Empowering Families: The Heart of Wounded Warriors Support

In this episode of Living Chronic, Brandy Schantz interviews Katherine McCauley, CEO and President of Wounded Warriors Family Support. They discuss the unique initiatives of the organization, focusing on family support for wounded veterans, the importance of maintaining family unity, and the innovative programs like Mobility is Freedom and Dunham House. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by veterans and their families, the significance of quality of life, and the role of community support in enhancing veterans' lives.

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Transcript

Brandy Schantz (00:00.938)
Welcome back. This is Living Chronic and you're listening to Brandy Shantz and Katherine McCauley, CEO and President of Wounded Warriors Family Support. Welcome Katherine.

Kate MCCauley (00:12.261)
Thank you, thank you for having me.

Brandy Schantz (00:14.872)
Thank you for being here. So there's a lot of charities out there that focus on the military and veterans. Tell me a little bit about Wounded Warriors Family Support and what makes you unique.

Kate MCCauley (00:29.625)
Well, I consider us very unique. I've been with the organization for 18 years and we started back in the early 2000s and we were just pretty much a pass the hat organization. Our founder, Colonel Folsom, was a med vac helicopter pilot over in Iraq and he would be transporting the critically injured into the Germany hospitals where they basically cut the veterans clothes right off of them. So they had no comfort items, no linens for the hospital.

Colonel went back to his unit and said, hey, we need to do something to help out our young soldiers. And so they did basically a pass the hat. They provided linens to the hospitals, calling cards back in that day was a big thing, and laptop computers. And so it was really hard for them to actually donate it to the hospital. So they started their 501C3 called Wounded Warriors. And that's how the organization actually got started.

Brandy Schantz (01:29.664)
And you've done a lot of great work supporting families, which is something I've been talking a lot about. This podcast is about living chronic, living with chronic illness, a disability, but it's also about family support and caregivers because we can't live without our family support and caregivers. And you've done a lot to help the families of wounded warriors. So tell me a little bit about what you've done for families over the years, especially in those years

when the Iraq war was still going on and we had so many wounded warriors going into Germany and coming back to the United States.

Kate MCCauley (02:09.445)
We did have a lot of casualties and also injured, critically injured, severely injured. when I started back in 2007, what I was seeing as honestly, was just answering the phone. We had very, very few programs back then. We were still being created. But one thing that was very important to Colonel John Folsom, our founder, was that anything we create at Wounded Warriors was going to be really surrounded by the family. It was going to be something that was going to make that family stay intact.

and grow stronger after mom or dad's come back from combat, critically injured, disfigured. And so he wanted to do something specifically at that time for those kids that got to see mom and dad. And that's when we started our first program, which was sending the families to Orlando, Florida, where partners have picked up with us for over 22 years at Orlando SeaWorld and Legoland to provide free passes to our veteran families.

What's most important is the family got to go together after mom or dad is healed from their injuries and they got to create new memories. We send about 200 families per year. It's not just a vacation. A lot of families have been through so many surgeries, so many dynamics. They've given up their bodies, their body parts.

relationships with their children, their children become secondary caregivers, which is a whole other subject. But again, we wanted to really make a difference in keeping that family together when they're going through such horrific times. And they still continue to have those times medically and also psychologically to this day.

Brandy Schantz (04:01.716)
Yes, I think that's one of the most important things we can be talking about. And I don't think we talk about it enough is the impact of disability on your loved ones, your caregivers, and the children especially, because that is true. So often children become caregivers long before they should ever be doing something of that magnitude. We talk a lot about what it means for a spouse when somebody's become suddenly disabled because you marry one person.

And then suddenly you find yourself in a, you know, it's the same person, but they're in a very different circumstance and you're trying to redefine your relationship around that new circumstance and redefine your relationship now with somebody that has to provide some care for that person. And the children on the other hand, who we don't talk about enough are just born into this caregiver role long before they should have to do something like that. And there is a long-term effect on these.

these children and we don't focus on them enough. So I think it's really great that you're doing something to focus on the children who are affected so greatly by these kinds of things. So one of my favorite things about your charity is it's four star rated. So why is that important? I think many people have forgotten the Iraq years and they, you know, don't just don't think about people rushing out.

Kate MCCauley (05:02.582)
Thank you.

Kate MCCauley (05:15.449)
Yes.

Brandy Schantz (05:26.122)
start a 501c3, but that is exactly what happened over those years. And there were so many, and there still are so many charities that say, focus on veterans, I focus on wounded warriors, I focus on the military. And not all are equal in doing the same thing. You do have a four star rating, which is very important. So tell me a little bit about how you achieve that why it's important.

Kate MCCauley (05:52.709)
It's really important for people that want to give to a charity that they really do their homework because as you mentioned, we had so many wounded warrior organizations pop up. had, after 9-11, there was a lot of organizations that popped up, but none of them ever, some of them never even made a grant to a veteran. So it's important that people look. CharityNavigator.org is a very, very good tool.

We just started growing and as we were growing, we were very, very considerate of what that money is for. When we get a donation in, we want to make sure that we're allocating that to a veteran or to a veteran family. What's different about us is we are giving that veteran or that family a service or a grant of some sort that's going to make their life change, which could be a vehicle grant. It could be respite. It could be something of that sort. So we're giving a direct

direct service. A lot of organizations, especially larger organizations, they have these huge gala events and they have all this money being spent and fundraising spend spenditures that are really

really high. And what they're doing is they're taking away money that could go to those veteran families. So we're very conservative. We spend about 88 % of the money that comes in goes directly to our veteran families. And we're proud of that. And we do keep our salaries in balance because of that, because it's very important for us to know that the money that's coming here was not intended for our salaries or for our glamour or glory.

was for these veteran families and so we want to know want you to know that that's really important to us.

Brandy Schantz (07:43.134)
It's such an amazing thing. And I try to remember each and every time I look at a charity to go and check out that rating because it is important. And you want to make sure that if you're giving money, you're giving it for a good reason and going to a good cause. So I just think that's amazing. I want to talk a little bit about the vehicles because there's so much that comes along with being disabled.

Kate MCCauley (07:44.442)
Thank

Brandy Schantz (08:09.525)
that you don't think about until you yourself are disabled or somebody that you're close to, a loved one becomes disabled. And one of those things that the many privileges I like to say that you don't think you have until suddenly you have a disability and you have to think of such, I mean, the second and third order effects of everything you do really, you how does this disability affect this? How do I get about my day with this disability? How do I accommodate this? And part of that

is having the right vehicle to be able to drive and driving of course is a huge part of being an independent person. So when you lose that ability to drive it really limits you in what you can achieve whether it be going to work or being able to go to the grocery store on your own you know it's and it's kind of double I used to love to walk everywhere before I had my nervous system disorder and it's just not possible anymore.

Kate MCCauley (08:48.357)
Definitely.

Brandy Schantz (09:09.011)
You know, yeah, I can still walk, but I can't do long distances or such weird equation where I've done this much walking earlier. I can't do it later. And, you know, I need X amount of rest time. So people don't think about it. And you've thought about it and you're doing work with vehicles and getting these custom vehicles to people who need them. So tell me a little bit about what you're doing around that.

Kate MCCauley (09:30.545)
Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up because it's super important. It's one of our most expensive programs that we operate through Wounded Warriors Family Support and it's called Mobility is Freedom, created by Colonel John Folsom researching veterans that are severely injured. What were they needing? One important thing for us was not to recreate what somebody else is already doing. So we found that there was a need for severely injured veterans that are missing limbs. Some of them, it could be one

limb, two limbs, three limbs, it could be half of a body. We have done a veteran vehicle grant and we are able to make that veteran driving independence, which is amazing because back in, you know, 20 years ago that wasn't possible. It wasn't possible to have them even be in a vehicle, honestly, with some of the injuries that we see. And so it does take a lot of money. The vehicles range about and we do have corporate sponsors.

We have two of them every year that donate a full vehicle grant. they will grant up to $80,000. And so that leaves us some money to do those modifications. And the modifications can be somewhere 30 to 35,000, depending on what they need. What I want you to understand is a lot of people say, well, isn't the VA helping? Well, the VA may have helped one time when they were injured, but they have to reapply every year.

the technology for today's modifications and adaptable driving, you need to have the newest vehicle and you have to have everything data so we can get the technology in there. And so it really creates a problem for veterans. How do you spend $80,000 on a vehicle? It's just really not happening. And so they're losing their driving independence and they're also being denied their VA benefit.

believe they can apply every four years if I'm not mistaken, only that would only give them $25,000. And a lot of them have already utilized that because we're looking at veterans that have been injured for 22 to 25 years. And so they're aging and their medical condition is not getting any better. And they're driving once we get them, we actually will meet the veteran ahead of time to find out what that veteran needs. And then we purchase the vehicle.

Brandy Schantz (11:33.302)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (11:43.061)
Right.

Kate MCCauley (11:59.256)
and then we ship the vehicle to our place in Chantilly where they do the modifications. We have to fly the veteran in a couple times depending on where they live so they can be fitted for the modifications and so they can learn the technology so once they drive away, if the battery dies, they're going to know what to do. So there's a lot of things that go behind the scene, a lot of things that the VA does not pay for, and a lot of times they're looking at charities like us because they've heard,

Maybe we could get some driving independence. Maybe we could get a $30,000 grant. So we've been doing this since 2018. We spent about $1.5 million a year supplying vehicle grants and modifications. And one of my favorite stories is we had a gentleman, his name is JD. We used to call him Jack Daniels, but it's JD. He's in a wheelchair and he's buzzing around. He's getting ready to get his truck. And he had two young boys.

and they were just all over the truck. They were so proud of their dad and it was just so cool. And when I talked to JD, I said, well, JD, what do you think about today? And he said, I just can't believe that America didn't forget us. And so that was something really touching to say, 20 years later, I've got two limbs missing, I got two young boys and look at what I've been blessed with. And that's one thing I love about this organization is that we've

Brandy Schantz (13:03.509)
No.

Brandy Schantz (13:13.164)
Hmm.

Kate MCCauley (13:28.869)
and able to stay relevant where America wants to give because that's where our money comes from. We're not federally funded at all. So that was a long.

Brandy Schantz (13:36.121)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's That's an amazing story and it's just so I can never emphasize how important the work you're doing with these vehicles Just how important it is it gives the veterans freedom it it gives freedom to the family and caregivers as well I've done a lot of episodes recently for the this special military series and

Kate MCCauley (13:53.251)
us.

Brandy Schantz (13:59.915)
We feature a spouse who's been a caregiver. She's a veteran herself and a nurse practitioner. She's been a caregiver for her husband as well. And she can't even work full time because she has to spend so much of her time taking care of her husband. And part of that is if the veteran can't drive, taking them to every appointment, getting them to the grocery store if they want something, getting them to whatever special

Kate MCCauley (14:19.706)
All

Brandy Schantz (14:27.988)
or events they want to do. having that special vehicle so that they can have their independence and also give a break to the caregiver is just one of the most amazing things you can do for somebody.

Kate MCCauley (14:38.213)
And it also helps with the isolation. A lot of our veterans feel there's a lot of suicide and you know being able to you know grab your keys and go out the door and take a ride. It means a lot to someone that normally wouldn't be able to have that privilege anymore.

Brandy Schantz (14:43.404)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Brandy Schantz (14:54.293)
Yes.

Brandy Schantz (14:59.776)
You're absolutely right. I'm glad you brought that up. I say all the time, you know, there's many reasons why veterans may commit suicide, but the number one reason we see veterans who commit suicide, you know, or certainly from everything I've read, this is not an official study, folks, but it really comes down to quality of life. What is your quality of life? What can you do each and every day? And so often it comes down to they've just lost quality of life. And that's what

drives this. It's not not having access to somebody to talk to. It's not, you know, a lack of, you know, suicide awareness. We certainly have done that. It's just simply not having a quality of life. So giving somebody a quality of life, that's how we prevent veteran suicide. So when people ask, how do you, how do we prevent veteran suicide?

give them a quality of life and that's exactly what you're doing.

You also have a new program, Dunham House. Tell me more about that.

Kate MCCauley (16:12.921)
The Dunham House, my lovely Dunham House. This has been on our radar for about 10 years. And when I say our radar, Colonel Folsom and myself, we thought 10 years ago, if we could just get enough money together and buy a big parcel of land, everybody will come. Well, we did that and they didn't come. We ended up, it's a really, really great story. I hope you have time for it. I'll be quick. But long story short, we had a donor that left us

Brandy Schantz (16:39.146)
Yes.

Kate MCCauley (16:42.895)
estate. It was one of the first estates the organization had ever received and it was for $600,000. So we took the $600,000 and we went and purchased a piece of property. It was 80 acres. It was in a rural area in Nebraska and our goal was to build a combat wounded care facility for veterans and we thought this is going to be great. Well the property that we purchased, it was almost impossible to get water and sewer and utilities to the property.

which we didn't really know that when we purchased it. It was old farmland where we had to get it rezoned, which we did the rezoning, but we had a very wealthy neighbor that lived nearby that probably had his outbuildings, his horse building was probably a stable, maybe $50,000. So if they could kind of tell you that was their stable, they really didn't want a building of our sort next to them or anywhere in their view. And so we kind of went back and forth.

for a year or so but he ended up buying the property from us for over three times of what it was worth. And so we're like okay well so we went and found a different piece of property. We bought 40 acres. We bought it in a really beautiful area. We were able to save a lot of the trees and

Brandy Schantz (17:49.12)
Mmm. Good.

Kate MCCauley (18:02.135)
It's nearby more medical facilities, it's in town and we actually started construction May 6th on it. It'll be done about 2026. We're looking at an opening of September 11th on purpose. We wanted to make that day special and it'll be 30 units. It's 27,000 square feet, 30 individual apartment homes and it will have a lodge fill. It'll be an upscale lodge fill.

Brandy Schantz (18:18.54)
Hmm.

Kate MCCauley (18:32.099)
the exterior will have walking trails, everything ADA and perfect for lighting and all that security and everything that you need. So we're really excited and what's perfect about this is that we are not using any federal money to build and if you've ever looked around to see what that veteran housing looks like, it doesn't look really great. So we're hoping to change that. This is kind of our protege to say hey if we're doing it here in a

maybe we want to do it in other states, but we are super excited. It will be for veterans with combat wounds and traumatic brain injuries. And our application is now open online, so we're excited about that.

Brandy Schantz (19:17.652)
That's amazing. What a great, what a great. Yes.

Kate MCCauley (19:19.873)
all with the great American people that have given to this organization, that have believed in us, we wouldn't be here without that support. So I can't emphasize that enough.

Brandy Schantz (19:32.941)
It's really amazing that you're doing this. think we've talked about a lot on this show. There was a time period where if you were in the military or a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan, it felt that everybody was ready to stand up and do whatever they could for you. And now, you know, many of us are facing, depending on what state you live in, potential.

loss of some benefits because it's now very expensive, you know, those of us who are 100 % disabled, your children can go to college for free in many states. Well, here we are, you know, next year, of course, will be the 25th anniversary of 9-11. So those children are now going to college or in college and it's turning out to be very expensive. And often we feel

right now that we're a bit more of just a burden cost-wise. You know, it's like everybody put us on the credit card, rah rah rah, help the veterans. And now that that credit card bills do, nobody really wants to pay it because it's really high. And I think it's really important that we remember that we took that burden on, a very small percentage of Americans took that burden on. We conducted two major wars without ever implementing a draft.

We never implemented a war tax. There were no rationing, nothing. Nobody had to sacrifice a thing. It was just a very small percentage of Americans that went out and took on the burden of those two major wars. And it's really important to remember that those people now need help and we can't be afraid of that credit card bill. And we need to remember good charities.

Kate MCCauley (21:17.261)
I do know rich families' children did not go to war. It was the ones that signed up that put their lives on the line for us. And we do owe it to them and to their families to always be here to support them the best way we can.

Brandy Schantz (21:23.798)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (21:27.617)
Yep.

Brandy Schantz (21:37.835)
Yeah, I think it's very easy to forget when you're now just a budget item. But of course, at that time, had this war been conducted in a manner similar to previous wars, there would have been a draft and far more people would have had to learn what it's like to worry about their kid being gone, to hold their breath when the notification team starts driving down a street wondering if it's you.

Kate MCCauley (21:41.413)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (22:04.232)
losing a parent as a small child, there were just so many things that people never had to deal with with this particular war. I try to remind people over and over again, you didn't have to sacrifice anything. Your parents, maybe you're young, didn't have to sacrifice anything. This was a burden shouldered by a very, very small percentage of Americans. So this house is amazing. And so when people apply, so

Kate MCCauley (22:27.013)
Great.

Brandy Schantz (22:33.224)
You're a veteran. Disabled veterans, of course, receive a disability rating and a monthly stipend for that disability. Tell me a little bit about how much of that stipend goes towards the living facility.

Kate MCCauley (22:47.685)
That's a really good question and it's something that we on our performa, have 80 % of that disability would go to the community. And I want you to know that included in that would be their daily meals, their housekeeping, their laundry and things like that. Now, what I would like to see happen, depending on how America likes what we're doing, it would be great if the organization could pick up part of that and supplement some of that.

that veteran keeps more of that 80 percent. For the first go around that's kind of where we're at right now but it's something that we will address as we get further along in the project and we have actual veterans living in the facility. If we have a surplus in money we're going to spend it on them. We're going to spend it on them and so I could see that happening very easily.

Brandy Schantz (23:41.876)
Yes. So Kate, if somebody wants to apply, where do they go to apply to be a resident of Dunham House?

Kate MCCauley (23:45.222)
So you got to the...

The Dunham House.org and the name was named after Corporal Jason Dunham. He was a Marine, very young Marine when he enlisted and he threw his body over a grenade to save his unit. And so there's a movie coming out about him. There's some other things about him. We happened to meet his family. I personally met the family, Colonel met the family when Jason was in the hospital. Jason was actually brought back to the States, which a lot of people don't know, but he survived for five days.

and finally they had to take him off life support, but he was a tough guy and we're certainly honored to honor him and honor his family. He was also awarded the Medal of Honor. I don't know if you knew that or not, but that's why the facility is so incredible. The other thing that we're doing that the public doesn't really know about, we're doing one of the first memorials of all the killed in action from that era and that has not been done. So we have additional...

Brandy Schantz (24:18.924)
Ow.

Kate MCCauley (24:49.067)
areas on our property where we're going to have that. I could see it being like almost like a place people will stop along the way if they're in Nebraska.

Brandy Schantz (24:56.564)
That's amazing. That's really amazing. Thank you so much for everything you do.

Kate MCCauley (25:01.935)
So welcome. Thanks for having me and letting me talk, talk, talk your ear off.

Brandy Schantz (25:07.212)
Now, this is a great charity and I think it's so important to feature great charities because not every charity is out there doing the kind of work you are. And I really love that you also have a focus on family because the caregivers don't get enough attention and they do so much to keep us alive. It's not just us waking up and dealing with difficulties each and every morning. It's the people that love us too.

Kate MCCauley (25:33.903)
Definitely.

Brandy Schantz (25:34.44)
So it's really important to remember them as well. Thank you so much. Wounded Warriors family support. I'm going to be sure to put all your information in the show notes. So please, if you're looking for a great charity to donate to, remember Wounded Warrior family support. Check them out and be sure to get those wallets open.

Kate MCCauley (25:38.489)
You're welcome.

Kate MCCauley (25:43.641)
Thank you.

Kate MCCauley (25:58.862)
And be sure to listen to Brandy. Have a good one. Thank you.

Brandy Schantz (26:01.261)
Thank you so much You too