Posted by Ben Lowry

After our very successful Veteran’s Day luncheon last November, our club was left with an unexpected surplus of just over $3000. So, event organizers Charlie Frair and Paul Tully put on their thinking caps, hoping to meaningfully distribute these funds. The first $1000 was given to the Veteran’s Adaptive Sports and Training Program but, with the excess $2000 still in play, our group was given a unique and very difficult challenge on Friday. We heard from five Portland Rotarians, who advocated for five veteran’s causes, and we then took a vote to see which two groups would receive a check for $1000 apiece. 

With Charlie Frair holding a stopwatch set to go off at exactly five minutes, we first heard from Roxane Cole, who was flagged to give an impassioned plea for the Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope, a gorgeous home in Augusta that has been established to house homeless veteran women and their children. Founded by Martha Everatt St. Pierre in 2014, this facility currently houses five female veterans and their two children, allowing these women to gain the dignity they deserve after living on the streets or in shelters. With thirty states providing this type of aid to female veterans, this is the first of its kind in Maine. 

Next up we heard about the Healing Through Horses program from new member Annie Messinger (thanks, Annie, for taking the reigns!). This equine therapy program out of New Gloucester serves 80 veterans, with approximately 45 from Greater Portland. Through psychotherapy and hands-on interactions with horses that have been donated for the cause, many vets get through the six-week program with a greater confidence and understanding of the benefits of working with these regal animals, one of which is a 1200-pound Clydesdale names Sierra. In any kind of weather, founders Sandy Fletcher and Michael Fralic are open to giving back to many of the veterans within Maine who have struggled upon their return from duty.

Mike Robinson, another fairly new member who was able to unleash his inhibitions, spoke passionately about K-9’s on the Front Line, a Portland-based canine therapy program that rescues dogs, often days from euthanasia, and pairs them with returning veterans. Funded by grants and donations such as from our club, this sixteen-week program has worked wonders for many with PTSD and/or traumatic brain injuries.  With the help and guidance from the Portland Police Department, this $60,000 training is cut back to just $4500, with no cost to the veteran, who is given a new lease on life, sometimes allowing a housebound veteran to regain the strength to re-enter the community. 

Bob Traill, a self-proclaimed “Man of Ten Thousand Words”, was able to resist the urge to pontificate for Honor Flight Maine, instead showing us a very powerful and moving video on this program which sends WWII veterans to Washington DC to visit the various memorials set up on The Mall. As the nation loses 640 WWII veterans per day, it will be just 5-7 years before all these heroes are gone, and it would truly be a gift to send as many as we are able to see these historic and moving monuments to the service men and woman who literally saved the world.  

Joe Reagan, also a new member who hopped to the podium with great enthusiasm, not only spoke for Easter Seals and Veterans Count, but thanked us all, as a full-time employee and a veteran of the Middle East conflagrations, for all that we are doing to help those Maine veterans in need. Working with the families of 125,000 veterans in Maine today, Joe and his co-workers provide support on many, many levels: food, housing, rental assistance, mental health, and utilities. With 20 veterans per day committing suicide, Joe told a very personal story of losing a beloved friend, Sgt. Mac, who took his own life a year after returning home from Afghanistan.  With Veterans Count and the backing of the venerable Easter Seals, Joe and his fellow vets are hoping to help so many very deserving families with any funding they can garner from Portland Rotary or any source. 

It was truly an inspiring meeting and one in which we not only learned so much about the ongoing needs of veterans within Maine, but a meeting in which each and every Rotarian in attendance was given the power to expedite change. 

Many thanks to Charlie Frair and Paul Tully for their ongoing efforts for our proud Maine veterans.