JULY 2022. NORTH DAKOTA
SGT Justin Fisher fought with the North Dakota Army National Guard in Iraq in 2007-08. He was awarded the Bronze Star and received the Purple Heart for injuries resulting in 100% disability. As he recovered, he dreamed of owning a business that would support his family and keep him in his community. WVFV sent over $5000 in the new tools he needed to start PURPLE HEART HOME INSPECTIONS business. Good luck, Justin!
JULY 2022. CHICAGO., IL Army SGT Jason W. (l) of Chicago waited on the WVFV waiting list for nearly a year for the right truck to come along. He started a transportation business for intercity courier services and same day deliveries. Here he is taking the keys to a Ford F-259 Diesel truck that will help this patient vet who was wounded in Iraq as he starts a new civilian business. Rock on, Jason!
USMC Amputee Receives new lease on life with gift of SUV from Fallen Marine’s Estate
Every once in a while, Work Vessels for Vets helps out a fellow veteran-serving organization with a problem. Recently, WVFV facilitated the transfer of a GMC SUV from the estate of a fallen Marine to a wounded veteran in need. Help Our Military Heroes, Inc., a Connecticut based, national nonprofit, arranged for the vehicle to be donated to Work Vessels for Vets by the father of a fallen hero who wanted the vehicle to go to a fellow Marine in need. So despite complications of dealing with estate & income tax forms, and a flutter of forms for two state Motor Vehicles Departments, the SUV is now safely in the hands of a Marine coming back from the brink, the family has honored the fallen Marine's final wishes and we are proud to have helped make it all happen.
Work Vessels for Vets is a unique national charity, based in Mystic, Connecticut. No other nonprofit is solely dedicated to equipping a veteran-owned start up business. Since 2008, the awards have ranged from commercial fishing boats to farm tractors, skid loaders, hay balers, trucks, trailers, UTVs, drones, electronics, tools, and even a therapy horse! More than 2500 veterans across all 50 states have received equipment valued at over $3.5 million from this award-winning group of volunteers from southeastern Connecticut.
Learn more and read stories about our injured veteran awardees at www.WVFV.org
“I was not born a farmer. I suppose that I am someone who was once a Soldier and Paramedic who now farms. Every morning I wake up and have to face the reality following a traumatic brain and other injuries in Iraq that I am no longer a soldier. Due to my injuries, I am also no longer able to get a job as a fire fighter or a paramedic. Five years after my 2009, injuries in Iraq, I went on a quest to become something. I had a few options, I could be a coach potato, a nuisance to society, or I could get off my tail and become something, ANYTHING. It was then that farming found me. Since that day, each day…farming saves my life,” says MSG Reynolds of his new mission.
Work Vessels for Vets, a nonprofit with the mission to equip injured veteran-entrepreneurs, partnered with the Semper Fi Fund to purchase a $27,000 hay baler for an injured Army veteran in Calhoun, GA. Master Sergeant Mike Reynolds joined the Army and spent 18 years protecting and defending the USA. During his service in Iraq his ambulance was involved in an attack, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury that ultimately ended his military and emergency services careers. Every soldier needs a mission, and Mike searched until he found a new one. Now he, his wife Kim, and their two children own and operate, Hero Cuts@Reynolds Farm. Mike is building his herd of beef cattle and other livestock and hopes to soon be able to give other disabled veterans opportunities to find new purpose after their military service has ended--through on-farm training.
“While in Iraq,” said Reynolds, who entered the military as a trained paramedic, “I saved lives and had the chance to show compassion to so many families of a war ravaged nation. I worked tirelessly to save our own service members who were sick and injured. Then, I got hurt. Who does the medic in charge ofthe medics call when he is hurt? On that morning in 2009, I would become the patient. The thing that I had not really feared for 18 years of military service stopped me in my tracks. Three and a half years of doctors appointments and hospitalizations would follow…and coming home would create the greatest struggle I had ever faced. With the need for a new mission, I found farming. At one point my goal was to simply make it to tomorrow, sober, not in a prescription drug fog and alive.”
MSGT Reynolds recalled his long road to a new mission, “I remember not being able to see past tomorrow. Now, when asked about long-range plans, I have some! Looking forward to the success of a 3 to 5 year plan is a reasonable goal. I have met my new challenges and limitations and turned them from mountains into speed bumps. No longer am I hindered by my own disabilities. Now, I have a 20 year plan!”
