Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Revving up with the Vets for Vets Corvette Show: A Journey of Cars, Community, and Support for Veterans
Get ready to shift your gears! The Vets for Vets Corvette Show will take you on a ride like no other. With our fantastic Director of Operations and Event Coordinator, Diane Polk, and Diane Lunsford, we've lined up over 200 stunning Corvettes, with a few celebrity guests adding more horsepower to the show. We're also talking about some serious matters with Ryan from the Department of Veteran's Affairs PTS Counseling program. You'll also meet Deborah Gibson, an extraordinary volunteer from Zanesville, Ohio, and Alan, the proud owner of a 2023 C8 Z51 Corvette.
Look out for Tommy Milner from Corvette Racing. He'll share some heartwarming tales from the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run and how it's been a haven for veterans and their families. Hear about the indomitable spirit of Corvette fans and Tommy's unique experiences at events for military families and children with disabilities. Adding to this community spirit, Walt, the incredible Lead from The Home Depot Team, shares their astonishing volunteer efforts at the show and news regarding their grant for a new barn at the Warrior Retreat. To wrap up this excitement, we have comments from our Founders and Executive Director Sarah Ford. So gear up, fasten your seat belts, and let's take this ride together!
We're here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run and it's two days to go before Vettes for Vets kicks off on Saturday morning. I'm with Diane and Diane, to tell them apart, One is Dianne Polk, and the other is Diane Lunsford. Dianne Polk is the Director of Operations. And how do you think it's going?
Speaker 2:I think it's going fantastic. The organization that's going on here is incredible. The number of volunteers are just absolutely outstanding. Couldn't do it without them. It's going to be a great event.
Speaker 1:Excellent, and Diane Lunsford she's our event coordinator. T-minus two days and counting. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I am so excited. This year we already have over 120 vehicles registered for exhibition. We have some great celebs on site in terms of in racing circles, so come on out, have a great time. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, you've got a recap here of what's going to happen, so we'll give you some more updates between now and Saturday, and then we'll be out and about on Saturday to get some reaction from the folks that are bringing their cars in for the contest and some of the public that's coming to see the cars and the retreat. We'll see you then. Okay, we've got one more day before Vets for Vets show. I'm here with Diane Lunsford, our event coordinator, and just give us a quick update on how things are shaping up.
Speaker 3:Things are shaping up beautifully Again. We've had so many volunteers here that have been tireless in their contribution, in their efforts, so we're very grateful for that. Everything is tracking. We have 145 cars registered so far. We've exceeded our fundraising efforts already for last year and I had a little conversation with the good Lord above, and we're going to have great weather for the event tomorrow, so come out and have a great time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it looks good. We're going to go for tomorrow and I can't wait to get some more interviews about how the show goes.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Larry.
Speaker 1:Okay, it is the day of the Corvette show and right now I'm here with Ryan from the Vet Center. And Ryan, tell us a little bit about what you're going to be doing today here at the.
Speaker 4:Corvette show. Thank you, chef. So I work for a Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD Counseling Program called the Vet Center. It is a national counseling program that does individual couples, family and group therapy. I work out of a DC facility but they're all over. There's 300 vet centers in the US and they do telehealth. So today I'm just out here to support the event, support veterans, provide VA resources if anyone needs them, and just participate in this awesome event.
Speaker 1:Great. Well, we're glad you're here. You're going to see a lot of veterans and hopefully we can get them some of the resources that they need. So that's great. Thanks for coming out. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Chef. Okay, I'm back here at the Vets for Vet show and we have somebody who's so important. She drives the golf cart around and gives everybody rides.
Speaker 2:Hello, my name is Deborah Gibson and I'm actually from Zanesville, Ohio, and we come every year to this event to volunteer. It's such a wonderful community of people and what they're doing for the Vets is absolutely remarkable.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we're glad you came. Thank you very much. We'll talk to everybody later. So right now I'm with one of the Corvette owners has his car on display Alan. And Alan, is this your first time here at Vets for Vet it is what?
Speaker 5:do you think it's a great turnout in this beautiful place? Yeah, so you've never been to the retreat before I've not Okay.
Speaker 1:So I want to make sure that you take some time to tour the houses to see what the what the Warriors experience when they come to stay for that five days stay that they get while they're in treatment.
Speaker 5:So tell us about your car 2023 C8 Z51. Okay, white in color. Wow, how often do you wash it? Well, I usually just power wash it. Try to quick, I try to daily drive it as much as I can. I already put 11,000 miles on it. Oh, wow, yeah, okay, it's a 23. But yeah, I detailed it really good yesterday, just to get ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Yeah, because there's a lot of shiny cars here.
Speaker 5:Oh, they all look beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. Well, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Thank you, appreciate it. Bye, so I'm back out in the field with all the cars and I'm here with Ron from the Cuiac Creek Creek Corvette club, which is out of Stafford, and they've brought how many cars? We have five cars here today. Five cars, okay. And Ron, tell me about your car. I see the plate says you're a Vietnam veteran.
Speaker 6:Awesome, this is a 2014 Stingray and bought it new. It's got 26,000 miles on it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you don't drive it that much. No, okay, sort of a hanger queen, that's fine, but you brought it today and that's awesome. Is this your first time at the show? No, we come last year. Oh, you did. Okay, did you get a chance to tour the house last year? I did not. Okay, well, I would do it this year. Yeah, especially when the heat index reaches about 102. Right, that's a nice time to go in and tour the air conditioning houses.
Speaker 1:So what are you building new down there? We are building a million dollar grand lodge. Okay, that's going to be six bedrooms and it's going to have 2000 square feet of open activity room and then a large patio Like well, it's more like a multimedia multi-purpose room. In the back we're going to do training for groups and a lot of off programs for veterans in that house and what you see there, which is pretty amazing, that was all done yesterday. Really, we have a crack builder and his team was out here and one of the things we made clear to the builder was hey, when we have warriors staying in the house and you've got nail guns going off at seven o'clock in the morning, not good, not good. It's going to impact the quality of their stay because they have PTSD. So they have agreed to hustle and try to get it up in less than a month, and so it's going to be a beautiful. Next year when you come, it'll be done, it'll be beautiful and you'll be able to tour that as well.
Speaker 1:How many acres you have? We have 37 acres here. Is it donated? No, no, we purchased it for 875,000. There was just the original house here, the laying house, and then in 2019, with a grant from Penn Fed, we built the second house Okay, that was a grant there and then we received a $500,000 grant from Penn Fed to build the new grand lodge and we matched that, and now we're just fundraising to buy furniture and things for them, some of the life's members of VFW.
Speaker 6:What do you get from them?
Speaker 1:We get a lot from the VFW. In fact I have on my podcast. I just interviewed Tom Levitt, who's from the post over in Dale City. He's also on the National.
Speaker 9:Legislative.
Speaker 1:Committee.
Speaker 8:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, tom, about legislative issues, okay, and our push to get today's veterans to join the legacy VSOs. They're not right because they don't think it's for them. And the whole idea is, even if you never set foot in the post, you want to pay your dues, because what the VFW and the American Legion do for veteran benefits when they testify before Congress, it's so important for today's veterans. You have to have a voice. You do have to have a voice and that's the voice for veterans. So well, listen, thank you for coming. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 6:And enjoy the show. I look forward to your great heart, Tom.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm with the team lead for the event, Chuck Birch and Chuck. How many cars do we have so far? Do you know?
Speaker 11:I think roughly 150. 150. And they're still coming in. Oh, yes, right, we won't even open a couple hours, yeah.
Speaker 1:The attendance looks like it's just as good as last year. It's going to be better, I believe that is just great. We've been blessed with good weather. Yes, we are. This is amazing.
Speaker 11:The band will start up here pretty soon. I think they start playing at 11. 11? Ok.
Speaker 1:And then we have the Knights of Columbus here which are cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for everybody. So that'll get going here shortly.
Speaker 11:We had breakfast burritos donated by Anita's yeah Coffee, by Starbucks, our major sponsors, nice. Here we have one of the dealers yes, I like it Mike Furman. The latter part of this month he'll have sold his 6,000th Corvette. Oh wow, over here we have Mike Furman's Z06 2023, alongside of it, a 53 Corvette. That was the first Corvette built in 1953. And in fact, it was serial number 54. Wow, so it's the 54th Corvette ever made.
Speaker 1:Wow, and it's next to the latest model Yep.
Speaker 11:So you can appreciate the innovation from what it was to what it is now.
Speaker 1:Well, just the paint job alone. That is radically different. Wow, well, that's great. Thank you for taking time to talk to us. Ok, I'm back. It's Corvette Show Day and I'm here with Bob Wyman who's with the American Legion posts 1799 in Haymarket. You guys have a tent set up. Can you tell us what you're doing here today?
Speaker 12:Oh great. Well, welcome to post 1799, american Legion. We are the Haymarket Post and we love to support our fellow vets every way we can, and of course this is a wonderful opportunity here to see vets for vets, and we've got plenty of American veterans here of all kinds and types, and it makes us proud and we're happy to welcome them to our little booth here. Yes, tell them a little bit about the American Legion and we all have a good time here too.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, and there's plenty to eat next door with the Knights of Columbus Cook and Hot Dogs and Hamburgers. And hopefully we'll get some younger veterans to sign up for the American Legion, whatever post is close to them. The main reason is, even if you never set foot in a post, you need to pay dues to support the voice of the American Legion, the VFW, because they are your voices on Capitol Hill that get you benefits and keep your benefits. So join a post near you.
Speaker 12:Absolutely. I like to push the phrase. Veterans help veterans and through our fellowship the women, veterans and men are all welcome in the post and you find that when you travel across the United States and, like me, if you visit other posts, it's always welcome home yeah.
Speaker 1:That's great. Well, thanks for talking to us and enjoy the show. Ok, right now I'm here with Dennis from the Knights of Columbus, and we are so thankful that they're here each year supporting us and doing all the grilling of the hot dogs and hamburgers that are available to anybody who attends the show. We don't charge, it's just on a donation basis. But, dennis, thank you for coming out and just tell us a little bit about what it takes to mount this for the Knights of Columbus.
Speaker 13:For the Knights of Columbus. We're really the assembly, the patriotic arm of the Knights of Columbus, and we enjoy doing this because it directly benefits veterans, especially here at the Warrior Retreat, where it's recovering veterans and their families, we get a chance to bond together again. So it's not a big project for us. We do this a lot, but this one is special because of the reason that we're here and, like Larry said, we donate all the food. We cook it, we serve it and all we ask for is a donation. Last year alone, at a much smaller event here, we raised $3,600. That went right to the Warrior Retreat Center and supported families coming up here for a week to enjoy the resort.
Speaker 1:Well, that is awesome. Thank you so much for everything that you guys do. How many volunteers did you bring out today to do?
Speaker 13:There'll be 15 to 20 of us by the time. It'll be hot, so we'll be swapping people out. Yeah, good, good.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you so much. Ok, I'm here with Chef Ken, who's the executive event chef here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run. He also has his spices and seasonings for sale here from KB Culinary as your company. They can find them on Facebook or come out to the show and see them here. Tell us what you got today.
Speaker 14:Well, I've got a variety of 30 plus different kinds of spice blends. A lot of the items that are in them I actually go so far as slicing down and dehydrating and grinding myself to create as fresh a product as I can possibly provide. I also have beef jerky, bacon jerky, some Moscato spice pickles yeah, and those are actually brined with Moscato champagne that I boil off to get the alcohol content out of and then let them brine for a couple days. And the most popular item that I have is also my cheese. So I also have cheesecakes by the slice that I'm selling with an optional, optional blueberry topping.
Speaker 1:Whoo, okay. Well, it all is great. I I use your spices all the time, your seasoning it's usually a race between me and Brenda who's using it the most, but it's awesome. So thank you and enjoy the show. Thank you, we will all right. I'm here with Wendy, who has decorated the front of the Lang House with a million American flags, some nice bunting on the on the stairs and Basically, you just really made the place look beautiful. Thank you, tell us how many volunteers were involved. What did y'all do?
Speaker 3:There was probably a good 10 people and we went around and just placed the flags and the ribbons and just tried to make everything look very matching, but not overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, great, and how long do you think it'll take to put it all?
Speaker 3:Yes, longer than it took to put it out, I'm sure always yeah, and and, and.
Speaker 1:That'll be in what? 100 and 203 degree heat. Yeah, sure It'll be fun, it'll be lots of fun. Well, thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome, all right, so I'm here with members of Radio NV, which is gonna provide us with the music today which you guys, how many years have you been doing this?
Speaker 6:Next year will be 10 years, 10 years.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we really appreciate it. The music is always great and I don't know what we have an awning here, but they put this tent up on the deck. This is a new one. I'm not sure what's going on more shade, the better.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, beautiful day, yeah, and this will capture all the heat, so it should get up to around 117 with the heat index under here. So fans going. Okay, good, you got fans. Hopefully some more fans will show up. All right, well, listen, thank you so much for for being here and doing this for us. We really appreciate it, definitely.
Speaker 10:Thank you.
Speaker 1:We're back with Tommy Milner, who's here from Corvette Racing, here today at the Corvette show at the Warrior treat at Bull Run and I just really wanted to get your impression of what the show is like, compared to other Corvette shows and that kind of thing. But welcome, and what do you think about today's show?
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a. It's an amazing event. I think the location for where we are here Makes it that much more special. The things that I got, a full tour of the whole facility here, and you know the amount of passion and care and love that goes into what they do For veterans and for active duty Military members and for their families as well. It's very special and so to I've been to lots of Corvette events and things like that and oftentimes there are, you know, similar, let's say, a reason for those events.
Speaker 7:But this one, you know, for me is special. It's close to home for me. I live not far away from from the retreat here. I can just tell from the the little bit of time that I've spent here and you know the founders and board members and volunteers that I've spoken with so far of Been very caring and compassionate about what they're, what, what they can provide for some families here, which is quite special. So the Corvette enthusiasts and fans and car owners always come out in droves and they have again today. Yeah, which is, which is great, and I'm just happy to be be a small part of that so what's it like to be on the Corvette racing team?
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a dream job by any measure.
Speaker 7:It is. I'm very lucky to be a part of Corvette racing. I've been with the team now for 13 years. I've had the best races of my career, the best days of my life than with Corvette racing. It's all. It's a lot of the. It's the people that we, that we race with the crew. You know everybody from Chevrolet, from you know from the very top, from guys like Mark Royce, you know, all the way to the truck drivers. You know they, everybody, puts their heart and soul into in the Corvette racing, into being successful, into building fast race cars, safe race cars.
Speaker 7:But it is also some of the extra stuff that the team does and you know supporting. We've had military families that have been a part of race, race weekends. We've had, you know, kids with different disabilities and things like that, sure, as well. So you know the racing is our focus, of course, but you understand as well and realize that they're the race Events are fun, they're exciting, there's a lot happening and you know, I think for a lot of people that go to the races the fans are going to the races, you know, to experience what a small part of what we do is is pretty unique and pretty special and it's a, it's a vent for, you know, for some young kids it's their first time and it's stuff that sticks with them for a long time as well.
Speaker 7:So I love what I do. I'm very fortunate to be to say that I'm a race car driver every single day and, yeah, I've, like I said, I've had, I've had, the best days of my career and my life. You know, realistically, with this racing team and you know, today's a small part of what I've been able to do with with Corvette racing and Maybe not as exciting, but has just as much meaning and impact as as the racing. Yes, sir, well, listen.
Speaker 1:Thanks for taking time to talk with us today. I really appreciate coming out and your support. I mean it's really meant a lot, for I know, chuck and the whole team, that you were going to be able to be here with us this year. It was. It was a huge topic of conversation Just about every time we got together, but just having your support was really meaningful to us. So thank you very much and we appreciate this. Thank you. So I'm back with Walt from. He's a team manager, me team something, team Depot, team Depot at the Home Depot in Manassas, right, yes, and so he's out here with a huge crew of volunteers that are helping tear down and clean up everything. And what was your impression of the?
Speaker 8:show today. This is the first year we've been to your vets for vet car show and excited the amount of people that turn out, how polite all the car owners are and then obviously the organization willing to work as a self, how they just open up our doors and let us help out. We will be back every year.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's good news because we need to help. As you can see, it's a huge event. I also want to mention that you were the point person on getting us an amazing grant to put a brand new barn in the back to get rid of that ratty looking pole barn where we keep the mowers. Yes, because it probably wasn't going to last another winter. But I really tell everybody a little bit about that barn that's going to go in.
Speaker 8:So the Home Depot Foundation, we're committed to helping out our communities and we've already helped out over 55,000 veterans homes and we've invested $475 million in the veteran organizations. Our goal is to make that a half billion dollars by 2025. And the way we do that is by organizations like this. We'll help out organizations and we'll help a veteran at his house, but these organizations we can touch the most people. We make the biggest impact and especially with willing lawyers, the staff here is so gracious and you know what. They don't ask for anything unreasonable. They understand what we can do and they accept that. As far as that barn, that's a partnership we have with Tough Sheds so that they're going to come out and put it together and then our Team Depot volunteers, who are associates, that work there and they come out here on their own time. They don't get paid for this. They're going to actually paint it once it goes up, so it looks great, great.
Speaker 1:Wow, we're really excited about that and really thank you so much for bringing the team out. It's really a big help. I appreciate that. So thanks, Thank you. I'm back with Dave Riley. He's the team lead for all of the food with the Knights of Columbus that did the barbecuing today and served hot dogs and hamburgers too. How many do you think, Dave?
Speaker 10:We sold out of hot dogs and there was over 250, a little over 250 of those. We had a little over 500 of the hamburgers and we're going to almost finish all of those, so we could use additional hot dogs, that's for sure. And the pickles were loved, oh okay. So there were four jars and we need more of those for next year. Everything else went well and we won't we'll bring in the cheese cheese, yes at the beginning next year.
Speaker 1:That went well, we'll put that on the list, and how many volunteers did you have? What was it about? 15.
Speaker 10:Yes, it was about 15. 15, yes and everything, and some of them went over and were part of bringing the flags in. Yes, the color guard, that was good. But it was good family get together because husband's, wife's and son's everybody worked together.
Speaker 1:Oh that's great, well, listen, thank you so much. The Knights of Columbus have really been just a huge, huge supporter of ours doing this for us. When we have these events, we enjoy doing it. We really do. Well, we can't thank you enough, so take care. Thank you for having us All. Right, I'm with Christy from the Virginia Department of Veteran Services, so we're wrapping up the show today. Everybody's packing up. What did you think? This is your first show, and is this your first time here at the Warming Tree. So what? What did you?
Speaker 15:think I absolutely loved it. It was heartwarming, wonderful, the show was amazing and I got to meet a lot of veterans that I may be able to help, which makes my heart happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So do you have a number that veterans can call if they need to get a PAC Act claim in and a letter of intent? They need to get going on that as soon as possible. What's the best way for them to reach out to the Virginia Department of Veteran Services to get help with filing a claim?
Speaker 15:They can actually reach out to my office and I can put them in touch with the services or the nearest office to them. So my phone number is 540-551-8909 and they call me. I'm option one. It's Kristi Monahan and I can get you in the direction you need to go. Great, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much for coming Appreciate it. Thank you, larry. All right, we're back with our founders John and Shirley Dominic. We're wrapping up the Vets for Vets, annual car show number four. So what did you think?
Speaker 6:What a day. What a day was just awesome. It was overwhelming. We had such a crowd, such a nice spirit that it didn't rain. We got some really little hot weather, but beautiful and it was perfect.
Speaker 9:Shirley, you had fun. Yeah, I had a lot of fun. But I tell you what. Sarah taxed me this morning and she said you will be amazed. You know, that's the first time Sarah ever said you would be amazed. And when I pulled up there were Holly place, the park.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah.
Speaker 9:And people were kind of trotting all over each other, and what I could say is I really wasn't amazed. I was literally blown away. The amazement to me is to see the perspective that everyone has when it comes to our freedom and supporting our warriors. It's just unbelievable. You know, we have a community here that's far beyond support and we're so grateful for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did turn out, it was big.
Speaker 9:Beautiful, beautiful day.
Speaker 1:Beautiful day, big turnout. Did you get a chip? You guys judged some of the cars right, yeah, yeah. So you got a good look at the cars.
Speaker 6:You got a good look and I got some beauties out there. I always love to go for the ones that have put a lot of restoration hours into, especially you know the older ones. And that's one that I voted on for our Founders Award, but everything from 1953 all the way up to the present day, corvette.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that red 2023,. You would look good in that.
Speaker 6:Oh I would. I think I'd go pretty fast in that too I don't have any ideas, ok, we're good. I could take some turns with that.
Speaker 1:All right, well, listen, thanks for talking to me and have a safe trip home. Get some air conditioning.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I love it, See ya. Good job Larry.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to wrap this episode up at the Vets for Vets show, talking to our executive director, sarah Ford. And Sarah, what's your impression overall of what happened today?
Speaker 16:Well, larry, it was just an amazing day here at the Warrior Retreat. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We did not have rain as forecasted, but it truly was a show just to how much this community cares for our warriors. Whether it was the volunteers that came today, those that came to show their cars, the Corvettes, the classic cars, our sponsors, everyone just rallied together. It was an amazing scene to see everybody having fun on the retreat grounds and just really taking everything in. It was great to see, kind of sitting back and just looking at all this unfold. It was just a great day.
Speaker 1:Right and we have any idea the numbers of people or cars or anything like that.
Speaker 16:So I stopped counting. I stopped counting about 166 cars. I know we had over 200 cars today, so and that's not including actually our classic cars, so we had well over 200 exhibitors here on the grounds. Just a phenomenal day.
Speaker 1:All right, that's great. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us, and that's really going to be it. We're going to wrap it up for this episode and we'll be back next Monday with another episode. Thanks,
