Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is a fantastic organization that serves our nation's injured military heroes when they need help transitioning back to civilian life. The CEO and Founder of WFFS, Sandra Lehmkuhler, joined the Armstrong & Getty Show to explain the foundation's mission this year.
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From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio and the George Washington Broadcast Center, Armstrong, Lady Armstrong and Jetty Show. And this is a big week for us, a big week for you, opportunity to do something good helping out Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. I'll let you a litttle pitch before you even know what we're talking about, and that this time of year. Speaking for myself, but I think I'm speaking for a lot of people. There's a tendency to throw around a little dough on yourself, whether you're eating out or buying this or that, or you're going somewhere or whatever, little self indulgence this time of year. How about you through a little money towards something good. YEP. Warrior Foundation Freedom Station a fantastic organization that serves our nation's heroes when they need it the most. The seriously injured, post traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury victims, those undergoing physical or occupational therapy, transitioning warriors have been medically retired in our in the community, trying to figure out at that just rough moment of their lives what they're going to do with the rest of their lives. And Warrior Foundation Freedom Station performs miracles and saves lives every day and is incredibly efficient with your money. Uh. To tell you a little more and to get things rolling officially, please welcome back to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Sandy lem Cooler, the CEO and founder of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Hello, Sandy, how are you hi? Mary? Christmas? You guys, we can say that right, sure, absolutely, you can say anything on our show you want. And and one of the reasons, Sandy says, Merry Christmas. Well, we'll let you explain. What does Warrior Foundation Freedom Station do every Christmas? That's so special? Well, I have to share with you. And this last year in particular, UM, a lot of our warriors are going up at the hospital. We're talking about active duty as well as medically retired warriors, so it's kind of two different segues um. But the warriors up at the Eric's Um in particular this year. I go up there every year, as I'm up there frequently, but they said, ma'am, we really want to go home, we really want to go home for Christmas. And these are young warriors. They can't afford a flight plus other things that they are paying for in life. And I get that the government covers a lot of it, but it is still something that I think our country can do better. Our country can get these young men and young women home to wake up in their own bed, with their in their own state, with their own family. I mean, who doesn't want that flare that tradition of sitting around the table with their family. And so they said to me a couple of things, ma'am, we really want to go home. Can we go home this year again? And I said, I will do my best. I will ask Armstrong and Getty, the Secret Santa's of the world, help us to help us get these warriors home. So we also, you know, we have a foundation that also helps our warriors not only during the holidays but all year long. And so I just wanted to share with you that they're already kind of thinking airplane home, big marine blanket, big Navy blanket, big Air Force blanket, big Army blanket over their shoulder, getting off the plane and having their family there to meet them. And so what does it cost an average I know, you keep track of this to send a warrior home. Just to give people an idea of what their donations are doing. I try to average it out. You know, flights are all over the place right now, costwise, but truly, about six hundred and three dollars is what we're averaging to send them home around trip, to send them one way. You know what I've got to I've gotta jump in. I gotta jump in right here, Sammy, this is how careful Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is with your money. You ask Sandy what's the average, and she says about six d and three dollars. I mean, that is how tight they pinched the pennies to make sure every cent of your donations goes to the actual heroes. And and you know, just another point, A lot of these guys are dealing with traumatic physical injuries or brain injuries. They're rehabbing, their undergoing surgeries, the rest of it. It's it is definitely the hardest time they will ever live in their lives. And the idea that we will send them home to be with mom and dad and sister and brother and see their old buddies and reconnect with who they are and and find that strength from their families. I mean, you've seen the effect that has, Sandy, I have, and I will share with you that you know, luckily, that times have changed. We have a little bit different injury and sometimes these warriors that are up at the hospital are not allowed to be able to go home. So we are going to bring in family members, bring them to San Diego so that they can be with their warrior for the holiday. So it doesn't necessarily have to be Christmas. It can be Thanksgiving, it can be New Year's But when the doctors allow them to have visitors and see their family members, we're going to bring them in. And we have a location called Legacy House that we put them in if the Fisher House is full, So it's not only we send them home, but we bring mom or dad here if need be. That's absolutely fantastic. By the way, if this is starting to strike a chord with you, got Armstrong and Getty dot com. We got a big banner there. It's simple to donate, just takes you a couple of minutes. Indeed, and you know the point I was trying to make a second ago is just that, uh, and Sandy has told us about this. After that visit home or the folks coming to see that that wounded a warrior, um the guys who are getting tired and discouraged with their physical therapy and the rehab, and they're learning to deal with their prosthetic limbs or whatever. It's just a jolt of energy and can really be a powerful force for healing. So give as generously as you can. Aren't strong and getty dot com. It's extremely obvious where to click and the rest of it, and and give as generously as you can. They feel unstoppable again when they come back. They're just unstoppable. And that's what we want our military to know, is that we support them and our country loves them, and we want them not to see any disability but only see possibility. And that's truly what I worked hard for, right Sandy lem Cooler, the founder and CEO of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Sandy, we appreciate it, and we'll talk to you a little later in the week. Perfect. Thank you so much. You guys, truly you do make their Christmas and you do help us make the magic of Christmas. Up in the halls of the barracks. We will be decorating up there early so that they can kind of get in the spirit. Awesome, excellent, excellent, alright, terrific. Well, the folks get the credit, go to Armstrong and get dot com and and just you know, real quickly, I think there are probably you folks are so aware of what's going on in the world and the news and the rest of it that you're thinking, well, wait a minute. Where I mean, there are the terrible injuries and deaths in Afghanistan, but that's over more or less, and Iraq is mostly over. So is there a need? You know, we've talked about this. We are in something like eighty countries, it might be more eight now. Some of them are nice, stable military bases where you know, there's not a lot of fighting going on. There's lots of training, which can be dangerous and that sort of thing. But we have special forces, we have Navy seals, we have marines all over the world engaging al qaied to al shabab Uh. It's stuff we're never gonna hear about. And the need continues. So again, good arm Strong and Gutta dot com. And also in terms of the location where you foundation Freedom Station in the San Diego area, but wherever you're listening in the country, you could have you know, somebody graduated from your local high school joined the military, went to Iraq or Afghanistan or any of the places Joe mentioned and needs the benefit of Warrior Foundation Freedom Station and they end up in San Diego. So I mean it's a it's a nationwide thing. Well right, yeah, that's the one of the super giant military hospitals. Um. And it's uh and yeah, I don't know. If you're familiar with the military, you go where they tell you to go. So we're gonna try to raise a half a million dollars just off the Armstrong and Getty show by itself, which is a big ask. I mean, that's a lot of money. Um. I'm at the website and we are currently at now we just kicked this off like an hour ago. We're currently at eighteen thousand dollars on our way to five hundred. But you know, obviously we need to average about a hundred grand a day to get there. Uh. We like the tradition. Hopefully that can get going of people with wacky names when they donate, because you can put whatever you want to show up. I mean, you can be anonymous if you want to donate anonymously, but if you want to have a wacky name in there, that's that's pretty common. Um. You know, Cornpop eight hundred dollars whatever. Sure, Sure, the Hunt Hunter Biden's School of Art, and we might be right. And what we've seen in the past is a lot of people end up donating money just to get their wacky name mentioned. So people donate, you know, might donate dollars really just they could get But that's fine. It all adds up so act. So we get enough few people that think you're funny with your wacky names, everybody donate, and five bucks at a time, we end up with a heck of a lot of money. But I'm looking at some of the donations already. Here's a supporter who donated two thousand dollars, Thank you very much. It's freaking awesome. But plenty of twenty five dollars and all that sort of stuff. Charlotte Bailey bucks, thank you very much. Thanks Charlotte. But we'll be talking about this all week long. Something tells me a certain young Brandon it's going to be very generous this year. Oh boy, let's go, Brandon. Brandon might donate half the money that we end up with. Tho