Gathering information

So for now I am focusing on V4V as a small step to get me the experience needed to create Hearthstone as well as helping and networking with some absolutely amazing people. Most of the posts from here on may be mostly about V4V and my experiences with them for a while.

So I've broken it down and figured out I need to do the following:

Step 1 - Make contact with individuals; Raise seed money; Rind permanent location for meetings; Learn how to work the media

Step 2 - Organize social events; Start one on ones; Publicity; Banner??

Step 3 - Start group meetings; Fundraisers; Social events; Retreat

Step 4 - House Party Fundraiser (around election time??); Activities to keep momentum

Possible Networking Events
Air Force Marathon
Homecomings

Contacts to follow up on
AmVets
Operation HomeFront
Vet Affairs WSU
Sara Landess; Clark State University
Mary Childs; Sinclair

Need to go in person
VA Office OIF/OEF Clinic
Goodwill Services

I really need someone to teach me about press releases and working with the media as well as fundraising. We'll see how it goes.

Excited

I'm off to Tuscon in just under two weeks and am excited about what I'll learn not only to bring back to the local area but about myself as well.

I have been allowing the challenges of life in our current economic status interfere with my goals and plans.

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal...isn't that the quote.

So back to my list of possible local places to contact:

Glen Helen
Metroparks
Local farmers
MVUUF
VA (again)

The idea is to get some local involvement and support to give these soldiers a space in which to create and grow.

Frustration

I'm frustrusted at the lack of communication that exists in this world and the lack of cooperation!! And how difficult it seems to be to get service and/or assistance for anything related to vets!!!

If I'm this upset and just want information I can only imagine how others who actually NEED something must feel.

Disappointment

No one showed up for Saturday's meeting. Very disappointed and slightly discouraged but not too devistated. I knew it was a possibility. So I'm going to wait until the end of June and try again. Going to add more versital adverstisement. Am contemplating approaching Wright Patt's BH faculty to see if they are willing to simply diseminate information about the program. I'm nervous about that approach but we shall see.

Regrouping and handling other life affairs but not giving up.

Update

Things have been both busy and quiet. I've put the flyers out for the get together on Saturday. We'll see if there is any turn out. That is what I'm worried about the most, that no one shows up. I'm not sure what more I could have done besides: send out emails to VA groups; hand flyers to individuals; place ads in networking sites and in paper; hang flyers in the local campuses. I guess we'll have to wait and see.


I am looking forward to the summer festival I'm working at in June as medic. I hope to be able to talk with some of the land owners there about how they would feel about hosting a weekend event for veterans. I am both positive and apprehensive about the idea of applying my "Nature Idea," as a friend puts it, to the real world. It probably wouldn't be this summer, but perhaps next.

I need to go talk to some of the local co-op farms to see if it is possible to have a small group come out and help on a regular basis and see what programs Glen Helen and the Metroparks have. There is still a lot of research to do on a broad scale but I've decided to scale it back for the time being and try a smaller more local approach.

Adapt and overcome. Baby steps and all that.

Now to acquire a winning lotto ticket.

Small Steps Forward

Today I had a meeting with a friend of mine about writing grants. I'm not at the point where I can take that step yet though. She did point me in the right direction. Small steps that lead to a bigger goal. I'm excited.









One the Vet4Vet front I will be going to their training session in Arizona the last weekend in July. I'm very excited to meet everyone and learning as much as I can.

Contacts Made

Today I made contact with the Blue Star Mothers completely by chance. They loved the premise behind what I was doing and especially the local Vets4Vets group. I am still securing a location and a time for the meeting though. I do have the beginnings of a flyer going and will complete that tonight, minus the date and location of the meetings.

I have made arrangements to talk to someone about grants and the whatnot. Maybe by knowing what they want and are looking for in the way of requirements I can focus my research a little bit more. I have to try to remember I am not creating treatment plans but the environment. So instead of reading whatever I can about PTSD and soldiers and history, etc I need to focus on community development.

You can not heal other people, you can only heal yourself until your presence is healing.