Veterans Advisory Council - Regular Meeting

Let's see. Okay. Thank you very much to for everyone coming to the January 15 Frederick County Veterans Advisory Council. We'll start off with a pledge of allegiance. Fantastic. We read the emergency procedures. We did establish that we have a quorum. I'm would like to move towards approval of the of agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda?

So move.

We have a motion.

Do we

have a second? Second. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Actually, sorry. I apologize. Any discussion on the approval of the agenda? Hearing no discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Fantastic. We have approval of the agenda. We'll go right into old business. Approval of the previous meeting minutes. Everybody should have received a copy of those. Do we have a motion to approve the previous meeting minutes? So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? Any discussion? No discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Fantastic. Let's go over the VAC meeting calendar.

Yes. So I apologize you can't really read this but you guys know we meet every Wednesday each month. So we have our speaker for this month and it's not confirmed yet but I believe our speakers for next month will be the deflection team and the veteran treatment court. So starting in March and going forward, I need your input on topics and speakers you'd like to see for this calendar

year. Fantastic. Any

other thoughts on the calendar? Any particular individuals we would like to have present at this?

You got the one that Fred sent you? The deflection team? I don't remember where it was.

What was it, Fred? Sorry. Do you send me a suggestion?

Say it again?

Speaker suggestion?

The email you sent?

I I told you. Those individuals. The newly appointed Department of Labor representative for the four counties, Frederick, Washington, Allegheny, and Cumberland.

Okay.

James Olden House. Okay. The key that James included was the fact not only do they have the ability to find jobs for the veteran, but they have a comprehensive program. If you're a veteran registered with them that housing, transportation, medical, food, they would take care of that. Mhmm. I mean, they have the agencies that would assist that individual. So it's more than, as I said, more than just a job. Mhmm. So

great. Alright. Any particular topics? I know we covered HUD VASH and, you know, anything else in particular that you feel like is timely.

Did Rick Weldon already come in and talk about what you what you discussed before on the, business? Okay.

Yeah. We can invite them to, the new veteran success program in the chamber of commerce. Okay. So I had on the calendar that in February that maybe we could start thinking about planning a social event. We were talking about doing something on the evening or the weekend.

I was also gonna see if what you guys thought about doing something for Memorial Day or just maybe representing the back of, you know, an event or something. And then last year, we were asked to do the POW MIA. It was kind of last minute. I I did a little table for the division of aging, but I wanted to see if the back wanted to do some sort of POWMIA table. So that would be September. And then the Veterans Day Parade, I thought, went really well. So if we wanna see think about participating in that again for November. And any other, you know

Where where do you put that POW table?

Well, so what we ended up doing because it was kind of a last minute request. We ended up doing it at the Middletown Senior Center, and I was able to gather up, you know, like, beg, borrow, steal all the little things for the table, and we just did it there. And because it just so happened that I had a veteran coffee scheduled at that senior center that morning, so we just sort of combined it. But, you know, we could definitely, you know, come up with something different that just kind of we

just yeah. Are we able to put a table in the lobby here? In terms of what?

I can talk to

That's what I

was kind

of thinking. Yeah. Joyce? Is it Joyce? Yeah.

I can

talk Yeah. To Okay.

Or Missylla. Okay.

Alright.

I think that's who asked for it last time. Okay. Alright.

Do you guys wanna have an executive board meeting where we discuss the calendar? That's what we did last year. Do you think you

Yeah. We one of the things I wouldn't mind, maybe under a new business, is just figuring out we need one more additional person on the executive committee.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Great. Okay. Alright. Thank

you. Excellent.

Can I have real quick question on that social event?

Uh-huh.

Do we ever have a so I noticed a lot of other committees have a legislative, like, invite the legislatures to come and talk to you too. So if you invite legislatures to the social event, is that not a it's not a formal thing. It's just a

Sounds like a stupid question.

It's not a formal

I know. Don't party.

I wasn't thinking like a formal thing. It's just them come to enjoy and meet and talk to the council and the members and stuff. It's not like we're trying to lobby anything or anything.

I don't know. All you can do

is ask. Yeah.

Extend it to the delegation.

Yeah.

Now that will be that will depend on the time of year. Right. Yeah. You know, if it's as long as the assembly's out of session, then it's a lot easier to get those members. But, you know hey. There's council members who will come for a drink wherever you call ask

for it. Well, I know you approved us, but you don't really get to know us. I mean, all you do is see what you're reading and that's about it. Good thought. But I mean, it's So

I I got on a meeting for coffee social hosts. So the the coffee socials, it's like this thing that the VA it's a VA program. And Jennifer Kelly out of Martinsburg, you know, so she had approached the division of aging and the senior center, and they asked me to host these coffee socials. So I went to this meeting, and it was talking about, you know, engagement, ways to get the word out, like what works and what doesn't work. So one of the things that they said works really well is to go to diners.

Those seem to be the most popular when you because, like, veterans seem to enjoy going and being able to have breakfast with their coffee. So that's one idea. And another thing they said is weekly ones seem to work really well. I don't know if I mean, I was just kinda thinking maybe we could try one to start with on the evening and see how it goes. But, you know Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm from Jersey. We have diners in Jersey. No.

Shacks. The silver diner doesn't count?

Mountain Mountain

is probably the only one that's kind of still a diner.

Diner snob. Yeah.

Yeah. So I don't know what you guys are thinking. If you're thinking more after hours happy hour, we could try to maybe do like a Sunday brunch, you know, thing. Some, you know but yeah. So I think if we maybe if we start planning it in February, then maybe when the weather's nicer, we can Yeah. Do something.

Sounds great. Okay. Great. Great.

Well, we can just go to the Marine Corps Museum and eat in Tongue Tavern.

That's a bit of a drive, isn't it? Feels only an hour. Okay.

No. Not the real Tonne Tavern down in Marine Corps Museum.

I figured you would prefer the real Tonne Tavern, not this

I don't know.

Will it be built by then?

You know? Go to Bob and eat it.

Could build Another building in

it right now.

I just don't want it

to read.

Yeah. Think whole idea. Alright.

I'll get into chair comments. I did I did write up something, so I don't sound like a complete idiot. This month, I wanna highlight the awesomeness and innovation that we see every day in our veterans community. Our veterans have shown incredible resilience and adaptability and it's our duty to ensure they receive the support they deserve. On January 21, the Maryland State Legislature will be hearing a crucial bill on claims servicers, House Bill two sixty seven.

This bill aims to protect our veterans from unaccredited claims representatives who charge for their services. If passed, it will impose a fine of a thousand dollars for each offense committed by these unaccredited representatives. It's essential to understand why this legislation is so important. Veterans often rely on claims representatives to navigate the complex VA system. However, unaccredited representatives may lack the necessary expertise and can exploit veterans by charging fees for services that should be free.

This practice not only burns our veterans financially but also undermines the integrity of the support system designed to help them. Moreover accredited representatives are held to a higher standard and could be held liable if they make errors on handling claims. In contrast, unaccredited representatives currently face no such accountability leaving veterans vulnerable to mistakes without recourse. I urge everyone to take time to review this bill and understand its implications. By supporting this legislation, we can ensure that our veterans receive the professional and credited assistance they deserve free from exploitation. When you really think about it, there don't get me wrong. It's great that people have buddies that'll help them with their claims.

You know, if if

you need help with your claim, I'll happily talk through every single bit of it that I understand. But you're the one that's submitting that claim. Something goes wrong with that claim, VA is gonna come after you. That's the difference between accredited and unaccredited. If you go to an accredited service officer, it doesn't have to be just the VFW or the Legion or DAV.

Maryland the state of Maryland has accredited service officers. One of them is at platoon twenty two does a fantastic job. Going through those accredited individuals protects a veteran because the accredited individual is the one submitting the claim. That's the big reason why I I don't know that I'm able to say we should support this bill or not but it kind of makes a lot of sense. We want to protect veterans from unaccredited claims representatives.

And for being charged.

And for being absolutely from being charged. It should be free. Anyways, that's my comments.

Did you want to go down while while they're putting it

through or Oh, I'm gonna be there. Yeah. 01:00 on the twenty first, it'll be presented at the economic matters committee in down in Annapolis.

Is that January?

January 21.

Yep. This has to be

a day I can't take off.

Well, and it's also the last bill on the docket for the day. So even though it says 01:00, it'll probably be like 7PM.

So take a lunch off?

Yeah. Yeah. You could probably have a full day of work and then still hit traffic on the way to Annapolis and make it there by the time the bill's presented.

I appreciate you going.

I mean, get to hang out with delegate Kerr. Why not? Presentations. I don't see Matt and I do we wanna jump back into or jump within Ricky from Reforge? Yeah.

Hey, thanks for inviting me today. Truly, truly appreciate it. I want to thank the board members and everyone for bringing me into this and more so with Reforge. I want to thank our veterans that are at the table for their service to our nation and for what everyone else does, their civic duty as well as serving this committee. Thank you for that. I think before I get into Reforge, will be important for me to tell you who I am. I'm a veteran myself when you talk about navigating the VA system. I've done it. I'm still doing it as a veteran. I think a majority of us are.

It's very industrial block type system that if you don't know it the right way, it's gonna be hard to navigate. So resources are very important. I'm from Upstate New York, Watertown, New York. So by Fort Drum, if you're familiar with the area, like, really right up north near Canada. My grandfather was a Korean war in a Vietnam war vet.

My family is Hungarian, so we had Hungarian family members and Hungarian special forces. I was raised by my grandparents, my brother and I. And I watched my grandfather struggle through his life after the Vietnam War with PTSD with, you know, a lot of issues that at that time still wasn't something that people talked about or said. And there wasn't a lot of community resources available. So I always think back at the time when I was a kid on how different my grandfather's life could have been had he had resources available to him at that time.

He ended up he was a janitor at a local water department facility, and that's not to, like, downsize what he did. It's just he wanted to he didn't have any other resources. He wanted to go into a hole and just do that. And I just feel like he could have done so much more after his service. I joined the military at the age of 17 before 09/11, so in 2000. I did it to go to college. My grandfather was like, you shouldn't. And I was like, I'm not going to war. And then joined the military. Nine eleven kicked off.

I ended up staying fifteen years in the military. I was a army ranger, and then I was a green beret. So I spent ten years in The Middle East, most of my life in The Middle East from the age of 22 to about 32. I was I lived in Pakistan for a whole year with a beard and a man dress, you know, picking off Taliban as they came across the border. I lived there by myself. I lived in Kyrgyzstan by myself, so I've lived in a lot of countries. And, obviously, you know, I have PTSD and TBI and issues that our veterans face currently. So it's something that's familiar to me. When I got out of the military so I did fifteen years in, was a Green Beret, deployed seven times total. I went through a divorce.

And interestingly enough, it was the first time my wife and I had been together for more than, like, three months out of those ten years. So we actually, like, learned. We grew apart. So we had gotten a divorce. My son is in the military. So my son is a he's 21 years old. He's been in the army for five years. He's stationed in Germany. He actually comes back tomorrow. He's been deployed over there for the last five years.

I've seen him two times in those five years. So I'm excited to see him. So I always say that when I was deployed and I had to call him and he was on the other end, now I'm on the other end, so I get to feel how he felt. And I just tell him his strength because I'm doing it as a 42 year old man listening to my son as I can't talk to him, and he did it as, like, an eight, nine, 10 year old kid understanding his dad was away and in danger, and I can only imagine, like, how he, you know, dealt with that. So for me, life comes full circle.

I my brother's in the military. He's been in the National Guard, West Virginia National Guard for twenty two years. My my son's in the military. My stepdaughter was in the Navy. So the military is what I eat, live, and breathe. I was got out of the military with a I was disabled, and I was in a blast in 2011 that ruptured my eardrum. We were on submissions with some Navy SEALs. And since then, like, you know, my my career wasn't straight. I thought I was really messed up. And for those in the military, it's hard for us to speak up.

And then even in the special forces, special operations community, it's even harder for you to say, you know, I have an issue. So my time came to an end, and I had to get out of the military. Luckily for me, had my master's degree. So I worked at CVS Health. You've probably heard of them. I ran a store for them, a regular, like, box store in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and I helped create their skills bridge. So the skills bridge that the CVS has today, I started that. We actually built a talent coordination center on Fort Bragg and recruited soldiers in. And then I trained about 200 soldiers in a year, and then we hired them as store managers. So right when Skills Bridge came out, I was part of, like, getting it for CVS.

I ended up that's how I got to DC. My son moved up here because CVS promoted me to a director. So I ran multiple markets up here in Baltimore, Washington, DC. I ran multiple store units with pharmacies and all that. And then I worked for Amazon for three years. And while I was at Amazon, I directed all the staffing for the whole state of Virginia for all of their fulfillment centers, all of that stuff. And I share this just as, like, the struggles that veterans go through. Right? And that you can't get out of the military. And if you have a path and a plan, you can be successful.

And then the best job I ever had, I worked a year at Bass Pro Shops. So I was part of their executive team, And I helped Bass Pro Shops roll out all their military programs, military incentivizing, retail type stuff. So if you've been to Bass Pro and you've seen the Bass that the soldiers wear, I was part of rolling that out with Johnny Morris and his team. So I helped create skills bridge on all their stores, all their state level with the Department of Labor, all of that. Currently, I work as a talent director for a small tech company, and I basically headhunt top engineers in cybersecurity for the DOD.

So that's what I do for, like, real work. And then in my spare time, I work with Reforge. So I'm the CEO of Reforge. I took on this as kind of my torch to my community to give back. I've learned a lot as a transitioning veteran, And I've been through a lot. I've been through a lot of treatments. So I feel not only can I help guide Reforge on the amazing things they're doing, but actually give advice and feedback on what's best for veterans, ask the veterans? So that's kind of a I'll stop there real quick. Did any did you guys have any questions or anything? And I don't know how much time I have, so I didn't want to, like, over

I would say about twenty

minutes. Oh, Okay. Cool. I thought it was less. And, yeah, now that I know I'm tired, I'll I'll be good. I just showed up with, you know, making sure I was I was good to go. But so Reforge, what I'll ask everyone is some numbers. I work with America's Warrior Partnership too. So, honestly, if you guys ever have any veterans that have needs, I always keep free beds from organizations that I've worked with where I can get a veteran in a bed. And I'm that type of guy. I had a buddy that calls me in Columbus, Georgia in in a bad situation. Like, I flew to him the next day, and my friends know if I come to you, you're going to a facility or you're gonna go get help. I'm not just gonna come and, you know, hold your hand. I wanna make sure that you get the treatment you need. And that's how I operate, and that's where we're doing it, Reforge.

And we have 18,000,000 veterans in The United States if you think about that. So 18,000,000 people signed up, and they did a sacrifice that, you know, if you subtract the 330,000,000 that we have, you know, that 350,000,000 people didn't do. So such a small portion of people sacrificed so much, and we know that. And I've always said that, you know, veterans and and we work with first responders too in the police department, and they sacrifice so much that, you know, we should honor their sacrifice with being there for them to giving them what they need. And that's where Reforge comes in. We have 14,000,000 veterans or 18,000,000 veterans. Seven to 8,000,000 of them are actually in the VA, like working in the VA. In the system. The knows they're there. Disabilities are different.

There's about a million veterans with disability, one hundred percent. So you think about that population all the way down. We're missing from eight to about 18,000,000. We're missing about there's 10,000,000 veterans out there right now that aren't in the system. They're not getting help. And we have to reach them. And the way that we do it is through community. And it has to be local. It has to be at the local level. And it has to be at the parts that the VA is not reaching.

And it has to be at the parts that legislatures aren't reaching, that laws laws only do so much, and it only helps the people who are in the system who are getting the help. There's people out there that don't know how to get the help, where to get the help, or get themselves in a better place to get the So that's where we start with community. And we're big on community. And all of our programs have a veteran that runs them or is part of our programs to build that community and tribe. When I got out of the military, you know, they're big on getting a veteran a job. That's the big that's the big thing. And I stopped there and I say, get give the veteran a purpose. Give them something because the military provides you a purpose every single day. You felt that when you drove to work. I felt it.

I felt like I was doing something significant with my life. And a veteran that's gonna leave the military, that's been indoctrinated in that system, is facing a really, really difficult challenge. They've been separated from society for a long time. And, you know, civilians and some of the population doesn't understand that part of it, that you're really part of a family. You're part of a tribe, an indigenous tribe that is so personal and unique to that veteran that it can't be recreated.

So the best way to do that is to recreate it as best as possible through the community. Because when you have a community together that's doing, you know, hiking, fishing, whatever you like to do, go with your veterans, go with your friends, make that unique tribe again. So that's what we start with this community. And then next is wellness. Right?

And this is before we give the veteran a job or do any of that. Like, you gotta get them well. I I I work to get into a salaried position at a high level. And once I got to that level, it was okay for me in corporate to take off time to work from home to get my appointments straight. But if I had, like, a nine to five that I had to clock in every day, it would be so difficult for me to be successful because I would have so many appointments, so many times I'm on hold with the VA and, like, I'm taking lunch breaks.

And that's a real issue that's not addressed, you know, that it's just one of those byproducts of the system. You know, if I added up the amount of times I talked to the VA in a week, it's probably six, seven hours on hold jumping to this person, jumping to that person. And I'm of sound mind, and I'm an intelligent person. And if I'm having trouble navigating the VA, like, can imagine someone who has other difficulties or, you know, other issues that's stopping them from using the phone, audio to audio, all that stuff that they could be going through. So start with wellness.

And for us at Reforge, we look at a lot of ways to do wellness. Right? It's not just get to the VA and go to your doctors and and wellness. I'm big on the outdoors, obviously, at Bass Pro Shops. I was very passionate about getting outdoors, getting back involved with nature. You know? There's just something about breathing in air and, like, sitting in the trees and in silence that's calming and healing. So we try to do that for veterans. We have the apiary here. And all this is in Frederick, what we're doing in Frederick County.

And we just started a year ago. And the apiary for the bees in in learning to take care of bees, we do the horse therapy. We do the Appalachian Trail hiking with cold plunges in the river. And we're trying to work ourselves more into the wellness side of, like, what treatment can you not get at the VA that you could get here. Right? I can't go to the VA. I wish they would give me a prescription to go hiking. That'd be great. Me fishing for two days. Right? We've always heard that. Like, we do that. So you send the veteran to us. We'll get them fishing. We'll get them hiking. We'll get them hunting. We have a lot of resources in this county. And that's kind of where we go. And then purpose. We try to get them involved in the community first.

Right? You gotta put the community first and wrap your arms around those veterans at the community level. Then you get them well and get them better. Whatever that is, it's unique to every veteran. Some don't need much. Some need a lot. And then we try to take that into what you need if it's, you know, like I said, going hiking and that's your jam. Let's get you hiking, man, and let's help you build a program. And then get them well and then help them find their new purpose and and identify at least what that is. Like, I'm not I'll help you get a job.

We wanna do that, and we have programs for that as well. And I run all the programs for Skillsbridge, the Department of Labor. I'm working with one of the regional banks. I have a meeting with them next week to set up Skillsbridge and stuff with them. But, yeah, purpose is big for me too, and that's usually where we start. So that's just kind of reforge just overall. It's local to Frederick. I got involved through a few other organizations and then through some special operations and then through Bass Pro Shop. So I help get our hiking gear together and all of that. And if you wanna look through, I don't wanna bore you with all the, you know, stuff here. You can read that. But if you think those? Yes, ma'am. Half

the cup of them? Yeah.

Save. Well done.

I've got one. Thank you.

You want one? Yeah. So if you want to look through and and we kind of highlighted what we'll do. I just want to go over it real quick like community Christmas time we filled a bunch of stockings with the local police department and gave them to kids and children that are in the local community. You know what? With the state of politics and everything the way it is, I think the best way for a kid to see a police officer is with a stocking and gifts and maybe that's your first encounter. I know the first time I met a police officer, was speeding, so it wasn't a good experience. Right? So not saying that's bad, but I'm saying creating a bridge to communities so that they understand that the police are there to help and all that. So we're doing all of that for Outreach.

We have some K-nine initiatives where we support the Gun Dog Outdoors. Equip the K-nine heroes with their medical gear and all of that. Yep. So we do all that. And we're just sourcing we're bootstrapping all this. It's shaking hands.

I'm trying to get my husband

to get a dog for himself.

But, yeah, you can connect with us, and we have part of that. And then we have transition member mentorship that we provide to families that are transitioning from the service. I've been through all of it, so I know what transitioning is like. And then we use the community together to do all of this. So any resources, like I said, we're gonna be partnering with the regional bank around here, and forgive me, I forget the name, but to set up, like, a skills bridge and Hire Our Heroes fellowship.

So some of the Hire Our Heroes fellowships, actually, if you set it up right, you link up with them. Hire Our Heroes will pay the spouse's salary while they work for you on a twelve week fellowship. It's free to your company, your organization, whatever. That spouse comes in. Hire Our Heroes pays them an hourly rate at around 17 to $18 an hour. That person works for you, and the intent is for you to hire them. I've ran a couple of those programs in my current company. Great way to get talent. Great way to get, like, someone who's motivated and wanting to work in your community, and you can set that up at any level. Skills Bridge transitioning from the military, I've helped companies set up memorandums of understanding.

I did it for Bass Pro, get them set up on Skills Bridge so they have transitioning soldiers that are coming. Right? The ideal thing would be you get a soldier who's coming back to Frederick, right, and they're looking for a job. And the first thing I want him to do is come to reforge, and then I'll hook him up or wrap my arms around him. What do you like to do for fun? You like to fish? You like to hunt? Like, we got people here who are veterans. Cool. Right. Let's figure out, do you want a job? Like, I have a couple resources with the banks and stuff. Does your wife or your spouse need a job? We have some resources available for you. We may not have everything, but my goal would be to reach out to my network and provide whatever that person needs, you know, through other nonprofits that are in the area. So that's kinda how we work with the community and all of that. Go ahead. Do you have

the tap and tamp or I don't know what it's called now, but tap and tamp, the mandatory classes that you have to have before you get out?

Yeah. I haven't yet. Not not with Reforge. I've done all those before, though. Yes.

But with so you want to go on to Dietrich and

Yeah. I'd love to do that. Yep. Yeah. So if if after this, we'll exchange, but I'd love to get on there and and speak to their transitioning coordinators and all of that. That'd be great. And then for wellness, we have referral partners for a lot of treatment for veterans. You know, if they need, you know, horse therapy, which is great. I've done that. Yoga. We have the equine assistance. We have a running club. We do cold plunges and all of that. I've used my network. So I was a Green Brier.

I have a few special force. Like, I have a special forces doctor that'll come to events with us. So I have doctors on-site. I use my network of rangers and Green Berets and other soldiers to kinda pump up these events and all of that. So that's what we're building for wellness, and we're trying to push the wellness piece into being accessible to the veterans who aren't in the VA yet. Once you get a veteran in the VA, that's good. Like, when's their next appointment? I bet it's seven to eight months. Yeah. What's that veteran gonna do for eight months while they wait for an appointment and then they're in line? Because I've been there. Right? So that's the key is, like, yeah, get them in the system, but then there's a gap. And that gap is dangerous to veterans, and we know that. Like, that's eight months is a long time for them to be idle with no community or no network.

So we wanna try to provide the care that they need. And if it's a shot that they need or if it's certain, you know, drug therapy or rehabilitation, we have the facilities that we can push them to.

Do you work with MHA?

I do not. No. MHA, what's that one?

Mental health association.

Not yet. No. We just started up, like, this year, like, last year Reforge, and they brought me into this side of the team just now, so I'm getting caught up. I didn't know what the mission is, but as far as connecting, this is the first part of me connecting a lot of these pieces.

And they have a walk in clinic and and they have a veteran on-site or on their staff anyway that Okay. Very familiar with the troubles that you're talking about. And I think that would be a good connection for you.

Yeah. I'd love that. And after this, I'll kind of circle around and and get any notes and things that you guys have.

How does how does the veteran find you?

Yeah. So they find us online. They find us word-of-mouth.

But if I don't know, you know, you come out and you like you said, you you have the intelligence. You've you've you've been around. You know where to look. A lot of them don't. So they they're not just gonna go online and look for.

Yeah. For sure. So we're on social media as best as so we can talk about like those. We're on social media. And, obviously, they need to be connected, but it's things like this, right, that gets Reforged out there spreading the word to show what we're doing. And then that outreach, a lot of it's been word-of-mouth in the local area, mostly the DMV. You know? And we'll have some out of state people that'll come in and and do events. And we do our fishing event in Outer Banks too. So we kinda spread it in North Carolina. But you're correct. What we need is, like, visibility and people to come to the events, do the community part, and share what we're doing on a larger scale. I'm on LinkedIn, Twitter. We're doing all of that, but you're right. Like, how are we reaching the veteran population that we need to?

And funding. Where do you get funding?

Bootstrapped it. That's all. We just ask favors and shake hands and do what we can to put things together. And due to how I worked in the corporate world when I was at Best Pro Shops, I was under the umbrella of the military affairs that I ran. I learned a lot about how the nonprofit side of business works and how you can get money. Like, for instance, I won't share the organization, but I went to an organization two days ago We do the Appalachian hike up here. What's the main river up here?

Can't pronounce it. It's Boxy.

Yeah. So we cold plunge in that thing and we'll trail up there and we have veterans that come to it. But the biggest issue that what's that?

A mud plunge. Yeah. Well, there's

a part in there that's the veteran that runs it, it's a clear part that I know he's I spoke to him about it. And the biggest obstacle we were having is veterans that want to hike that don't have gear. Right? So I went to an organization, and they provided all kinds of hiking gear for me and gave me hiking gear. I give them a write off slip for their taxes. Right? I try to do it at the end of the year because they're gonna get you know, so we do it that way, and then I have the gear that I need to hike. And then I'll go to events and try to, you know, bootstrap and fund as best as possible. Or we have a lot of supporters that will also donate their time and all of that as well. Like our bee our beekeeping program, that's just a guy who loves bees and grows it himself.

He's a veteran. We tie together. It's really not that much to run, to speak, but like he grows it that way personally and part of the program for us.

There's there's grants out there, community foundation. There's there's grants specifically for veteran organizations like this.

That's something I'd love to get connected with too. Okay. Yep.

I I think you would actually benefit from leadership record. I don't know if they have any allocations for veterans.

No. It's an application process and yeah.

Well, I hope that you guys will participate in the Veterans Appreciation Day this summer.

Yeah. This is once we're connected, this is part of the plan, and I'll go back to the team and make sure that we're doing that. Yeah. And next for purpose, we do a lot through community service. Like I said, our Holiday Hero program, we local families in Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

We're we're working soon to to help with some of the child trafficking in Africa and sending soldiers over there as soon as, like, soldiers that wanna volunteer and who are well minded and, you know, healed and all that. We've been working through that program that just started. And then a majority of our programs are veteran led. So they'll when we get a veteran and they get better, we ask them, like, what are you passionate about? And we had a veteran that loves to fish, and he runs our fishing program, takes all the veterans, drives them down to outer banks, has the whole thing coordinated for him.

Our first sergeant runs the whole program. We bootstrapped all of his fishing supplies. That's how we're doing it, just local. And that's kinda how we try to get veterans back on their purpose, whether it's job, you know, getting back out. We do golfing events, all that stuff. So you'll see over here some of the Rackin' Outdoor stuff that we do. And then the big thing, you know, we all love numbers. Right? So I'm a numbers guy anyways. I worked at Amazon.

They're all about numbers. So 2024, we helped 717 members. The way we keep track is they fill out forms when they come see us. And we don't have anything that assesses health or anything like that, but just we get the veteran's name, their contact information, and then we help them. We also invest into disabled veteran owned businesses.

If we find a local business that's you know, they own a bar, they own, you know, food or a restaurant, we'll try to give them what we can. If it's a thousand, if it's 500, if it's an event, we'll try to help them as much as possible. So put about $7,000 into that. We've helped 27 of our k nine law enforcement dogs with medical kits, over three hundred first responders. We also donate to other nonprofits that are in the local area, do things we partner with them. And, hey. You wanna come aboard of this? And if it's a fee, we'll pay it. And we've also provided financial support to veterans. Obviously, these numbers aren't huge.

We're bootstrapping a lot of this. And a 136 veterans went outdoor fishing with us too, so that's one of our bigger programs. And then I just have some comments from, you know, some of our veterans that have worked with us. And then, obviously, to support if anyone wants to donate or if you guys have any programs and stuff, it'd be great for us to be involved. I'll end with a few things.

This year so we're gonna be doing a large event with our Appalachian Trail, and we're going to be working with I'm gonna have a few special operations that we're probably gonna do in March, and it's gonna be a hike with heroes. And we're gonna do a sort of hike with heroes where youth, maybe ages 13 to 16, we're gonna provide them packs, assault packs, hiking packs, get them involved with hiking, and also have Green Berets, Rangers, special operations there to talk about their service in the military, what it meant to them, how their lives have changed because of it, build that patriotic support in our country and our service members, give them salt packs to road march and hike with. And we do it every month, you know, get the youth out there, start hiking with us. I'm gonna partner with a organization. I haven't announced it yet, but they're gonna help us provide the hiking gear for the youth.

And I'd like to keep that program going here in Frederick because we do it monthly, and I think it'd be a great thing to involve the community in, especially with the youth and, you know, building up our future generation to let them know that serving this nation is actually an amazing thing to do. And we shouldn't think, you know, bad about that or worried about that because this is a great country. So that's kinda one program we're gonna do. We have some large, like, fundraising events that are coming up, a golfing event. And also towards the end of the year, we're gonna be working with the Duchess to have a big top floor, like, meal soiree type, fall in soiree with veterans.

I'd love to invite you guys all to that. It'll be, you know, free alcohol, free food, all of that that we're doing at the duchess. So and definitely, that would be one that I would I'd I'd love if any legislator or anyone in the community that wants to be involved too. So anytime we can get that going is always great from that side. And last thing I'll say is veterans veteran community is a very strong community. There's 15,000 veterans in Frederick. I looked it up before I come here. I didn't just know that number. But that's a small portion of the population in a grand scheme of things. And you know, we can reach them.

We can reach out to them, and we can bring them and embrace them. And it takes the community to do it. Laws help. Legislature helps. But there's parts of the community that doesn't have access to those things. That's who we wanna reach. And veterans are thriving. If you put the veteran in the right spot and they're doing well, what better neighbor to have? What better employee to have? What better leader to have?

What better person to have in your community serving again. And that's what veterans wanna do. They wanna thrive and serve again. And if they're not given that opportunity, you know, it's hard for veterans to really come back and integrate back into a society that really they haven't been a part of. In 2007 from 2007 so around 2006, I finished special forces training.

2007, one month later, I was in Kyrgyzstan for eight months, came back for two months, then I was in Afghanistan for a year, came back for one month, then I was in Pakistan for a year, came back in 2000 ended 2009. So I think three years went by. I was in The United States, like, two or three months. When I came back, I went to Walmart and every single person had a phone. And that was the first time I seen that.

And I was like, what the heck is going on? People were I was like, people were, like, standing and lot everything slowed. Like, I saw from a different perspective because I wasn't integrated into that. And that's just one small microcosm of what a veteran sees when they enter the world because they've been shielded from the community for a long time. And the community went on without And now the expectation is for us to integrate into that when it should be.

You served, you come to us, and we will take you the way you are. And we're here as a community to help you get better, to help you heal, and to help you reserve because what better person to have do that in our community. And when I was deployed, I think when you're in the military, there was I had this idea. You have this idea of what the American dream is, and that's different for everybody. Right?

Mine's to have land and fade off into the West and, like, you know, procure my own meat, and that's what I want in my life, and I'm gonna get there. But every veteran has the American dream, and they deserve to get that. If anybody in this country deserves to have that dream, they deserve it. And at Reforged, we wanna we wanna help do that. So that's kind of a that's my spiel.

You're describing to me what I call reverse culture shock.

Yeah. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Yeah. Do you know Sean Moore by any chance?

I know a few I know a Sean Moore at Edward Jones. Is that the same Sean Moore?

Sean Moore, Edward Edward Jones.

It's a

financial Edward Jones. He's a financial guy, but he's where he works at Moore Financial. Mhmm. It's his that's the Is he in

Hawaii? No.

He's here. He was he was a Green Beret.

Okay, cool. Sean Moore off to connect with him. Yeah. Do you know if he was in the National Guard

or I don't know. I just know he was a Green Beret. And he's in our rotary club, and I I want to get your information, and I'll hook you up.

That'd be great. That'd be great. Yeah. I'd love that. Yeah. Any questions or

Oh, Mitch. What's up, dude?

How's going, bro? So Mitch is part of our team.

Oh, okay.

I didn't realize you were here, man. You snuck in while you are looking. He's he's a ranger, so You're getting

you're getting slow in your old age. You're not

getting your email. I know. I know. Do you guys have any questions? And then Mitch can answer too. Did you wanna stand up and say who

you are, Mitch? Mitch Hawkinson. I'm a director of operations for reports. Just came to see Rick before you head back down to DC and grab some stuff. But meet everybody and ask any questions if you guys got them. How's everybody doing?

Good. Are you? Good. Do

you so you're talking golf tournaments. You're talking get out and hike or whatever for the veterans. So, again, I'm gonna ask, like, how do we find out? Do you app do you do you advertise over at Bass Pro? Do you do you put flyers up? Yeah. How do I know what you know, wanna find out how to go golfing.

How do I know that

So through this, we could we're just starting to connect with, you know, the the local city council members and all that to spread the word. When you get veterans, tell them, reforge is here in your local area, your community. That's why this is one of the first meetings we're having. I'm not having a meeting with anybody else. We're having a meeting right here with the people who get impacted the most to grow it. So, hopefully, to your point, eventually, we'd love to be the point of reference for veterans to come and come to us. And we have resources that are available too. We can send them to DSOs, the legions, all of those. I work with Warriors Heart in Texas. Warriors Heart keeps two beds for me at all times.

That if I get a veteran that needs to go there for forty five days for drug rehabilitation or whatever, I can put him in there. All I gotta do is get the flight covered, and then I figure that out on my end. If I don't have anybody to fund it, we'll get it funded. So I work with them. There's a couple organizations here. Next week, I'm going to Patriot Point, which is in Maryland as well, and they have about 400 acres of land. I'm gonna go there to go duck hunting and stuff like that. So I connect with organizations and then build it. So then when a veteran comes to me, they like duck hunting, I got a place for you. You know?

So it's kind of building it now to get it to a level where especially in Frederick County and in Maryland of 15,000 veterans, we could reach them and really get them involved into things that they like, you know, and we'll build it. If you build it, they'll come. If it's gardening you wanna do, we'll figure it out.

To add to that, I mean, we have a social media presence. We're working on the marketing side and getting out there, but we're referral based. I mean, a lot of people know a veteran. They see veterans. They talk to veterans. They work with veterans. They're husbands, fathers, sons, daughters all over the place. So referral is is big. And, you know, one of our mantras is deeds, not words. So as we get stuff done within the area, people are gonna see that what Reforge is and what we're all about. So, yeah, like Ricky said, spread the word. And, you know, our website's up and running. We we we're kind of building the plane in flight at 10,000 feet,

but we're doing pretty well. Veterans are good at.

Yep. We got seven we helped out 700 and some veterans last year. We've been up and running for about a year now. I mean, got a B program, golf every Sunday for veterans. We're working on yoga. We're working on we have equine therapy. We have and and it really is it's it's not a cookie cutter for each veteran, you hit it right on the head. The community civilization goes on with us, and then we get integrated in. And I just retired twenty two years last year, so it's it's very true. You after moving 23 times,

it's tough to

build a community, meet people, get close, be a part. And when a veteran does decide to settle down, wherever that may be, it may not be his hometown, it could have been two stations or two duty stations ago, that's where he fell in love with, he still has no family or friends there. So, yeah, it's integrating that veteran is is is really vital. So and we will if we don't have the resource or we don't have the answer, we will find it for who who needs help.

It's a part of the statement.

Yeah. Have

you guys gone over to platoon twenty two?

We haven't yet. So haven't connected with them yet.

I that that's kind

of That's a great

Yeah. They have providers will come in and they do all kinds of activities. A lot of the same ones you're talking about. So like they have the space, you can come in and do the activity. Like, you know, they do puppy yoga with Warrior Canine Connection. And if you need office space, they have pop in office space, and they have lots of different providers that come through there. A few that are

similar in that aspect to of resources available and using that. I don't know how the capacity that they have to or how many veterans are serving. So I'd have to look at that and talk with them, but that that's a great thing. But that's kinda where we wanna be too and and guide us into the wellness piece where there's some unique there's some unique things that veterans need. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with operator syndrome.

What what's

Operator syndrome. So Navy SEALs special operators are pushed to a higher level, like an athletic type level where they need some more complex things. So, like, I could sit at the table. I'm 42 years old with my other Green Bury buddies, and we can check the block of we all have the same thing, back surgery Mhmm. Spinal fusions, TBI, ear blasts, hearing.

We're all, like, checking each other, and and it's a syndrome that where you have so many complex things that that tailor into all of it and and crescendos. It becomes a lot to manage and deal with. So we wanna also be available to a population that may need some critical care in order. I know for me, as I tried to get better, I have to do it and strategically in phases. Okay. Cool. I'm gonna get I had to do nose surgery because my nose through the blast was messed up for years. I couldn't breathe out of it. I did nose surgery. And due to my work schedule, I lined it all up. I went to my neurosurgeon. I was like, I got no no surgery October 20. I'll do the back surgery November 8. And I went nose surgery, back surgery, back surgery, healed up, and kept going. You know?

So those are some unique things that the community should be able to help veterans with. So that's kind of why a community's first for us.

That hits on the pillar of wellness. And, you know, we're we're twenty two years, twenty three years past the global war on terrorism, and we've gotten smarter as civilization, technology, our medical, and where we're at. And we're just I know for a fact and from personal experience, we're just not there taking care of the veterans. If you take a TBI ten years ago, fifteen years ago, it looks the same as it did then, as it does now. We've done nothing to identify and to help our veterans. Now, there's studies. There's millions of dollars getting put into that. But yeah, there's a holistic approach to wellness and taking care of ourselves. And it's an honest conversation with drugs and alcohol. It's solitude.

It's getting the veteran out of solitude. So it's just not beekeeping and yoga and stuff like that. That's building the relationship. That's a necessary foundation to build trust with anybody. And then once we've identified maybe something's going on there, and that veteran has built up enough trust for her to open up and say, hey, I might be struggling with this, We're going to find that. And it's out there.

Well, you very much.

No. Thank you guys

very much.

Thank you. Truly appreciate it.

And I will be a pillar for you guys. Anything you need, like we want to be a point of reference for you. And seriously, any veterans that you have that need support or assistance, let us know. And any way you can share us, introduce us to people that can share what we're doing and support us in any way, we'd love to. Because if you think about it, everything that he just mentioned is right here in your county and we're doing a lot of stuff. Right? So

I think here. It's great.

What's that? Talk after.

Not yet. No.

Do you have a card?

So I have one card that you can scan. Sorry guys. I I I have one of those dot cards. So if you scan it You can do that. You can pass it around. I'm on LinkedIn too. You can find me easily. I'll collect your card and I always follow-up. So I will send you if you give me your card, I promise. You'll get an email in a couple days.

Well, I'm heading over. Do you have you

heard of Coralwood?

I have not. It's up it's

up north a little bit of Fairmont Way. It's a wellness retreat area. And I'm I'm gonna be involved in a roundtable on the twenty fifth on what they can do to bring veteran services up in that area. Okay. That's why I wanna Connect? Come back. Yeah.

Yeah.

I thought I had my

Either Mitch or I can can attend any of that stuff. Okay. Card. Oh, here Gillian. One

other thought on this is for a connection

you might wanna make when you're talking

about having the youth and I have that

one there. Sort of thing.

In the city of Frederick, there's a youth council. It's called the twelve to twenty four collaborative. Okay. I imagine if you reached out to them, that's a connection they

would love to make.

If you just Google, like, Frederick City Youth Council Okay. It it comes up and perfect. Think that'd a great connection.

Yeah. Awesome. And thanks for inviting me, Patrick.

Hey. No worries. Yeah. Appreciate it. I just shared my contact with you.

Thank you. Are there any questions? Any anything you guys wanna ask me or anything at all?

Does anybody feel intimidated because you guys are rangers in Green Bay?

So I I I say that

You as a marine are not intimidated. No. I'm not a real marine.

We help all veterans. But some of the programs we run especially like, you know, when you talk about we're taking veterans hiking and cold plunging, I don't want people to get worried like, are we going to hurt them? Like, we have trained people that are working for us that have done this. That's what I was trying to say in some of our programs like hunting, fishing.

All that. But

we have veterans of all creeds, marines, navy, no space force yet though, but that'd be cool. Space force is still new, but all all branches, all ranks,

all of that.

What's that? No SEER training.

Yeah. Oh, no. We will I'd show you how to start a fire if you want. We can do we can do one of those. I can Anybody who wants a cold plunge, I can help you out.

I'm color blind so don't ask me to leave or

And you're a marine.

This is true.

I love it. Awesome. Thank you. Questions? No?

No. But we'll definitely have to connect because I believe I can share lot of these resources.

And if you want to, do you have everyone's email? If you wanted to send everyone's email and cc me too, I can that'll be a good way to communicate and I can spread everything to everyone at once if you wanted.

And we can add you into our newsletter.

I

love We've got social media. I've got a ton of contacts we

can. Cool. Yeah. And I'll share some social media stuff we're doing. Are you guys on which social media? LinkedIn? Facebook and LinkedIn. Okay. Cool. So we'll connect

with you guys. Yeah. I think a lot of lot of connections here especially with the Ambats and Marine Corps League. So we'd love to have you come out

and talk to them

as That'd be great.

Yep. Everybody here is gonna be

at the January 25

cold plunge. Right?

I can picture.

Where is it?

So we are recounting site next Tuesday.

Where would you like to be?

I wanna do it. So I you tell me where. Really, this

would be awesome. No. Alright.

You you need photographer. I'll take pictures of

them. I

already need I'll feel it.

I'll I'll feel it. I'll I'll

from your organs because it's protecting your organs. All your warm, nice, healthy blood goes in and rushes back out. It's, like, one of the best feelings. If you got a pulled muscle, you'll feel it get better. It's great.

I heard it's fantastic. There. Think field trip. Think field trip.

Yeah. I'm almost gonna I'll send

you guys the information of where it's at. And seriously, if you guys wanna show up, we'll we'll we'll

do it.

We do it every month too.

So Do it like July?

No. Not July.

Right.

No. Then we just spray you. Yeah.

We get the ice cubes and

put them in the tub.

Yeah. Right.

Well, I really appreciate what you've done, and thanks for

your service.

It's not me. It's it's Mitch and and Katie, and and they're in the background. I'm here just bringing my business acumen to help build this because I I truly believe in what they're doing. So they're really building it from the ground up, and it's amazing what they're doing. So it's awesome. I'm glad to talk about it. It's too easy.

Great. Awesome.

Thank you.

I think we mostly had public comment unless any other public. Yes, please. How about you? Twenty ninth of January's point in time account. Remember that please. We have

a number of a lot of people through various organizations have volunteered for that taking the training over platoon twenty two we're ready to count the homeless in Frederick. That's a major point of concern. We have homeless, but they're not recognized either by the state of the Veterans Administration. So we're trying to improve that process to get the homeless vouchers and things in process. Appreciate the information that you've talked about the legislation for the PACT Act. 96% of the claims submitted by Marylanders have been approved.

9696%

were approved. Now I can't tell you that the 96% haven't received their money yet, but, you know, there's been a little delay in the process. They're very concerned that as pact act answers the second year that those individuals who have less than honorable intentions will play upon the veterans to quote a system with their claim for a fee. So that's very important legislation. Platoon twenty two would be an ideal place for your flyers that they do an excellent job of publicizing all the different events for the veterans at particularly at the 09:00 to 10:00 coffee that they host every Monday, but not next Monday because holiday.

Of the of the holiday. The Fort Detrick veterans excuse me. The Fort Detrick retarguaries council will be hosting the third annual retiree activity day on the September 18. Very similar to the Veterans Appreciation Day, but this is obviously oriented for retirees in the past twelve years between a 100 to a 150 retirees have attended from essentially a tristate area. Maryland, obviously, Pennsylvania, and Virginia come up for that activity.

Yeah. Ricky, thank you for your presentation. I guarantee you this will be the not the last time you speak to a group in February.

Yeah.

What you articulated for the veteran transitioning on the employment side is exactly what the Chamber of Commerce veteran success group is attempting to get off the ground. Yeah. And you'll be speaking before them and the community veterans engagement board would be a tremendous audience for you.

Love that. You send us any invites, we'll be there. Yep. Yep. And real quick, I didn't for the voucher thing for veterans, we have access to we'll run into some homeless veterans at times. If we do that, is the voucher program I'm not too familiar with it, but it's something we'd love to be a part of. Is that like a full grant or is it how is that like a different conversation? Yeah.

We'll

just talk We have access to veterans that are like that.

So I

like that right now. You're on

to see at its best, I should say.

Gotcha. Okay.

Trying to fix.

No problem. But we'd love to be part of all that stuff. Great.

Awesome. Any other public comment? Fantastic.

Staff report. Okay. Yes. So unfortunately, Carlos has accepted a position at another organization. So he will no longer be at the Frederick Health Hospice. So he has notified me that Heather Kirby, who's the vice president of integrated care and chief population health officer, will fill in for him. And he wasn't able to be here tonight. Obviously, he had a conflict. So but his I can't remember the start date of his new role, but I I don't expect he'll be here next month. It is possibly it will be Heather. I wanted to come through the council. Sorry?

Does that need to come through the council?

So I need to the council? Yeah. I need to coordinate because and I don't know if Joyce has been replaced. Joyce.

Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah.

Okay. Because, yeah, there's a process where, like, the Frederick Health Hospital, whoever the original designee was, it's probably the Frederick Health president, has to write a letter saying who the new designee will be. So, yeah, we'll have to do that through the official channels. Yeah. I wanna introduce Joy Roe. She is my new supervisor. She's replacing Brad. Was one of us for years and years down the trenches. She got a little promotion. And she is such a big she's the veteran person. And so, anyway, if I wanted to give her a chance to introduce herself.

So hi. Hi. I am Joy. I'm a Frederick native, born and raised here. My father's twenty five year army retiree. Served in World War two, actually, in Los Alamos. So PTSD at its finest with no treatment. So I understand that. So I do have veterans at heart. I started years ago with independence aging and independence here with the county, and we didn't have a veteran program.

So I had a heart for that. And so we began a long time ago, Fred and I, and helped develop the Frederick C VIB. And then it just kinda built from there. And then when Mikaela came on board, I kinda handed over the veteran reins to her to let her take that over. But definitely, definitely, you know, born in a into a family of military, many more than just my dad, but very excited to be here.

I want you guys to know that I'm very supportive with all things veteran and with the work that the council does now. So it's very exciting to see where we spread and I started a long time ago to to where our county is now. So very proud of Frederick County and where where where we've been and where we've come. And and welcome.

Thank you.

So You're welcome. Yeah. I tend to have works I have worked with younger vets, but I tend we tend to work with a lot of older vets. Mhmm. And for the services for the younger vets, tend to be increasing.

But our older veterans, you know, just to put a a shameless plug in, they tend to be lacking. Mhmm. I have one that I'm gonna talk with Makayla tomorrow morning about. And they, you know, these are the folks that probably aren't able to do the plunges or or go golfing or do all those kinds of things, but they certainly could use a friendly face, a lot of loneliness, especially since COVID, a lot of increased mental health and cognitive health problems that have been created from the time when we were very isolated. So any thoughts along those lines as you guys are developing programming to not forget those older vets that really have been forgotten.

So

No. That's a thank you. That's a great point too.

I'm very glad you said that.

And that's the reforged way, deeds, not words. And I say if you build it, they'll come. You you you find a program, you find something that we can build and hold on to, we'll build it.

So Yes.

So I I like that idea with the elder generation too or the aging because they do need some sort of community for themselves too. A lot of unique to them in in what they do.

And a lot of those Vietnam vets and Korean vets are not hooked into the VA. Some of them political

Yeah.

Ideas. So it's being able to work with some of those folks and making those bridges happen.

But you've just defined the population that meets at the Veterans Service Center from 09:00 to 10:30 between 25 or 30 individuals. And there's no programs. They just go Yeah. And sit and talk. And it's amazing to see

how that has grown Okay.

From 10 people now, as I said, 35 or 40 will be there more than more than just for the free food. I'll put it that way. Yeah. I love

that way.

I'm glad you said that. That's the fastest growing pop subpopulation is the 65. Mhmm. And it's also one of the highest suicide rates. Mhmm. It's a it's a something that needs talked about and something that they need programs too.

Yes. We'll talk about it too. I'll bring this back to our owners and and definitely talk about programs that we could do and have a lot of lot of community ideas that we could do, especially during those time frames.

And, Ricky,

I can get you the demographics of that because, yes, they it's skewed to in Frederick County, we're skewed towards the 65 and over

group. Okay. Perfect.

Are are those folks in assisted living homes? Is that or just out in general public?

They're out in the general public. And the one gentleman I got a phone call on today is is not alone. So there there's a whole situation going on there that we're gonna have to.

Does he does he need someone

to help support him? We yeah. There's a lot of situation there

to address. Please exchange numbers and Okay. And call me, and we'll see what we can do to help too.

Mikaela and I

will test Send to us, and if there's anyone that needs help, we'll we'll do it.

A lot of what we do and what I do every day is we get calls from either an elderly veteran or the adult child of an elderly veteran. They're getting sicker. It's getting more expensive. And now they want to get enrolled in VA health care. However, talking about technology and society, there's a big gap between the va.gov login ID veteran and the 85 year old veteran who can barely remember what he did, let alone where his DD214 is.

Or his password or the secret answer to passwords. Yes.

So that's that gap in service that we're trying to help is these these folks who really need that VA health care, but they're not, you know, gonna download the app, you know.

And and access. I mean, it has helped Yes. Since the state has has moved the the state office out of the courthouse here, which was nothing but steps. And my vets could not access Right. To over to with platoon twenty two now. So that has that has helped, but still we have people who can't get out of their homes. Mhmm. So Or can't drive any longer. Or, I mean, there's you know, the situations go on and on,

and I could

I could take the next two hours and commiserate with everybody. But those are the stories that I've worked with for the last ten plus years. Yeah. And so, you know, we work with anybody 18 and older out of our office. So to make that clear. But, you know, we have a hard time

with that older population. Sounds like I gotta buy a couple vans and transport some veterans to

the office. If you could

spend all day going back

and forth to Martinsburg.

Yeah. See,

well, that's we wouldn't be part of stuff like that

if Mhmm.

Are they ADA compliant? Are they ADA compliant vans?

Excuse me? ADA compliant. Yes.

They are. I had to think a configuration of it. Yep. With the ramps and everything. Yep.

Alright. Sorry. I'm just trying to move this on a little bit. But I I also wanted to introduce Katie Triplett. So she's our new communication marketing person. So I wanna give her a chance to say something she likes. She's gonna help us she's gonna help us increase our attendance from last year from we had what what do we have? 350 people through the door last year? So she's gonna get us to what? 700?

I hope so. Thank you for for having me here. I I'm hoping in this new role. I've been in this role just a little over a month. My background is working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities on the other side of the division.

So now I'm at the aging side hoping that I can get in and help each program, promote the programs within the county. And one piece of it, really, I'm going to be working a lot with one of our a new staff that just hired who's going be doing a lot of data, pulling data, is pulling that data and finding those stories to tell. And I am a storyteller myself, but I've really taken a step back. And I like to listen to people's stories and listen to people's concerns and then tell their story to the public and get that out there because I think it's important. And this is such a tight knit community.

It's just everybody's very supportive and is here to just really help each other out. And I would love to tell that story to people, especially when it comes to the veterans. I want to be able to get the information out about our program and about the programs out there and just really try to help out as best as I can.

Nice meeting with you.

We'd love to invite you to one of our events if you want And come and join in and do photos and talk to any veterans that you

want to as well. Absolutely. Thank you.

That's it for the staff report. Where does Brad go? Brad got a little promotion too. He's now

She looks like a dominant. Yes. Is he still with the cafe?

He's the director of operations, triple a.

She's the triple a director. Okay. So wow. Thank you. Nice

meeting you. Thank you.

Bye. Yeah.

I'm going to mention. See you later.

You see, if you go back in time, he's the old original Carolyn True before Carolyn is now the the division director. So Oh, yes.

And I don't know

if you guys heard, but Carolyn is now

the division director. Division director. So we've had a lot of shifting going on. Yeah.

It sounds like a lot of good stuff's coming out of

this. Yeah. Yeah. We're we we work very closely closely together. I've worked with Carolyn probably and I myself in a different role for probably well over twenty years. So, yeah, it, you know, it helps when you're rooted in the community and those kinds of things. So, yeah, a lot of commitment. Great.

New business. First item here we have is Veterans Appreciation Day twenty twenty five.

Yes. So I had another meeting with Frederick News Post. I don't know if I update you guys last time. They've agreed to give us a $2,500 marketing grant. They're gonna start in March with the digital ads.

And then in April, the print and email ads, they're gonna run it weekly. I can't believe how much advertising we're gonna get for the the so every week, they're gonna start with, like, little two by threes and it'll increasingly get bigger and until I think we can have, like, a full page right before the actual event. Including they have, like, 40,000 people that they send out the email and the digital ads and things like that. So that's really exciting. And WFMD, of course, is gonna do their marketing grant for us again with their little radio spots.

And, you know, I think they they probably love to have somebody come and be interviewed, like, on four state focus or what's the other one? Brad and I got invited last year. It was news. Anyway yeah. And then I'm really, really excited with Katie being the communications person that we're gonna really be able to increase our reach.

And hopefully, like, I felt like that benefits workshop like, we had a workshop where people could sit down and it's like, what are all the benefits and pensions and stipends and, you know, it's like to do a lot more of that this year. So it not only is an event where we're really appreciating recognizing veterans, but, like, they're you know, we had the mobile the the VA came with their mobile units, and they were actually able to enroll people on-site. So really hoping that we can do a lot more this next this year next next year. This year. This year. Yeah.

We're at four twenty five. Yeah. So Great. I'm glad.

I guess it's not really new business. That was

more of an update. Yeah. Me to me. I didn't hear it

last Okay. There you go. But you guys did wanna vote on whether or not to have the meeting in July at the event or something. Do you remember? Yeah. Okay.

I I think it would make sense for us to after after the big to do and folks have maybe dwindled down towards the end of the day, we could have our back meeting as, like, open to the public, obviously, as it is here, but Close-up to them. You know, not not necessarily inhibit folks from seeing the other things that are out there.

Mhmm.

But maybe towards the end of the day, hold our back meeting.

And July is not a televised month?

Well, because last year, we didn't we took that as a summer break because of the event in July. So yeah. So we we weren't planning to have that this year, have a televised meeting this year. But, you know, we could change that.

No. No. No. I just because there's don't the televised ones have to be here?

That's what I'm saying. Right?

It's Yes.

I'm sorry. It's getting late. Yes. You're right. Unless you wouldn't But, I mean, you would have peep I mean, hopefully, like, public comment. Maybe we could get people to actually stand up and say something. Yeah. Think. It's hard to get folks to come out on a Wednesday night. Sure.

Yeah. The county

does have the capability of bringing the Mhmm. The cameras to

Oh, okay. Well, then

was just

to talk to some county

county executive's budget Okay. Forum in Mount Airy and and a big film setup. It's not being livestreamed or anything, but it's available

after the fact. Okay. And I did I did submit the formal request for the county executive, and she did tentatively accept. Although she's not a 100% sure what her family vacation plans are for the summer, but so Okay. Cool.

For us to change it, do we need to vote on that? Or do we just settle that bill? Oh, it's a different date. Right?

I don't know. Do you wanna take a vote on that?

I don't think we need a vote,

do we? I don't think we need a vote. Consensus and

Okay. Yeah. Let's so alright. Move on.

We'll move it to July. We'll move that we'll move it to the Veterans Appreciation Week.

See if they'll film it.

I mean Why not?

Not to sign them up.

Hoping they might film the event anyway.

Yeah. Oh, there

we go.

This me. There you go.

FCGTV. The millions of people watching.

I

sadly I added a item to your new business. I apologize. We Garth and I met as the executive committee to this council. Technically, we're we need to have a third on the committee.

They usually have the immediate past president. I'm not that anymore. Mean that that's not and and so you're able to pick somebody Right. For our bylaws. Mhmm.

That's why I sent you a that's why I sent

you message. And sent back that.

But you're so busy. I'm in McMahon. I like being surrounded by marines. That's the only way things get done.

Hey, marines will get some stuff done out.

I'm out for that.

I was in the helm of providence with a bunch of marines in Afghanistan.

They're they're they're scary. They bark and I just send them in the houses. Yeah. I don't know that we have to figure it out today. I know Okay. Garth and I are gonna continue to meet to try and

you want me to send out an email like to all the voting? Does it need to be a voting member?

I think it's That's Yeah. It does. I thought it was written in such a way that it could be the third is actually if the Right. If the prior chair is not available as an appointment by the chair.

Oh, okay. Okay.

I know we've got a lot of folks that are new to the council, I don't wanna just sign them up.

Mhmm. Okay.

Alright. So yeah.

We can do if you I don't know if we don't need to do nominations. You're just gonna select someone, but you wanna know who's interested.

I don't wanna just Yeah. I don't wanna just sign somebody up for something. You know?

Sounds good.

Any announcements anybody have?

I think he volunteered.

Yes. I haven't announced that.

So just

a little Are you?

That no. I did not Selectively tuning that out. So

about a year ago, several of us participated in a crisis service mapping project. So this was led by the Frederick County Health Department's Behavioral Health Services Division. We partnered with SAMHSA and Maryland's commitment to veterans. And the project was to map out what do we have in Frederick that serve veterans in terms of behavioral health when they're in crisis, Where are the gaps? Where do we need help?

And one of the things that we identified through that project was that our treatment providers in Frederick lack cultural competence when it comes to military families and veterans. And so I'm happy to announce to you that on Monday of this week, we reached out to Maryland Commitment to Veterans and we partnered with PsychArmor and we provided a virtual training for an hour and a half in military cultural competency. And we had 83 people from Frederick County log on and take the training.

So that

was a

really good

win. And I listened to the training and it was excellent. The main speaker was phenomenal and really helpful in terms of helping helpers know how to help veterans and their families. I just wanted to kind of close the loop there because several folks at this table donated their time to that project, and and so something something concrete came from it. So that's a win.

Fantastic. It sent chills up. That's that is a win. Mhmm. Yeah.

Joy, all county employees should have to take that training.

Sir.

What are

you doing? I talked about it the last meeting, and I'll just keep giving you updates. So last night, we did workshop the bill to amend the disabled veterans property tax credit. Basically, happened is in the last legislative session in Annapolis, they had closed what we'll just call it a loophole because you have a 100% exemption from property taxes for veterans who are 100% disabled. However, it's for a permanent disability.

A 100% non permanent disability were are excluded from the property tax exemption in state code, but also not included in the disabled the property tax credit for less than a 100% disability that we implement at the local level. So they're kinda left out. So they closed that loophole at the state level and now we get to implement it and close it at the local level, which we're doing. Cool. And basically, it's redefined the eligible veteran to include not just permanently disabled, at least 50%, but also the nonpermanent at a 100%.

Okay? So we just workshopped that last night. It will come to it'll we'll have a first reading, a public hearing, and then we'll a final decision on it in the next month and a half or so. It's not gonna be a problem. It's gonna go through. There will never there will not be one nay vote on it. Just giving you an update. So that's the one. And then in two weeks, we're going to workshop the VAC membership bill. Also don't see any issues with it at all.

We'll we'll see about the are gonna talk about fact that the body did want to keep the residency and registered voter requirement in there. For the background of anybody who needs it, the reason we're having these discussions is it used to be a requirement for all Frederick County boards and commissions that members be residents and registered voters. That was done by resolution years ago and the council majority elected to remove that requirement as as a blanket requirement for all boards and commissions. And so in return, you look at some of the individual boards and commissions, know, that requirement, that issue has been revisited, decisions are being made. I took it to the boards and commissions I'm on and, you know, now I'm carrying forward in a little bit of a delayed fashion.

But we're gonna get it done. So so we'll see how that discussion is. I really don't think it's gonna be an issue. I don't think it's gonna be any kind of a problem. But if there does if it if the workshop airs any, you know well, I've got a few maybe reluctant members. I'll let you guys know and, you know, tell you the importance of showing up the public hearing

for it. Thanks, dude. Understood.

Any other announcements?

Do want you to talk about strategic plan?

Oh, sure. Yes, please bring that up. Just So

during the executive meeting that we had, two of us, I feel like we're plotting to take over the world, talked about developing a strategic plan for the VAC. I know when you start first started up, you talked about doing a strategic plan, but I don't know that that ever happened. So I I remember because

it was announced. We never we came up with with initiatives per year, but the overall Never. Our five year plan never materialized.

Okay. Okay. That's kinda where we're where we're leaning is reinvigorating that that whole strategic plan for the VAC. So I don't know if anybody would be interested in it or if it would be worthwhile. I think there's a lot of priorities that we could highlight and work towards for goals.

We did goals. We did Yes. We had that, but not a strategic plan. We came up with what we wanted to work on for the year or two years, whatever it was. Yeah.

Right. Oh,

yeah. The three priorities.

Alright. She's got a strategic in the hallway. Oh, okay.

It's on the whiteboard.

I I don't know where it is. I think it's in here. Sorry.

Both doors work.

No. It's well, it's locked. Sorry.

I can give you an outline. Sure.

Is it on website?

Uh-huh. Raise visibility of veteran issues, identify opportunities for programs and policies that enhance access to benefits, seek partnerships and collaboration so no veteran faces a wrong door when seeking services.

You're good.

Okay. Those are good goals. Are they measurable?

That's a dog's old pocket.

Well, it sounds like you're forming a subcommittee, exploratory steering committee too.

Within the executive committee.

I do I'm fine. I did volunteer to lead it. So you don't know. Emergency management is my skill. Strategic planning is part of it. So that's where I kinda lean towards. I mean, not in the Marine Corps. That wasn't my skill. Intel was my skill. But if anybody was interested in in assisting with it, though I didn't wanna totally bogart it. But

Alright.

Okay. Well, we're gonna build a time machine and meet back again

Last two

years ago. That one.

Right. Executive

one for time.

It's not even the right month. Okay. The next meeting is February 19. It will be a televised meeting here at Winchester Hall.

Great. Awesome. Alright.

Let's copy paste

it. Do I I

was trying to mute. I

thought you

were pointing to my adjourned. Some

move. Second?

Second. Alright. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Moved and adjourned. Thank you.