Rescue Dogs, Rescuing Heroes: Inside K9s for Warriors

Hometown Jax is all about spotlighting Jacksonville’s incredible business owners, innovators, and leaders who are making a difference in the community. Hosted by Aaron Bacus and Jason Kindler, this podcast dives into the stories of resilience, entrepreneurship, and impact that define the local business scene. Whether you're looking for inspiration, business insights, or a deeper connection to the Jacksonville area, Hometown Jax brings you the conversations that matter.

In this episode, Aaron sits down with Daniel Bean, CEO of K9s for Warriors, an organization dedicated to rescuing dogs and pairing them with veterans suffering from PTSD. Daniel shares the inspiring journey of how K9s for Warriors started, the life-changing impact of service dogs on veterans, and the organization's efforts to expand its reach nationwide. From heartwarming success stories to the science behind why service dogs are so effective, this episode sheds light on a mission that is saving lives—both human and canine. Don’t miss this powerful conversation!

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;20;19
Unknown
All right. Daniel, good to meet you. Aaron. Back as Daniel. Being CEO of canine for Warriors.

00;00;20;19 - 00;00;36;18
Unknown
And, man, I am so excited. You probably were like, who is this weird guy texting me out of the blue? Then I had to namedrop a little bit, and then, fortunate to get you in here really quick. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for what you do for the community. Shira Cavanaugh was very, complimentary of you.

00;00;36;23 - 00;01;00;06
Unknown
Yes. So, appreciate it. Well, she says nice things about everybody, so I don't know if that really qualifies me, but I want. I'm so excited about this because I know our audience loves dogs. We love veterans. What a combination. I want to talk a little bit about your history first and kind of what you did in the military, and then really get into the mean of the canine for warriors and all the great stuff they're doing.

00;01;00;11 - 00;01;20;20
Unknown
So Vanderbilt undergrad and University of San Diego Law school. That sounds very impressive. Well, I was very lucky. I'm very lucky to get into Vanderbilt and, had a navy Red sea scholarship, so I knew, okay, I knew I had a job so I didn't have to study too much. And, had a great time at Vanderbilt and recommend everyone go to Vanderbilt.

00;01;20;26 - 00;01;39;18
Unknown
We are a football school now that we beat Alabama. You are a football school. There's no doubt about that. You're on the map now. Did did you did you have military in your family or what to drove you in the ROTC? My dad was in the Coast Guard. Oh, wow. And then, my sister, got a Roxy scholarship to Virginia.

00;01;39;20 - 00;01;54;05
Unknown
Okay. And I couldn't let my sister get a full ride without me doing that, for sure. I got into West Point, and my dad was very upset that I wasn't going to go to West Point. So he said, you've got to get a scholarship. Otherwise I'm not going to pay for you. Yes. And so I was lucky to get a Roxy scholarship.

00;01;54;05 - 00;02;07;18
Unknown
And, Vanderbilt was gracious enough to take me. I don't think they knew what they were getting. So I was very lucky, I think I tell my kids I was on academic probation six out of the eight semesters. Okay. First semester, they didn't know who I was. Last semester, I was like, just get the hell out of here.

00;02;07;19 - 00;02;26;07
Unknown
Well, you couldn't make it every semester being on scholarship. So when you say rosé, you mean ROTC, right? Which is, still very prevalent today and all in the high schools for the military. Right. A great program. And, it's sort of a counter to the academy where, I have a stepdaughter that went to the Air Force Academy.

00;02;26;07 - 00;02;43;24
Unknown
She's a captain in the Space Force and at the Academy, if that's the type of format for you, it is 24 over seven and everything's taken care of. I my father, I lost my mother when I was three, and my father had six, so he would send us off to as soon as my brother went off to college at Virginia.

00;02;43;24 - 00;03;01;29
Unknown
I was on the bus every weekend to Charlottesville. Okay. At the fraternity house, learning how to tap kegs. Okay. Okay. Good. They don't have kegs at, West Point, so, but Vanderbilt did, and so I was very happy to go there. And, it was I think that Roxy training is much better than the academy. Yes, yes, yes.

00;03;02;02 - 00;03;19;13
Unknown
So I served on two warships. So neat. So, Navy. What made you decide? Navy? President Kennedy is an idol of mine. Okay. He was a naval officer, and there you go. And I didn't want to sleep on the sand in a tent. Right, right, right. You needed a little bit more combinations, I get that.

00;03;19;19 - 00;03;36;03
Unknown
So, Navy captain for 25 years. So tell us a little bit about where you went. The you were saying a kind of ships. Super interested about that. Well, I spent thank you. I spent four years on two ships 90% of the time underway. I think I had three commanding officers that weren't very happy in their marriages. Yeah. So we were underway all the time.

00;03;36;03 - 00;03;49;29
Unknown
And that's one of the ways. What kind of ships? Two frigates. Okay. And it's one of the ways you get promoted to admiral. So we went to the Mediterranean out of Mayport. We went to the Mediterranean, Nova Scotia and the Caribbean and then West Coast. My dad told me I needed to see that side of the country.

00;03;49;29 - 00;04;09;19
Unknown
I told him he was wrong, but it turns out he was right. And so San Diego for two years went to, Panama Canal, Russia, and then off to the Persian Gulf. Oh, what what, kind of duties as a frigate? What is a frigate? A free is just like a, carrier, escort ship. And, we call it a missile sponge.

00;04;09;19 - 00;04;28;04
Unknown
So, you want to protect the carrier as much as you can, and, that's your job, and we're a little more nimble than the carrier, and we can go off a little bit quicker. The carrier's got about 105 aircraft, and that's the really the mothership. And you need to do everything you can to protect it. But the Persian Gulf tour was just us and another destroyer, and we were just out there.

00;04;28;12 - 00;04;45;17
Unknown
And it really is an indication of how bad our, our intelligence was because we were there right before the, Saddam invaded Kuwait and we were told the whole time that Iraq was our friend. So that was indicative of our how bad our Intel was for that. Unfortunately, we left right before he did that. And so we didn't have to go back.

00;04;45;17 - 00;05;13;15
Unknown
And then, I spent a year as an instructor at the Surface Warfare Officer School where you're teaching junior officers. And then I got selected for the law education program. So each branch of the military takes out 4 or 5 warfare, officers a year, and they put them into law school so that like, for example, if a commanding officer of a warship or to then have a collision or do something wrong and getting court martialed, he can have, an officer like myself who's actually been at sea warfare, qualified to defend him.

00;05;13;21 - 00;05;33;03
Unknown
It really worked. Well, when you were on these ships, were you in charge of the whole ship? No, no. Oh, no. No. So my first ship, I was a communications officer. So each ship is broken into departments and then you have divisions. And so it's really a tiny little city. You have your engineering department, your operations, your weapons and stuff like that, and you spent eight hours a day on watch.

00;05;33;03 - 00;05;51;00
Unknown
And that's really your main function as an officer is you're learning how to drive the warship, or you're learning how to run the engineering plant. And then, we, you know, we want you to know how to do everything on the worship, how to fire the weapons and all those good stuff. So I was communications officer on the first ship, and then I got to be the navigator on the second one out of San Diego.

00;05;51;00 - 00;06;06;18
Unknown
And that was a lot of fun. Yeah, I imagine the navigator. That's a pretty important job. Yeah. I remind my wife all the time, I can navigate to the Persian Gulf, so don't give me direct. Exactly. You right. You've done it for sure. So you've just taken you sit there. So where did, where did the law, you know, you mentioned that.

00;06;06;18 - 00;06;23;13
Unknown
Where did that come in? So I drove too many warships into too many piers. And the Navy figured out it would be cheaper to send me to law school rather than for a new sonar dome. But, no, I, I knew I didn't want to have command at sea, and, you know, then I, I'd been a editor of the school paper at Vanderbilt and emphasis on sports writing.

00;06;23;15 - 00;06;40;07
Unknown
And so I had a mentor, at the San Diego Union-Tribune. And I asked him, should I go to law school or be a sportswriter? And he's my buddy at the time and close friend is Buster Olney. Okay. We'll see him on ESPN on Sunday night. He and I were roommates at Vanderbilt. And he looked at Buster and he said, you can be the sportswriter.

00;06;40;07 - 00;06;58;26
Unknown
You need to go to law school. Right? So off I went. So obviously they picked the right one. So you went in 25 years as a Navy AD in 2002, you went into private practice. I'm assuming you were in the reserves during that time. Yeah. So 98, I left active duty and then, and then I worked in private practice until,

00;06;59;07 - 00;07;16;19
Unknown
Well, I'm still in private practice, but I left active. I left the reserves in 2012 after 25 years. Wow. So. And actually, on Thursday I turned 60. And so then I started to get my retirement pay and Tricare, okay, with the Navy correctly. We'll see how that goes. But, well, we appreciate your service. That's pretty amazing.

00;07;17;10 - 00;07;40;00
Unknown
So let's jump into the canines. I mean, what a great history. Obviously makes you very, uniquely qualified to run the canine for warriors. What what sparked when was your initial. Hey, I'd like to get involved, or I got involved. Sherry saw me, and, I had been involved in a lot of different veterans activities. I think, it's important that I'm a trial lawyer.

00;07;40;13 - 00;07;59;14
Unknown
I have a lot of access, and I can solve a lot of people's problems without going to law school, right? Or going into the courthouse. And so I felt an obligation to do that. And so I met Sherry, and Sherry knew that I could help her from a legal perspective. Sherry, you know, I love to tell people that Sherry started canines for Warriors at the age of 65.

00;07;59;16 - 00;08;20;16
Unknown
And so, Sherry Duvall, who was the founder. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. And so and her son came back from Iraq and he had post-traumatic stress disorder. She didn't know it, but she knew that the only thing that Brett was, normal around was the dog. And so with that was her impetus to provide more dogs to more warriors with post-traumatic stress disorder.

00;08;20;16 - 00;08;41;20
Unknown
It was so interesting because I read that on the website. I wasn't aware of that. Obviously he's the brother of David Duvall, right? That was step brother. Okay. Step brother. Okay. Because he always wonder how David's involved in that. So, yeah, David was on our board and, his father, Bob. Okay. They're the only two father son, to ever win a golf tournament on the same day.

00;08;41;20 - 00;09;04;12
Unknown
Remember that? And Bob is a tremendous golfer, and, David obviously is was number one in the world, but they were on the board that Sherry started, you know, Wounded Warrior Project, started canines for warriors with an $80,000 gift. Admiral Delaney was on the Wounded Warrior project board, was on the canine sport, and, was able to get that seed money for Sharon.

00;09;04;12 - 00;09;26;27
Unknown
So, so wounded warriors started out canine for warriors. No wounded warrior project donated the donated the money to get started. So I know you were mentioning Brad Sherry son a little bit and sorry, I know you were talking about that, but tell me how the light bulb came off. Came on for Sherry on how she figured out because I read on the website she was going to all these doctors to help her son, help her son.

00;09;27;02 - 00;09;55;27
Unknown
And at some point she realized, like they can't do anything. Well, I think we don't. There's a lot we don't know, about PTSD more than we know. Right? So there's a lot to be learned. And we're punching through that every day. We're getting closer and closer. I mean, one of the things that we're trying to get to the point now where we're going to brain scan, scan the brains of our warriors before they get to us, and then we'll scan them 6 to 12 months after they leave us and see what effect on the brain the dog is having.

00;09;55;29 - 00;10;15;21
Unknown
You know, what is the activation point? You know, I've often thought about the fact that you know, warrior comes back, typically has a spouse, typically has dependents. They certainly have a family. Right. And so none of that works for them. And so why is it a dog? Right. And so, you know, what we say is it's the unconditional love of the dog.

00;10;16;10 - 00;10;35;17
Unknown
We say that the dog isn't judgmental. There's no communication, verbal communication, no questioning. You know, for a lot of the dependents, it's, an incredibly difficult task to have your loved one come home and then not not want to do anything with you want to draw away from you, be, you know, very, introverted.

00;10;35;29 - 00;10;58;01
Unknown
And after a while, I can I can very much understand and sympathize that I just can't do anything with this person. And, you know, you've given up on them, and I understand all that. I mean, I've worked very closely with nine warriors, not all of whom have service dogs, but I've worked been their big brother, been taking them to appointments, gone to the VA, saved them from killing themselves, slept on their couch.

00;10;58;22 - 00;11;22;25
Unknown
And each of them is slightly different, but they they can be physical. We have a warrior that has restraining orders against them, and aggressive. And it's just, it's a terrible. As one of our warriors will describe PTSD. It's evil. And you don't know. And, you know, we're very lucky that it's the dog, the unconditional love of the dog that actually can break through so many times.

00;11;22;27 - 00;11;42;15
Unknown
Well, tell me exactly what is PTSD. I mean, you hear that terminology all the time, and I think I know. Could you explain? Well, if you do know, you can tell me. But, as I understand, post-traumatic stress disorder, it's basically a rise in your anxiety levels, which causes you to act, unreasonably and abnormally from what you want to be.

00;11;42;15 - 00;12;03;01
Unknown
It's also probably a cause of depression. So many other things that lead that post-traumatic stress disorder either emphasizes or, exacerbates in the, in the human that already exists. So most of them, I mean, when I look back and I compare them all, there's not they're not none are identical to each other. They all have different mannerisms and things of that nature.

00;12;03;01 - 00;12;25;14
Unknown
A couple of things that are commonality to it is the reclusiveness, the, withdrawing from society, failure to integrate. It was in my mind, it's kind of like I'm in a war zone and now I'm not like, I'm heightened over here with all of the stresses and the fears here. And then I try to assimilate back into normal life is that that's some of it.

00;12;25;14 - 00;12;51;14
Unknown
But, you know, for our females that we see. So, the 1100 pairings that we've done in 14 years, it canines, 1100 pairings you put. And that's amazing. We've saved a thousand dogs. But of the 1,125% are female. Interesting. 90% were raped on active duty by fellow members. Okay. So their post-traumatic stress disorder is not an IED. It's not gunfire.

00;12;51;14 - 00;13;13;16
Unknown
It's not a, you know, Humvee that blows up. It's the trauma of being raped. And so, a couple of different things. They're. One is what we're what? I'm really want to do is understand PTSD so that we can extrapolate it over to various other industries. I think for the sexual assault, female and some males are, but it's by vast majority is female.

00;13;14;03 - 00;13;35;11
Unknown
We were just at a conference two weeks ago in Wisconsin. Their sole focus is women on active duty that were raped. Right? Survivors of that. We brought two of our warriors, our female warriors. And, and they were fantastic with their service dogs. We signed up for women at that, that conference. But I, you know, I'm interested to see if a female PTSD is slightly different than a male's PTSD.

00;13;35;14 - 00;13;56;24
Unknown
I really am want that brain scan, and I want to be able to compare brain scans among a variety of warriors, break up female breakup male, and really begin to, to better understand exactly what it is that's going on in the brain, and then seeing how the service dog, more than any other drug and more than any other, aid, it's the service dog that works.

00;13;56;24 - 00;14;16;11
Unknown
And so working to proliferate, the spread of service dogs. Really, when I go through the airport, every time I go through the airport, I see more and more service dogs. That makes me very happy. Because I'm seeing people that are being helped by the service dog. And not just warriors, but folks, you know, first responders.

00;14;16;11 - 00;14;37;05
Unknown
Number one killer, first responder suicide. We do, for our dogs that don't make it in our program. So one out of every two we we we call those dogs, we, we put into various, police or fire, FBI, Border patrol, we try to get those dogs out, and we do that all around the country. The rest we adopt out.

00;14;37;05 - 00;14;58;19
Unknown
But the first responders, very much need the service dogs and the sexual assault victims as well. Wow. And the sexual assault victims. It really adds the second component, which is the physical safety. Not only is the dog working to keep your anxiety levels low, right. And I think they can pick it up in your breath. They can pick it up in your mannerisms.

00;14;59;14 - 00;15;18;23
Unknown
A lot of times, you know, when I represented a couple warriors in depositions or a courtroom, the dog will activate before I ever notice it. Sometimes before the warrior notices. It's really incredible. Yep. The the special gift dogs that are to the human human race. But I want to go back to, Brett a little bit.

00;15;18;24 - 00;15;42;10
Unknown
That was Sherry, son. Like, were you and were you did you know Sherry and Brett all during this time? And you, did you see the like, oh my gosh, the dog is doing this and helping him. No, I did not. I was working with Sherry to secure the legal aspects of the land. The construction contracts. The employment contracts.

00;15;42;26 - 00;16;02;28
Unknown
I helped her hire, you know, Rory Diamond as the, CEO for eight years. And then I started on the board in approximately 2014. I never really saw. I mean, I've known Brett a long time. I knew that Brett always had. And Brett was, more stabilized when I started really working more with canines in that he, he always had his service dog.

00;16;03;01 - 00;16;21;12
Unknown
We have ten employees at canines that have a service dog. In addition to, obviously the Warriors, stuff like that. But you I can see, the impact of the service dog. So when you come in on a Sunday, you're going to get your dog on a Tuesday. And so I talked to them warriors on Monday. Right.

00;16;21;14 - 00;16;37;00
Unknown
And I tell them, you know, very proud of them for coming out of their shell being here. But I also tell them that you're taking a spot. Okay. And I, And I know you're uncomfortable, but I need you really to fight through and do the very best you can. Because if you don't sync with your dog.

00;16;37;02 - 00;16;56;05
Unknown
I have a serve. We have another service dog waiting for you in the kennel. I don't have someone down the street for you. Right. So you lose a spot? We lose a spot and there's somebody that's going to be set back. And so, but the the, transformation of the vast majority of those folks, when I talk to them on Monday, they do not make eye contact with me.

00;16;56;05 - 00;17;25;24
Unknown
Their head is down. They don't communicate very well. They don't want to be there. You can tell they're in a group now with eight other people and they're not comfortable, right? They're out and down in, society. And, at the end of it, they're talking to each other. They're, you know, high fiving each other, you know, 19 days later, the best example is the one gentleman I remember distinctly when he, the day before he graduated, he was in the parking lot dancing with his dog.

00;17;25;24 - 00;17;44;14
Unknown
Wow. Okay. Now, he would never, ever have done that. You know, the first day, last Friday, as I told our crowd at the gala, Friday of the first week is the first time that they come out in front of a crowd. We have all of our employees gathered in a front porch and they come out and they present themselves and the dog.

00;17;44;15 - 00;18;03;26
Unknown
Right. And then then we take them to public access training for the very first time that that they're with us for, for a couple of those warriors, female warriors, in fact, they hadn't been out through them all in a decade. Wow. But they felt that they could do it with the dog. Well, you mentioned too, about your gala that you had last week was incredibly successful.

00;18;03;29 - 00;18;25;13
Unknown
Second highest, and I'm told it's the second highest, revenue generating, gala in North Florida history. That's awesome. Thank you. That's great. I want to talk about your location. So two locations in Ponte Vedra. That was your originating location right outside of Nocatee. Yeah, right. That's where it first started. That one's grown. I've seen the progress.

00;18;25;13 - 00;18;47;09
Unknown
And then you have one kind of underneath the freeway there, right over the property. The flyway? Yeah. Flyover. Excuse me. So we started, and I remember when the main building on the main campus was two by fours. And so that's our, clubhouse for all of our warriors as our gathering point. Now, we also have our warrior trainers isolated in there, and we have our warrior ops teams.

00;18;47;09 - 00;19;04;28
Unknown
Most people don't realize that when you apply and are accepted, that's when we start to watch you. That's when we start to talk to you and we start to study you. We start to study your family. We talk to your provider. We want to know what your triggers are. We want to know what the family really wished that you could do that you're not doing.

00;19;04;28 - 00;19;21;25
Unknown
Now, you know, for the vast majority of time I want, you know, my mom or my dad to go to soccer matches. I want my they want I want them to go to the beach. They're not doing any of that. Right. And so we try to pair them. So if it's the beach or water activity, we try to give them a dog that loves the water and that wants to go to the water.

00;19;21;25 - 00;19;40;15
Unknown
And the warrior feels as, oh, well, I've got to do what I gotta do. It's I was stalking you on Facebook today, and I saw you said a video of dog playtime. And there's a video of that one. Is that is that your place where they have a big no, no, no other? We have a pool and we have a fire hydrant in the pool, but it's, outside.

00;19;40;15 - 00;19;58;08
Unknown
But you know, that one that you're talking about. There's nothing funnier than a scene of a bunch of dogs sitting together and looking at each other. You just wonder what's going through their mind. Yeah, they're communicating. The dog, for sure, is very intelligent. I, you know, what's interesting now is that you said, well, on the website it said majority of rescue.

00;19;58;15 - 00;20;17;13
Unknown
So it my am I getting this right? It's not a particular like dogs in general are intelligent, right. Yeah. I mean they, very intuitive. Right. And so there are a lot smarter than we ever think they are. Right? And my dogs all manipulate me really well, have I have? My wife says they train me very well.

00;20;17;13 - 00;20;33;15
Unknown
And you have several. I have a that we've adopted for. Okay. We have three. Do you have an adoption problem? Do you keep more? Yeah, I would imagine my wife, when we have adoption events, I always like to go out to show support to my team that's working on the weekend. And my wife makes me take the motorcycle, so I can't.

00;20;33;16 - 00;20;54;10
Unknown
So you can't bring one back? Yeah, well, we have another location. A Pet Love canine center in San Antonio, Texas. Love. Yeah. Okay. Petco. So that's a sponsor. That's really great. Yeah. And then warrior, ranch and and Texas Hill Lotus, which is right next to San Antonio. So what we do is like right now we have class of ten in Jacksonville in Nocatee.

00;20;54;10 - 00;21;14;25
Unknown
And then we have a class of three in, San Antonio. Hello. This is what we call it. And it's very isolated ranch up in the hills of San Antonio. Very peaceful and serene. Now we can close people off in Nocatee as well. So you're there for 19 days, and you. It's Hotel California because you can't leave. And so same places.

00;21;14;25 - 00;21;32;18
Unknown
Piccolo facility in San Antonio provides us with an opportunity to take, the, rescue dogs and train them as well. And then we have the mega kennel as you mentioned, right on Phillips Highway. And what do you mean by Mega kid? Like, that's where it's going to be the world's largest mega. It's going to be the world's largest kennel when it's done.

00;21;32;18 - 00;21;57;26
Unknown
So right now we hold about, 90 dogs at the mega kennel, 90 dogs that you've identified as potentials. Right? Right. Both procured and, rescue. Then we merge them together. They have their own kennel, obviously. So the best way was explained to me and I really it's very helpful, is the dog comes to us, they go into quarantine for ten days to make sure they don't have anything that they can spread once they get through quarantine, then they go to elementary school.

00;21;57;28 - 00;22;12;27
Unknown
They they graduate from elementary school, they go to middle school, and then they go to high school. And if they graduate from high school, then we'll take them to college. And college is the finishing, polishing of the dog and then pairing it with the warrior. Not all the dogs get through. A lot of the dogs have a guarding problem.

00;22;12;27 - 00;22;27;29
Unknown
A lot of dogs will have a medical problem. None of the dogs that we have or euthanize, none of the dogs we have, we'll go back to the kennel. We either put them in the station dog program and those are really dogs that are, I call them the fraternity sorority dogs. They're very social. They like more than one person.

00;22;28;21 - 00;22;50;21
Unknown
You know, when we bring them up, up into our office space, they're the ones that go from cubicle to cubicle to cubicle. They have a hard time. And I have one of those dogs. And that dog loves people and could never focus on one person. Interesting problem. You mentioned attention deficit disorder. You used to say that for a dog guard, does that mean that means that when they're eating or when they're playing, they don't they okay, well they got you, got you.

00;22;50;23 - 00;23;13;03
Unknown
And so some people have a gardening problem too, right. Well, yeah, I get that, I get that. And so you kind of talked, touched a little bit on how a warrior gets a dog because I went on your website, I kind of flip through the application a little bit. So it sounds like that's, you know, what, 18 to 24 month process of determining if you get one.

00;23;13;06 - 00;23;28;13
Unknown
Yeah. If you're accepted. Okay. Yeah. And I think, well, I think we can, the time whether or not you're accepted or not is a little bit quicker. As soon as you get your, all your paperwork in, and sometimes the paperwork is a little, too demanding for some people. And we try to help them through the process.

00;23;28;13 - 00;23;43;25
Unknown
But it is important that we know as much as we can about you, and that we know as much about the environment in which you think you're going to take a service dog back, because that service dog is our dog the whole way through. We had an example in Springfield, Massachusetts the last couple of months. Warrior had to go back into a mental facility.

00;23;44;18 - 00;24;04;10
Unknown
He and, he had been aggressive with his spouse. And so there was a restraining order, and the spouse and the non warrior spouse kept the dog, which defeats the purpose. Obviously, the the warrior needs a service dog. And so, you know, she has a point. The non warrior spouse has a point about the dog has become attached to the children and myself.

00;24;04;21 - 00;24;28;09
Unknown
And then we're like well the service the warrior needs the service dog too. But one of the points that was really, dispositive is that we, we showed the paperwork that says that that actually is the canines for Warrior Dog. Right. And so we will come we will exercise our rights in court, will come get it. And we sometimes we do have to go get it if we if we feel like the warrior after they've left us isn't taking care of the service dog, we're not going to leave the service dog.

00;24;28;13 - 00;24;53;11
Unknown
So the dog is the canine dog forever. Until we retire. It. Okay, so sometimes. So not with the warrior forever with it's technically with the warrior. Unless the warrior, maltreated the dog doesn't get recertified if you're not taking it to the vet. These are things that we put into place to make sure that the service dog is cared for.

00;24;53;11 - 00;25;12;04
Unknown
Right? Right. And so interesting. Very. I mean, one of the veterans I spoke to you about that I was very close to and then I take took care of we had to take her dog back because she wasn't doing she got involved with drugs again and so that wasn't taking care of that wasn't an environment. So if the Warriors doing everything right, they're living it up.

00;25;12;05 - 00;25;28;02
Unknown
It's their dog for life. Correct? Okay. And then ultimately will retire the dog with that warrior. And at that point we relinquish any and all rights. Okay. But as long as the dog is a service dog. So and we talked to them about and we remind the public the service dog when the service dog is working, is a wheelchair.

00;25;28;02 - 00;25;44;04
Unknown
For all intents and purposes, it is a cane. It's interesting, you say that is one thing I wanted to bring up is that they're a working dog. It is. They are trained to work and when they're not doing that 8 or 10 hours a day, like it's similar to us as humans, like rest time and all of that.

00;25;44;04 - 00;26;05;28
Unknown
Correct. But we encourage the warrior to work the dog. Obviously training work, they're training with the dog. They're their commands. Every day when you leave us, you're not done. You have to continue to train the dog because we're going to ask. We're going to demand that you recertify. And if you refuse to recertify, then we will be knocking on your door because we're worried about the service dog, too.

00;26;05;29 - 00;26;24;08
Unknown
So we're more worried about the human, but slightly less we're also worried about that service, I get it, I mean, you put a lot of time into it, and it really brings up a ton of good points because I think for the layman like me out there is like, you know, it's all, roses. You train the dog, you give it like, well, it doesn't always work out that way.

00;26;24;09 - 00;26;41;12
Unknown
It's a two and two way street for sure. Yeah. Now we have issues. You know, we've done 1100. So yes, we've there's some issues with some service dogs along the way. Are warriors not doing what they're supposed to do. And then of course it becomes a circumstantial thing, you know, for the Warriors into it for now, seven years and can't recertify.

00;26;41;12 - 00;27;09;11
Unknown
And the dog is nine years old. I mean, there's going to be some you're not going to go yank the dog right away, because we also know that that could have a very, negative effect on the warrior. So there's a lot of things that influence the decision. But, you know, the first year we had a talk this week with the first year of warrior that's almost done with this first year couldn't recertify and we're like, if you don't buckle up, buddy, we're going to come knock on the door, recertify that they need to come back to one of the, locations and do that.

00;27;09;11 - 00;27;28;10
Unknown
Well, they can recertify by zoom. We'll go and train you if you have a problem. Or if we really feel concerned about the service dog, we will fly you back so that we can physically see the dog and we can physically see if you have an all encompassing job. This is. Yeah. There's so many different aspects that I never even thought of.

00;27;28;18 - 00;27;55;24
Unknown
And I read on the website, too, that you have people that are flagged down all around the country. They are looking for the dogs, like, are they going in the kennels and like, wow, that that looks like a candidate. That's interesting. Yeah. So we send folks everywhere in North Carolina, Canada, Texas, all around the country. If we get a, word that there's, you know, somebody who's been hoarding multiple labs or something like that, labs or favorite dogs, but, it's we don't discriminate.

00;27;55;24 - 00;28;12;10
Unknown
That's the only dog we're really a little more concerned about is the pit bull. We've used pit bull. You have used pit bulls. Yeah, we have, but, you know, one of the one of the basis, one of the points, for the service dog is to help integrate the warrior into society. And the pit bull, unfortunately, sometimes has a stigma.

00;28;12;10 - 00;28;29;21
Unknown
Yeah. So, you know, to that sometimes can have an adverse effect. One of our best ambassadors, we always bring them to the House of Congress in D.C.. He makes a great point. And that is, you know, when we go through the halls, Senator, people are the people coming, the other way or looking at me, they're smiling.

00;28;29;21 - 00;28;45;26
Unknown
They're looking at doc. They're his name of his dog. They want a pet dog. They know they can't pet dog. And they're just in a very. And by the way, Daniel, that's it's ingratiating. Okay? That's not like dogs. You have this big sign on this cute dog here, and you can't pat it. Yeah, yeah. Actually, is there anything you can do to change that?

00;28;45;28 - 00;29;06;24
Unknown
No, but actually, one of my buddies at the gala said that, the dog, the vest on the dog says, do not pet, do not make eye contact. Yes. He goes, that reminded me of the the rules my wife said on our first date. So I thought, that is funny, that David will talk to the politicians and they'll say, you know, I just been walking through your halls, and everybody's in a good mood.

00;29;06;26 - 00;29;27;00
Unknown
But if I didn't have the dog and I just had a shirt that said I have PTSD, I'm fully disabled. Nobody would look at me, nobody would smile. They do everything they can to to to ignore me. And so the dog is there to also help to integrate. So, the integrate when I took my dogs to work and walk them up and down Bay Street or, Laura Street, whatever, take them to City Hall.

00;29;27;02 - 00;29;43;11
Unknown
Everybody smiles. Everybody wants to see it's it's I mean, for lack of a better word, it's an icebreaker. It's like, oh, here's the dog. It's kind of like a baby. Yeah. It's the same thing. Yep. Now, do you guys ever, grab a puppy? Yes. And start it from puppy. Say, yeah, we do have puppies. We foster.

00;29;43;13 - 00;30;11;05
Unknown
Not as many, but yes, we can. We do that. We don't, but we don't have our own little farm. That we do that we're considering that. And there are some folks, volunteers that want us to do that. Obviously, the puppy is a really nice marketing tool for us as well. Right? So we balance it. But the puppy takes a long time for the puppy to be ready since, I mean, what keeps coming in my mind, Daniel, since this is such a proven program, at what point does it go mainstream at the VA like?

00;30;11;05 - 00;30;34;24
Unknown
Or do you not really want it to like to me that this is a VA, medical treatment device? Right? It's a great, great issue and a great question. And we're breaking through now. So I think in the past, after 20 years. Well, 14 okay. But, the VA, has obviously well-intended and they're doing the best they can and change is not good for them.

00;30;34;27 - 00;30;54;14
Unknown
And we have not helped it as an organization because we in the past have adopted a very public critical view of the VA. And so we've we've switched that now. And so because we realized that they don't know what to do with the service dog, it's foreign to them. And so we've switched to implementation helping them. Here's how you're going to implement it.

00;30;54;14 - 00;31;14;01
Unknown
How we recommend you implement to implement the program service dog program. They had no idea where to put it. Right. Do we put it under prosthetics? Do we put it over here? How do we test it. And so we we've we've taken a different tact with them. The saves act. So the the Paws act got signed by President Trump.

00;31;14;01 - 00;31;28;22
Unknown
So five years ago the VA worked very hard to dilute the the Paws act so that the VA only had to put on a service dog class. You had to bring the dog, by the way. Okay. We're not going to pay for the service dog. You have to bring your service dog. But we'll help you once a month and that's be enough.

00;31;28;22 - 00;31;47;23
Unknown
That's not enough. But the Saves act, which is what we've helped to write. We've lobbied it. It will get enacted this year. It's got full bipartisan support. Wow. That is a servicing service. I'm sorry. Service Dogs Assisting Veterans Act, and it's not the Save act because everyone with election integrity will be jumping up and down. Right. But it's the saves act.

00;31;47;26 - 00;32;07;26
Unknown
And, what that does is it requires the VA to spend $10 million a year on service dogs. Wow. Yeah. So the obviously that gives goes to messed up. Well I mean kind of another you're the. No. You're the only one doing dogs right. We're not. There's there's others that do it. And so one of the other you know strategy changes we have is we don't compete against anybody.

00;32;07;28 - 00;32;22;29
Unknown
We help everyone, we get help. We just happen to do it better than everybody, right? Right, right. But there's always a little competitive spirit. Why not right now? You mentioned a little bit, that all dogs are smart. Like. And you mentioned labs. So is that if you had to pick a breed, is that at the top of the list?

00;32;23;04 - 00;32;39;08
Unknown
Yes. Okay. What's what's there etc. is really dumb. But go ahead. Okay okay. So what's a couple breeds after that that you that would be a little bit less. But up there I mean the collie is brilliant okay. Littles have been I have I was not a poodle fan, but I also have a lot of attitude. Don't.

00;32;39;08 - 00;33;01;19
Unknown
They are brilliant. They're brilliant. They're very smart. All kinds of poodles mix or does it? Doesn't matter, I guess, hypoallergenic. It doesn't matter. We do a lot of hypoallergenic and, but regular poodles are brilliant, too, aren't our. What our cutoff is, frankly, is age. We don't want anyone older than four. Okay. We want them 45 pounds or more, but we'll, you know, work with exceptions.

00;33;01;21 - 00;33;19;15
Unknown
The reason behind that is you're supposed to be able to help the warrior get up. Now, most of our warriors are all mobile, but they're getting older. And so at some point, that dog is going to have to help them get up. And so, the Labradors are my personal favorites. But we've taken all kinds huskies are good.

00;33;20;04 - 00;33;41;18
Unknown
There's really not a bad, bad dog. Interesting, interesting, because I read on your website, too, that, you know, the the veteran has to be the warrior has to be physically able, like, you see a lot of warriors with, you know, a prosthetic leg and they can get around normally. But this isn't necessarily for the one that it's not able to get around on their own.

00;33;41;18 - 00;34;03;18
Unknown
Right. We need you to be able to exercise the dog. I think we say at least a mile a day. Maybe it's two miles a day. You know, in total, we need you to exercise the dog. Right? Right. We need you to be. And frankly, you know, we think that for them to retain, regain their quality of life, they have to get back into society and integrating them back into society, integrating them first into their family.

00;34;03;20 - 00;34;21;15
Unknown
I mean, I can't tell you how many spouses come up to us and say, thank you for giving my Mimi my wife back, or thank you for giving my husband back. Thank you for giving my dad back. That's just invaluable. Because we're they're getting back into integrating into the family all via the dog, which is just unbelievable.

00;34;21;21 - 00;34;51;06
Unknown
Now, you mentioned a little bit about the progression of the dog going from kindergarten on up. So it's it takes about 6 to 8 months. Yes. Typically anywhere from, you know, some of the dogs we get that we buy are so well trained from our, producers. And we've been working with them for years. We can go 3 or 4 months, because one of the things we're looking at is whether, if we have a dog that's ready to go tested, we're not going to just throw them in a kennel just to say we're going to wait for six months.

00;34;51;09 - 00;35;13;20
Unknown
We're not doing that. Well, that's kind of what I was thinking too, is if you get access to more funds, you can hire people to train them. So it's faster and you have more. If we veterans, you know, if we had more money, we would be buying more dogs. And trust me. And what we will do is, we're already looking at this year, this summer, we're going to go to an alternate location in El Paso.

00;35;14;08 - 00;35;31;06
Unknown
We have been working with other nonprofits, and we have an opportunity to run a class in El Paso. We're in San Antonio, we'll run a class in El Paso. I think we're going to run a class in Reno. We might run a class in Alabama in addition to what we already do. And so we kind of like satellite locations, right?

00;35;31;06 - 00;35;49;05
Unknown
But we don't have to have brick and mortar there. And we'll just bring everyone in and, bring our trainers or we have a warrior trainer, we have a dog trainer. We have to bring our warriors in, and then we bring, any support staff that's necessary for three weeks. We believe the 1819 days is critical to establishing a habit.

00;35;49;08 - 00;36;10;27
Unknown
It's also breaking them away from a lot of different service dog, entities. They do it differently. Some let you go home at night. We don't do that because we want you to. So that comes and stays at your location for three weeks, learns how to integrate with the dog. Yep. And I notice that you do not let anybody come with the warrior as the warrior?

00;36;11;00 - 00;36;35;07
Unknown
No spouse, no helpers, no nothing. Right. Interesting. Yeah. I thought it was kind of cool, like the training, cuz you had listed on your website, like stand look lab front under, like walk through those real quick. I mean, they look kind of obvious, but maybe not. Well, it's the dog. My favorite is lap. And the dog will do that if they feel that you're, your anxiety levels are going through the roof.

00;36;35;07 - 00;36;58;29
Unknown
I mean, so, you know, two weeks ago in Wisconsin, warrior Mindi was telling her horrific story. She has Tioga. Tioga. She starts to cry. Tioga is already in her lap. She's in front of a crowd of 100 people. Literally puts puts both paws on her lap to calm her down. To the dog is, you know, put the pressure on the human individual, reassure them.

00;36;58;29 - 00;37;16;22
Unknown
It's like putting a blanket on you. And so that to me is my favorite command. Also the dog sometimes. Well, intuitively if they don't trust the person they will come between. So if I had a service for my service I didn't trust you here. And my service dog would be right here. This is going to happen a lot.

00;37;16;23 - 00;37;34;16
Unknown
It's not a lot, but the dog will do it if they don't trust me. Just out of the blue and you're like, whoa, right. Okay. As a service dog, you know, dogs know, if you're a dog lover or not or dogs. I'm never really warmed up to a person that my dogs don't like. Interesting. That is so interesting.

00;37;34;16 - 00;37;51;10
Unknown
It is? Well, I mean, you cannot be a dog lover and still appreciate what you can. I'm not trying to discriminate, but, my wife doesn't like dogs. I've been trying for a long time. Daniel, you're not helping my car. My wife, my first wife didn't want a dog. And then I brought one home saying, honey, I need.

00;37;51;15 - 00;38;06;15
Unknown
I've had a dog all my life. I haven't had a dog while I was on the ships. And. And I understand you don't want a dog. And then Commodore had her bathing suit the first day, and that was not good. That was not a that's not. But after that, Commodore became my my ex-wife's favorite friend. Oh, good. Good, good.

00;38;06;15 - 00;38;31;00
Unknown
So my wife and I ex-wife now has two dogs. Okay. So. Okay. Is there a happened? Yes. Miracles can happen I yes, I got home. Is there a period where the demand for dogs is higher like at a time in the year? Naturally, I would think after something going on and we're warriors are deployed or I know I thought that we would exhausted, the supply.

00;38;31;03 - 00;38;59;11
Unknown
But my dog, my, my procurement people tell me that, you know, it's unlimited. We can go out and and they will breed to the demand. And so if we say, you know, we're going to do we plan on 150 every year. But if our road roadshows go well, right, if we can do well in El Paso and it turns out to be less than or right on what we budgeted, you know, and same thing in Reno or Alabama or wherever we might go, then we'll plan on 200 dogs.

00;38;59;11 - 00;39;18;20
Unknown
We'll plan on to 50, and we'll ask our breeders to breed to that. And then we'll see what we get in the rescue department. Right. So it's just interesting to me, you guys have the blueprint. It's just about, really, expanding and multiplying. I mean, that's what's so cool about what you're doing. I just thought of some who names the dogs.

00;39;18;20 - 00;39;39;22
Unknown
How does that sponsor sponsors? The dogs? Yeah. So we try to, you know, we try to get sponsors for every dog. We explain that so somebody, anybody, anybody can give money. And that's my sponsor dog. And the corporations can do it. And then interest sometimes the corporation will allow us to do it. So Carnival Cruise sponsored a dog.

00;39;39;22 - 00;39;56;28
Unknown
They named it Jax. Okay, okay. And they, you know, we the TPC always names the dog after the the last year's winner. Okay. And so, Scottie Scheffler won twice. So we're looking forward to what the TPC and the PGA is going to name the second dog. Because we have we already have one Scottie have one Scottie.

00;39;57;00 - 00;40;13;07
Unknown
How much does it cost to sponsor a dog individually our price is 30,000 corporate okay for 40 okay. Very interesting. Very interesting. And that's kind of what it costs. Ryan I was reading about that. Yes. So. Well I mean, you know, when I talk to people, they're like, what does it cost to do this? And I'm like, well, so do I.

00;40;13;10 - 00;40;28;21
Unknown
Can I include my maintenance guy that makes our campus look great to motivate people to come to work? We don't allow, you know, trash or anything. You know, when you come through, we're pretty spotless, right? And so can I count the maintenance guy? How about, you know, how about me? Right? Do I get counted? And, you know, I don't.

00;40;28;21 - 00;40;49;06
Unknown
I'm not training the dog or I'm not training the warrior, but, so purchasing the dogs typically will. As I say, it's $10,000 to purchase the dog. Obviously, the rescue is free. Then the warrior comes to us. How about all that hand-holding for up to 20 months? We're checking in with you, and then when you leave, once you leave the first month, we're with you.

00;40;49;06 - 00;41;11;16
Unknown
Every week we're calling you if we have to come see you or whatever we need to do, then it's monthly. Okay? And then we're encouraging all of our warrior classes to check with each other. And so occasionally I'll get texts from saying, hey, I haven't seen him on social media, or hey, his dog passed away and boom, we're immediately working with that warrior because it can be it can lead them down the wrong path.

00;41;11;16 - 00;41;36;26
Unknown
Right? All of that costs a lot more than 40 for sure is, so the canines are funded all privately, essentially. Right. People donating online. Yeah. However they do it. Dog sponsor. Yep. But we've been very successful with, the Florida Legislature and obviously the governor and the first lady have rescue two dogs themselves. And they, the, the governor, big proponents of the legislature have been very generous.

00;41;36;26 - 00;41;59;04
Unknown
And so, you know, the vast majority of our 11, one of the vast majority, so 215, 20, 220 of our 1100 are Floridians. Next up is Texas. So we're gonna hit our 100 Texan in June, which is a big thing. Ohio's very big for us. Georgia's very big for us. We've got one from every state. I had some people moved to Alaska so we could count.

00;41;59;04 - 00;42;20;23
Unknown
And I'm just kidding. You got you've got Alaska down. But I read some some state funding and then hopefully we'll get some federal funding. Okay. That's great. That's awesome. And I read something very disturbing on your website, which is what you guys are trying to prevent. Is 20 veterans die a day on average with suicide. That's the average is just such a horrible statistic.

00;42;20;23 - 00;42;41;20
Unknown
Yeah. Well and that's what motivates us to do what we do. You know so to me the VA, the federal government hasn't done enough. I mean, you know, and I've study the Vietnam, generation in just total destruction. Those folks coming back, you know, and, you know, look at Charlie on the street corner, you know, what the hell's his problem?

00;42;41;20 - 00;42;59;21
Unknown
Well, Charlie has PTSD, right? And doesn't know any better. We had a gentleman visit us Sunday. We weren't. It was late in the afternoon. He's looking around, going through the windows. We had an all female class, so we were jump into it and we're like, hey, you can't be here, right? So he came back yesterday and you know, I was like, what the hell?

00;42;59;22 - 00;43;17;05
Unknown
And so we talked to the guy. He's a veteran. His mom died. He's got PTSD. He's got, you know, and so we switch from, you know, get the hell out of here to how can we help you? Because we can tell once we've done a little work with him that he's spiraling. Right. And so we'll try to get him to our into our class.

00;43;17;05 - 00;43;40;26
Unknown
But it's going to take a long time. In the meantime, let's try to point him in the right direction, to try to get some services. And that's that goes on all the time. I mean, when we're walking or dealing with people and they seem weird or obtuse, they most likely are struggling with something like post-traumatic for the veteran, for the warrior, it's almost always post-traumatic stress disorder.

00;43;40;26 - 00;44;01;07
Unknown
And and you can get it from a lot of different things. I think, you know, one of the things with the 8 or 9 warriors that I've really worked closely with and spent the night on the couch and stuff like that, all of them had a bad event in their childhood. And as we get more sophisticated as a society, I want to see if there's a correlation at the after we get the brain scans.

00;44;01;09 - 00;44;28;06
Unknown
But I want to go even further back and look to see whether you're more, likely to get it so that we can keep you out of situations that might really, emphasize it and, and really activate it, you know? Right. Right, right. But that's way down the line, probably past the time in my life span. But if we can get the brain scans going, I think that'll be that'll be the, the the nail in the coffin for the VA.

00;44;28;06 - 00;44;44;08
Unknown
They won't be able to argue there's not a clinical evidence anymore. Well, it sounds like you're making a lot of progress, which is fantastic. Thank you. Let's, switch the gears a little bit. I read about the paws for change program. It's something you guys are doing with the prisons. Yes. That seem really interesting. Tell me how we do it in Saint John's and Duvall.

00;44;44;08 - 00;45;03;28
Unknown
And then a lot of different service dog entities to go into the prisons and, work with, the, the guests. And so, you know, it's an incentive for them to be on their best behavior. And it also gives them an opportunity to have a job when they get out. Sheriff Hardware, Hardwick and Sheriff Waters have been fantastic with us.

00;45;04;00 - 00;45;23;26
Unknown
I'm sure Sheriff Cook would allow us to do it in Clay County as well. We don't do it yet in, San Antonio, but it really is. So you literally just bringing dogs to hang out or. What are they? They keep the dogs and then train the dogs. Oh, really? Okay. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, we go over, we work with them how to train the dog.

00;45;24;10 - 00;45;43;23
Unknown
And then we come back to us. They've done what our dog trainers have been doing, and we then finalize and polish and they can serve and they can be paired. It is it's just we keep going back to this theme about the healing ability of dogs. And it's just incredible. Like we've only scratched the surface. It feels like, no, you're right.

00;45;43;23 - 00;46;13;19
Unknown
We only have scratched the surface. There's so much we don't know. And that's one of the things that motivates us to come to work every day. We're still there's so much to learn, both on the human side and the dog side. I mean, it's is fascinating to me that I've been able to be, you know, have a front row seat for the last year and a half working to see these dogs as they develop and understand the quirkiness of the dog and the personality of the dog, and then really to watch our trainers be able to motivate the dog to do what the to do, what we need them to do well.

00;46;13;19 - 00;46;34;11
Unknown
And really, you contribute all of this to sharing that. All right. Yeah. I mean literally started it. I mean, and this is not that old of an organization relatively new. A couple things I want to hit on before we wrap up. I notice on your website, dogs are available for adoption. Yep. Okay. So that's constantly running with new dogs, right?

00;46;34;14 - 00;46;54;04
Unknown
Yep. We have adopted we adopted 150 dogs in 2024 okay. And they're already trained. Yeah right. Yeah. No they're wonderful dogs. Yes. You know, the four that I've adopted, my wife and I have adopted over the course of time, you know, they were like, well, you know, Mr. Bean, this one's got karting or this one's got this or this one just got that, one was returned.

00;46;54;04 - 00;47;12;20
Unknown
One was, the warrior actually got a job as a bomb detecting service, and had his own dog. Stevie likes to be the only one. And, and so, you know, she just the warrior, and he wasn't working. Stevie and service dogs because they, quote unquote retired. Stevie. And, we were fortunate to get her, but those are the dogs that are available.

00;47;12;20 - 00;47;32;10
Unknown
I mean, those dogs are incredible, incredible train that cost a lot of money. Like, wow, what an opportunity. There. And if you have a problem, we take them back. Right? Okay. No, don't even try that. Even better. So how do you donate to canine for Warriors? Obviously the website is the easiest the best thing people can do for us is the monthly donation.

00;47;32;10 - 00;47;53;18
Unknown
So like most nonprofits we do, we're heavy. November, December. And so for us to be able to smooth it out over the course of the entire year is huge for us. So, the monthly sustainer, it's a $20 thing. I've been doing that for ten years. It's very simple. Just sign up on online, I do it, I've been doing it.

00;47;53;20 - 00;48;09;07
Unknown
Thank you so much for that. Yeah, but that's where we really push is the monthly sustainer. To do that. And you also, you know, we have over 300 volunteers here locally. And we have a strong core of about 50, but you can be a foster parent. I could never do that, you know, give me a dog.

00;48;09;07 - 00;48;26;28
Unknown
I will keep that one thing. That would be incredibly. We have people that do that, and then we have all of our meals for our warriors are homemade, by volunteers. So, if you want to do that, you can do that. I notice there's opportunities for paperwork kind of thing. Yeah. We have a lot of people that do our.

00;48;27;03 - 00;48;45;07
Unknown
Who do. Thank you. Do you ever have, volunteers? Like, if I want to just come in and clean the the the stalls for. Yep. So we have opportunity. We have that too. I might take you up on that. No, it's I like that. It's very gratifying. And the wounded warrior project, they every quarter they bring all of their leaders in and they asked if they could come to a service project for us.

00;48;45;07 - 00;49;02;14
Unknown
And we were flattered. And they said, what would you like us to do? And I said, I'd like you to do our five year strategic plan. And they said, no. We were thinking like washing cars. So we don't want to do this. Okay, we'll leave that up to you. The people do that. Bank of America, Prudential. I mean, there's Chase, JP Morgan Chase.

00;49;02;14 - 00;49;23;18
Unknown
Yes, there's volunteer as a group. You can come help us that, you can help us clean the kennels, you know, planning, painting, car washing. I mean, I'm really proud of our campus, the way it looks. Our maintenance folks do a wonderful job. I. You know, I'm very much of a if it's not clean, then people are going to not be as motivated to come to work.

00;49;23;18 - 00;49;42;28
Unknown
And so I make sense. Com well, everyone's different right. Some people can work. My desk is clear but some people are cluttered. Right. And so whatever gets it. But to me the presentation is key. Signs need to be shiny. You know, it needs to hit the hydrant one day. Got a little, rusted. And I said something, and two hours later it was painted.

00;49;43;02 - 00;50;04;04
Unknown
Right. And that's the way. But that's the way it should be. Yeah. For sure. Well, our veterans deserve it. And, Daniel, it was great talking to you. I really appreciate your time. What a great organization. We're we're honored to have it on the podcast. And I'm really excited that there seems to be some really exciting progress in the future that's really moving fast.

00;50;04;04 - 00;50;28;10
Unknown
So that's awesome. No, it's why we get up every day and we know there are people out there hurting that we haven't gotten to yet. And so getting to them is absolutely critical to us. And so we need to do it, better and faster. And that's what motivates us. And, and the ability to share that information across all the sectors, not just military, but the first responders and the sexual assault victims.

00;50;28;10 - 00;50;34;01
Unknown
We think really we can have some major breakthroughs. Interesting. Well, yeah, very much, sir. Thank you very much.

00;50;34;01 - 00;50;48;07
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.