In 2011, I was helping to lead recruitment for two Department of Defense funded studies to address brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder in military veterans. Through the course of that effort, I met several post 9/11 veterans who — while I was studying at Vanderbilt University or enjoying life as a recent college grad in Washington, D.C. — were deployed on the front lines, protecting my freedoms, in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other key locations around the world.
They returned home different than when they left. Some scarred physically; some scarred morally; some scarred mentally. All were certainly changed. And my encounters with them, in turn, changed me.
Those veterans would often visit my office, stopping by just to say hello, and then linger… and sometimes, I’d ask them, “Will you do it? Will you ask for help for your health?”
Six years later one of those veterans reversed the roles, asking me, “Will you do it? Will you consider taking the helm of Boot Campaign?”
Boot Campaign is honored to be chosen as a 2020 Carry The Load nonprofit partner and beneficiary! Together we can honor and celebrate the sacrifices made by our nation’s heroes — military, veterans, first responders and their families — this Memorial May.
