations and it's
(10:12):
just amazing how the community has really stepped up and helped.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, you know, or anybody who knows me knows that
one of the big things that I'm into pushing all
that time is we need to get kids involved. Tell
me about this. I remember there was a little girl.
I think she was like, how old were she? The
nine years old?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
So her first year, first year, nine years old, last year.
And she's from I want to say Schoogo County, not
Schoogo County, but up the river. She's not even from
this county. Her father is as a veteran, and she
wanted to help her father's friends and they talked about,
you know, some of them aren't so fortunate. And she
(10:49):
did a fundraiser around Christmas time and she raised over
sixty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Oh my god, that's incredible as.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
A nine year old. And then this year she came
back and I think she raised another forty five hundred dollars.
But she also bought gifts for the veterans.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh plus, or isn't that wonderful? There is hope in
the world. Most recently you had some kids to marry
school there, right.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
We did actually, and last year the Cumberland Perry Votech
School built our two fire pits that we have on
the property. Each one weighs I think two thousand pounds.
It's unbelievable. But that was their senior project. So that started,
you know, in twenty twenty four or I'm sorry twenty
twenty three, and then we got them last year. And
then recently we just had the Dolphin County vote Tech
(11:31):
students there and they built us at sixteen x twelve
shed to help with storage. And I think coming March
we have an Eagle Scout project that's going to build
our second shed. So it is about getting the community
involved but also our younger generation. And it's been amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And Tom, you don't even know this.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Jet.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I just got an email this morning. A student from
Bucknell University is in a management class and they get
to pick a cause they did some recent search and
they would like to do a fundraiser for us.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh wow, this yeah, this spring.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So I'm going to respond back to them and invite
them to become involved.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Well that's that really warms my heart. The kids to
get involved.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
But you know what, it seems to me that's the one.
I mean, everybody donates around it helps out with all
the issues. But what is it about venmans? A lot
of these kids don't even know the horror of what
a lot of these bets go through.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, you know, I do think that they don't know
on first hand. However, they do know that their grandfather
or their grandmother, or their aunt or uncle or somebody served,
and they also know that that when that person through,
the stories of the families and sitting around the table
have not been the same and that they were affected
(12:48):
some way somehow, and that that's kind of how I
start a lot of our conversations or when I do presentations,
you know, I ask how many veterans are in the group,
and typically it's about twenty twenty five percent, And then
I said, well how many how many people here have
a veteran that served in the family, And ultimately it's
eighty to ninety percent. So I think that that part
of handing down that tradition is key. I also think
(13:12):
that you know, recently, the wars that we were in
with Iraq in Afghanistan, I brought it to their attention,
and kids are curious now with social media and posting,
they get involved.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You opened up for a business, if you will. Last June,
you took your first person that came in. How many
they have now? How many your homes are filled?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
As of this coming Friday, we will have thirteen of
the fifteen homes. Yeah, actually we have two intakes I
think today and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well okay, devil, let me ask you this question. Okay,
they arrive, what must they go through.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
When they arrive?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
There is an intake process okay, and they actually meet
with the peer support staff and the Stacy who was
our coordinator for the she deals with the veterans. And
what they do is they come in, they are taken
(14:15):
to a location they're given, They have a private shower
that they can take and their belongings. We actually have
a duffel bag or something that we put it put
in and then actually give them some nice, fresh, clean
clothes that we've gotten donated. And then they are actually
(14:39):
go down to one of the tiny homes that they're
assigned to. And one thing that is amazing to me
is you they are so many of them are so
tired the first day or two. All they want to
do is sleep and then come up and have food.
They're exhausted, really exhausted, and some of them at first
(14:59):
don't don't really open up because they're kind of quiet.
They don't know what to expect. But as they get
more acclimated and the staff and the participants work very
closely together to welcome that new person into the community.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And they're evaluated so anything they might need in as
Tom said that everybody has individual needs.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
If you don't have that service there, you find it
for them. How about it?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
That is true, and I just want to have a
little bit about that too. We learned, and you know,
and this is all about lessons learned. You know, we
did start taking our first veterans in the beginning of June.
We took five to get started. You know, we have
fifteen tiny homes, so we took five. And we did
that on purposes being a startup organization, where if we
(15:47):
were to try to get all fifteen at one time,
it would have been total chaos, total disaster. But we
learned a lot with our staff as well as the participants.
But part of that process when they first get there
is we do what we call a soft intake. And
by what that means is a lot of our veterans
have been through organizations and different processes as I mentioned, yeah,
(16:10):
and they don't trust you and they've been lied to
and we said, oh this is great, you're going to
succeed here, and this is what they heard time after time,
and they don't believe you. So what we do a
soft intake, and what that basically means is, I think
they can slay for two nights and three days without
a lot of paperwork. So we really when we first started,
we were doing the heavy paperwork, the anxiety levels were phenomenal,
(16:32):
off the charts. They you know, we didn't have that
trust built and it just wasn't good. You could tell.
So we said, we're going to do a softer and
let them you know, we do the intake, but we
don't really push it too far, and then let them
see how it is. Go to a couple group meetings,
meet the other veterans, work with the staff, and then
after three days then we make a decision is this
(16:54):
for you or is this not? And if it's not
for you, let's get you to where you need to go.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Do they have typical issues like you said, everybody's individual.
Let me ask you, Matushes said this, when they come
in there, Tom said, there aren't ready to open up.
It is that a typical thing that they don't want
to open up right away, that's what they have in common.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yes, I think so, And I think it goes to
what Tom was saying in terms of lack of trust
of other folks because they might not have received the
services that they really needed with other organizations.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well, if people, I mean, we celebrate our veterans and
if we don't come through to them, how can you
blame them? I mean, it's it's ridiculous. Thank god you
guys started this. I heard that you had a graduation
or you're gonna have a graduation of one of the
people that tell us about that if you count without
without count who is Yes, we did.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Actually we are so proud of him. We had a
graduation before the holidays. And actually this individual now has
come back to us and he is hired as one
of our counselors. No kid, yeah, perfect, every you know,
everybody just loves him.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And that's Tom's dream.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You get him too, seriously, get him in there, get
them everything they made, get them their their emotional, mental, physical,
help back together again and then come back and support
people what they've gone through. I think that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
So yeah, that's that's part of the dream.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Okay, tell me the other part time.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Is for them to be on the board of directors
and to run this operation.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Obvious they've been there.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You know that's going to take a couple of years.
But you know, kind of kind of a little bit
about this is and I want to explain or expand
on what Deb said, is that the gentleman went through
the four phases. We have the phase one, which is
the introduction phase, and that's like sixty days long, and
that's where we develop the trust. But that's also sleeping,
feeling safe, putting their head on a pillow at night,
(18:56):
feeding them three times a meal, getting them healthy, and
also getting them in front of doctors, you know, being
able to dental, eye and then ERA medical and getting
those taken care and to build that trust up. And
that's that's number one. So that's phase one. Phase two
is that individual service plan that you talked about, and
that's where they work with our clinical team and we
(19:17):
put a program together with them to address the individual
issues that cause them to become homeless and give them
those resources and the services and the programming and guide
them and be a hand up so they're being held accountable.
And then they go into phase three. Phase three is
getting them a job. And there's a lot of great
organizations around here. We've partnered up with UPMC, with Hershey,
(19:39):
with te Connectivity with Renewed by Anderson who want to
hire veterans. A lot of townships want to hire veterans.
Phase four is getting them housing, you know, and getting
them a place.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
And then they graduate temporary.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Oh it is because I think a lot of those
permanent places that you have to pay for that you're
starting to show up.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
How does that give someone your sense of independence? It can't.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, this gives them hope. And the one gentleman who
just passed the work or not just I'm sorry, just
just graduated, basically said to me. He said, off the record,
for ten years, I went to bed and I didn't
care if I woke up, he said, But you gave
me a purpose.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Oh God, isn't that wonderful.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But he went back to school and he got's counseling certificate.
You know, it's not like we just hired him just
to hire him. But he went back there was a job.
You know, he studied, he got his certificate, and he
graduated and two weeks later we hired him.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, you know, I got to mention this because this
really burned me up. But as I said, you're going
to see some places popping up up there. But tell
us why Veterans Outreach is so different than these places.
Other than the fact that it's temporary. At Veterans Outreach,
you don't enable because I think put in giving somebody
everything they need just getting off the street, you're not
(20:51):
doing anything. You're enable and to stay that way. So
tell us what else, why would be better?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
So it's it's it's family. It's true. It's making them
feel like a human being again, it's giving them a
purpose to live. They've reached a point in their life
where they don't have the support system, where they've been
where they feel they've been lied to, where they feel
that they've been taken advantage of. And you know, it's
(21:17):
kind of funny, and it's not funny. But if you
talk to any veteran, and I want to say for
the majority of them, if you talk about going to
war and they talk about going back. They would all
raise their hand and go back, no matter how bad
that they've been trying after what he was over it.
And you know, so we are just that that organization,
(21:39):
that therapeutic model that guides them and cares and doesn't charge,
and make them feel and give them a purpose. And
to me, that is what's different. And it's also not
on a timeline. It's based on performance, but being with
the clinical team that we have, we hold them accountable
and as long as they are making progress, they have
(21:59):
a place to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You know, I was very impressed with Angel when she
came in. Tell us about her and what she does.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
So I'll let them tell a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Angel is our clinical director and she works very closely
with our peer support staff residential facilitators to help guide
them through the processes of what our veterans need in
terms of training. Also, she also helps a lot with
(22:32):
the outreach to their service organizations to see how possible
they could support them or support us.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
For example, I shared with you about the new mental
health facility that's off Cameron Street that's going to be
of benefit I think to both agencies. Sure to us
because if we have an individual that might need overnight,
has has some concerns or some triggers, and vice versa,
(23:02):
if they're going to have folks come in that might
be able to utilize our services. So her her job
is basically to oversee all the therapeutic model in terms
of how we provide their services and where we need
to do some more outreached, you know, based on what
means they have. For example, I know Angel just shared
(23:25):
with me recently that one of the participants his sister
has an art gallery and she I think, down in York,
and what she does is she does art therapy. So
the participants talked about this in one of their group
sessions and she's going to start coming to the facility
(23:46):
to do art therapy.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh that's wonderful. I know.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Music therapy is remarkable. Remember years ago I was at
a nursing home. I took my son along and he
was just born. He was the only kid. But anyway,
there was a guy there people Every every week they
bring the people into the activity center.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
A lot of them have had strokes.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
This gentleman sat down, started playing as the piano and
played song like a bicycle bill for two these people
that didn't speak for your started singing, Holy don't it?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
That was fantastic. So I know that's very effective.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So what are the kind of resources you need like
that to support the individual needs.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
So we do a lot of life skills. You know,
we have financial literacy. We have banks and credit unions
that are signing up to teach our veterans how to
live within their means. We have hr companies that want
to come down and teach them how to interview so
they can be prepared for these these interviews. When again,
(24:42):
where they get laptops that were donated that we then
have it people come down and teach them how to
use the laptops. We have art therapy. We're gonna have
art therapy. We have we're working on music therapy. As
a matter of fact, the person who sung are at
our ribbon cutting, Dave Bray USA, A oh yeah, he came.
He came with an acoustic guitar the week before Christmas
(25:06):
just for our veterans and put on a little concert.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That is awesome. We'll run out of time.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I speak to you all day if I could, but
I want to get some things in here. I know
about some of your events because I've been there and
the one that takes place this year, well you had
I think it's your Is it third or fourth year
for Derby Day? Yes, tell us about that quickly if
you can so.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Derby Day is I think that.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
It is the biggest single fundraiser for Veterans Outreach. We
are the beneficiary. It's put on by Greystone. It's actually
the running of the one hundred and fifty first Kentucky
Derby on May third. It's always the first Saturday. It's
at the Range in Greystone brew House, which I think
(25:48):
they're changing their name right now, oh okay, And it's
on their golf course in Dillsburg. And it is a
great event. You can buy individual tickets, you can become
a sponsor, you can do all kinds. There's lots of
the food is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Games, food booth, giveaways, contests and if you want to,
you can a lot of people get dressed up.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And you didn't have contests for best stressed.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Absolutely, and now it's just amazing. And their goal this
year is to raise one hundred thousand dollars for US. Okay, yeah,
I think last year we were in the seventies but
they really want to step it up. We need people
to support it. We want it's a fun event. It's
you know, the spring. It's really the first major thing
that we have.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, you know, you have a lot of things and
when people forget about these. Yes you're helping all these veterans,
but it's like I've heard about this. I thought about
my dad's when we used to leave the door open
and you say, shut the damn door.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Not eating the whole time with guess what you need
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You need money for utilities, things that people don't think about,
for transportation, you need things to keep things going right.
So you have this fifteen for fifteen program. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So and you're absolutely correct. Our budget for twenty twenty
five is going to be over a million dollars and
that is you know, it sounds like a lot, and
it is, but it's worth it. Our veterans are worth it.
It is a twenty four to seven facility, so we
have staffing twenty four to seven. There are challenges. We
have programming, we have services, we have expenses. You know,
(27:19):
to run the organization. It costs money. But if you
go to our website, veterans outreach APA dot com and
you go to the how do I contribute? Tab? You
can sign up for fifteen dollars a month and it
will charge you each and every month fifteen dollars on
your credit card. And that actually equates to one dollar
(27:40):
a month per tiny home. And if we got enough
people to do that, if we got a thousand people Sylvia,
that would raise one hundred and eighty thousand dollars for
us for operationals.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So, oh, you'll do it.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Wait, so everybody on the thing, if you go to
our website again Veterans Outreach a PA dot org, and
you go to the contribute page or tab and click
on the fifteen for fifteen and sign up, that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, what else?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Because I saw you were looking for clothes, underwear, coats,
things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Can we still take that stuff?
Speaker 3 (28:12):
We had a wonderful group of individuals right before Christmas
donating everything that you just said. What we are going
to do probably the end of this month is start
again to ask folks to donate specific items. Okay, so
if you would go to our website or follow us
(28:33):
on social media and we will post some of the
key things that we need at this.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Time, okay, and I'm sure we'll be in letting them
here on all the Ihearts stations, don't sweet. I got
to ask you a question. You're looking back five years,
okay from when you started.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
How do you feel?
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I feel humble. I feel gratitude. You know. When we
broke around, a lot of people said to you did
it and I was like, no, we didn't. We built it.
But I'm not going to be happy until we start
serving our veterans.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And that's why it's been so successful, because this wasn't
something to make money.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
It was to serve veterans.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Absolutely absolutely so. Our veterans are thriving and we've been very,
very happy, and that has made me feel so good.
It makes me so feeling. I go down there and
they look you in the eye and shake your hand
and say thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
My guests again have been Tom Zimmern, co founder, and
Geb Gone, who in director of Veterans Outreached for Pennsylvania.
Thanks guys for coming in and don't forget is Veterans
Outreach of PA dot org and to the residents and
businesses of Central Pennsylvania. You're the one that fild asked
Tom again more information Veterans Outreach a PA dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been insight see you next
week of the people of a pot
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Or something
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