Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
From Marine to Mentor: Ryan Woodruff's Journey at Clear Path for Veterans
When Marine veteran Ryan Woodruff returned from two combat deployments to Iraq, he found himself adrift in civilian life. "It was even difficult just to strike up casual conversation," he reveals, describing the profound disconnect many veterans experience after service. Today, as CEO of Clear Path for Veterans, he's transforming lives through programs built on firsthand understanding of the military-civilian divide.
The heart of Woodruff's story isn't just his personal journey from infantryman to nonprofit leader, but how his organization approaches veteran services differently. Rather than imposing pre-packaged solutions, Clear Path designs programs by asking: "What would I want if I were in their shoes?" This veteran-centered philosophy drives everything from their weekly "Canteen" meals serving hundreds of veterans to their gold-standard service dog program.
What sets their service dog initiative apart is its meticulous approach. Each dog undergoes a two-year training journey costing $25,000-$50,000, from purpose-bred puppies raised by volunteer "canine guardians" to professional training tailored to address specific veteran needs related to PTS or traumatic brain injury. Unlike organizations with years-long waiting lists, Clear Path commits to placing dogs within 12 months or referring veterans to partner organizations, ensuring timely support.
Serving 33 counties across New York state through mobile outreach, Clear Path embodies Woodruff's conviction that "we owe it to them to welcome them home, not just thank them for service." With 200,000+ veterans leaving service yearly, his organization provides a blueprint for how communities can truly support military transitions through meaningful connection, purpose-driven programs, and recognition of each veteran's unique journey.
Want to support Clear Path's mission? Visit clearpathforveterans.com to learn how you can contribute to their work providing service dogs, culinary programs, and comprehensive support to veterans at no cost.
Good morning. I'm your host, Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and unfortunately this week our co-host, John Wall, is not available, so he won't be joining us, but we have an excellent guest Ryan Woodruff is joining us. He is the CEO of Clear Path for Veterans, which is a veteran service organization located in upstate New York, and they have a bunch of amazing programs. I was taking a look at their webpage and great webpage, great programs. The one I'm really interested in talking to them about is the service dogs for veterans. So, ryan, welcome to the podcast.
Ryan Woodruff:Thanks, larry, appreciate you having me. I think it's incredible what you're doing and look forward to the conversation.
Larry Zilliox:Well, if you would tell us why you are a Marine Corps veteran. So let's start with you explaining why you chose the Marine Corps and not the Air Force.
Ryan Woodruff:Well, every story has a beginning, middle and end, and I'll try to keep it concise. I've always wanted to be a Marine. I mean, I knew from a very young age I wanted to be in the military. I grew an affinity for the Marine Corps. Actually, as early as grade school I was introduced to Full Metal Jacket and some of the old military movies, and you would think that would have deterred me. Yeah right, but I just became affixed by it and I love the idea of joining a fraternity and a brotherhood fighting after a common cause. And the Marine Corps has this reputation for being challenging, producing hard men and all that. And so I was like that's it, that's what I got to do and that's going to be the goal. Wow, when did you join 2005.?
Ryan Woodruff:So, again, like I knew I was going to join, I wanted to enlist. I told my mother that this is what I wanted to do. My mom raised us, my brother and I, and at 17, I showed up with a recruiter and I was like all right, now's the day, like I, if you could just sign these enlistment papers, it's going to give me a little bit of a headstart so that you know when I actually do ship off to Parris Island, I at least have some basic knowledge and fitness so that I can get through boot camp and all that. And she knew I was doing it and she didn't enthusiastically sign the papers, but she did and a couple of months later she signed the papers for my brother as well and we both shipped off to Parris Island at the same time.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, wow. And how long were you in?
Ryan Woodruff:Four years. So I did one term in the infantry and at the time it was at the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom. So, knowing that I was enlisting in the Marine Corps and a combat MOS, I had known full well that I'd be deploying to Iraq very shortly after, and at the time I've embraced that I said, well, this is really kind of putting the money where my mouth is and this is what I wanted to do. I why enlist and join a combat MOS if I don't plan on going to fight for my country? So again, I, you know I did that and very shortly after enlisting, within about seven months or so give or take, I was off on my first deployment to Iraq.
Larry Zilliox:How many times did you go over?
Ryan Woodruff:Twice.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, and so now, what was it that said to you? That spoke to you and said I'm out four years I'm out. It's not a career for me.
Ryan Woodruff:Hard times, not to say that I didn't embrace those hard times, but, having experienced a lot of loss on my first deployment, not everybody came home and that was something hard to wrestle with.
Ryan Woodruff:At 19 years old and experiencing some of those things within, I would say, some of the most formative periods of my life, I started to look at the bigger picture and, you know asking myself is this, what? What am I risking here? And which I was full, fully ready to do in terms of if I didn't make it home? I, you know I had wrestled with that before I left, that before I left. But after experiencing two deployments to Iraq and doing all that, I started to think about like, am I ever going to start a family or go to college or build a career for myself that goes beyond the walls of the military? So I started to really, you know, think about that. And it just so happened that when it came time for re-enlistment and some of the offers were put on the table, I had already decided that I was gonna go the civilian route and see what I can do on the outside world.
Larry Zilliox:So, um, that puts you like 2009, you're out and what um? What do you do? What? What was your transition like?
Ryan Woodruff:That's a great question. And I had a plan and it was, you know, with the background that I had in the infantry, I thought law enforcement was just going to be what made sense. And so I got out of the military, I used my GI Bill and went to school for criminal justice and ended up pursuing law enforcement with the state police, local police, and at the time there really wasn't a lot of hiring going on. So those plans fell through pretty quickly and I had to pivot and think about well, if I'm not going to do this, what else is it? What am I going to do?
Ryan Woodruff:That aligns with my purpose, my identity, which I would say was compromised at that time because I was in a community in which I couldn't identify with anybody really, you know, being in college as a 22 year old that's had two combat tours under their belt and has gone through some of those experiences. It was even difficult just to strike up casual conversation. So I was really struggling to just find myself, I guess, is the best way to put it. Sure, and I had to make a new plan, and so I did. I ended up going to college for forestry and natural resources and pursued a career in arboriculture, and I did that for about six years, but the time in the military and then the continued damage I was doing on my physical health with that type of career. I was just setting myself up for what could potentially be an early medical retirement, which I did not want to do, so I ended up finding ClearPath a couple of years later.
Larry Zilliox:Right, and you began with ClearPath as a peer support specialist. Is that right?
Ryan Woodruff:Yeah, a friend of mine was working here at the time and we went to college together. He was also in the Marine Corps and he was running the employment program and he said, hey, we're looking for a veteran that has successfully transitioned from the military culture to civilian society and we happen to be looking for somebody within your geographic range and with your experiences, we think that you'd be good for that position. It's like okay, well, that sounds like perfect.
Larry Zilliox:I have to laugh because that's like looking for a unicorn. It is A veteran who successfully transitioned. I wish people could understand that. But yeah, you're good enough for the position, 100%. Yeah, that's just awesome. We're looking for a veteran who successfully transitioned. That's awesome.
Ryan Woodruff:And what I didn't know then, that I know full well now that I was just starting on a journey that would take me about a decade to really figure out. Yeah, you know how to transition. Some of the things I could have been doing, that I should have been doing um, behavioral habits, just that, things that I was pursuing that were were just not healthy right, and it took me a very long time to figure that out and it just happened to be my work as a peer mentor was doing a lot for me in that area, just connecting with other veterans and talking with them and identifying with some of the experiences that they were having and some of the challenges that they were trying to overcome. I started to take a closer look at my own life and say, if I'm going to go out there and travel around connecting with other veterans across the state of New York and try to help them get back on their feet, I have to start doing something personally for myself, which led me down a couple different paths.
Larry Zilliox:You got hired on to ClearPath. How did ClearPath for Veterans start?
Ryan Woodruff:It's a great question. So it actually started by a community member, a civilian local to central New York who was running a dog training studio, and at the time her name is Melissa Spicer. She was going through some of her own struggles trying to have children and not being able to do that and some health issues and a veteran had approached her at her dog training studio and said like, hey, I got this idea in which I would love to and this is back in 2011, before the you know, the resurgence of some of these service dogs or organizations that were popping up I had this idea of starting a program dedicated to training service dogs for veterans that are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. Before this all came to fruition, she she had actually thought this guy was a veterinarian because he said that and she thought he was trying to sell her products at her dog training studios she kind of kept blowing them off and then eventually she put two and two together and he kept reaching out and it's like, oh, you're a veteran and you're trying to start a service dog program and with her skill sets and her experience and what she was doing for decades and what he was trying to accomplish.
Ryan Woodruff:It was a great synergy. So Melissa and her sister, melinda, along with an Air Force veteran that continued to approach her this guy named Steve Kinney together, the three of them are co-founders started ClearPath in 2011. Of my co-founders started ClearPath in 2011. Similar to what you do at the Warrior Retreat, they acquired a large property, about 78 acres, with what used to be an old recreation center for families. That went into disrepair, went on the market and they were able to purchase this property and start developing these programs, beginning with what was called Dogs to Vets at the time and then moving into the peer support arena as well shortly after.
Larry Zilliox:So fast forward. You come on board and you're now the CEO. I'm going to attribute that to your skills and your ability, and not that you're the last man standing. So what was it like to kind of take command of the ship and say this is the direction we want to go, and this is what we want to do, and this is how we're going to get there?
Ryan Woodruff:That's a great question.
Ryan Woodruff:I will say, first off, like I never wanted to be the CEO while I'm full of gratitude and humility and just never felt like I had the business acumen to run an organization of this size and going back to my days as an infantryman, I just would look in the mirror and, like you know, you go through a period of self-doubt and say like, why me, why would I be qualified to do this incredible work?
Ryan Woodruff:So it was a difficult transition personally for me to accept that role.
Ryan Woodruff:But all the while I mean you know, going back, I've been here for nine years now when I started here as a peer mentor, I would just really look at the lived in experience approach from the veterans perspective and how could we design our programs and services to really truly meet the unique needs of the veterans and the challenges that they're facing, including their families.
Ryan Woodruff:So you know, thoughtfully, over time, I would just say, hey, maybe we could take a different approach here or we could change the program design. In this way we could end up serving more people or we could potentially hit a niche of veterans that we're not targeting right now and over time, just started really taking a closer look at program design and developing these programs. It really helped elevate the organization and all I was doing was just taking it from a. I've been through this. I know what these men and women are experiencing and if I was in their shoes and coming to ClearPath, this is how I would want to be treated. These are the types of services that I would be interested in participating in. I was a peer mentor for about a year before I moved into the canine program, and that's a whole separate chapter but essentially doing the same thing.
Larry Zilliox:Well, I like your approach to it in that there's a lot of VSOs out there that say, well, let's see we can do this, and then we're just going to give what we do to veterans without even figuring out if that's really what veterans want or need. It's like here take it, this is what we do. We know you need it, but they really don't. And there's a lot of organizations with programs and services that get very little attention because they're just not appropriate for the area, for the type of clientele, and I like that you have that approach to say these are the services that veterans need. That we're, you know, talking to veterans. We do the same thing here. We're constantly polling our alumni, we're constantly asking the families when they stay. You know, what can we do better? What do you need? What did we not have that you were looking forward to? And it's just great.
Larry Zilliox:And I've looked at the programs online. I'm very interested in the culinary program. As director of culinary services here, I get the honor of working with the finest military chefs in the world. They're all here around the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs and the Naval Observatory and the White House, and so they come out and volunteer to do dinners for family, and so I'm just fascinated by your culinary program. How did it?
Ryan Woodruff:get started. So back in the early days of Clear Path Melissa, she read a story about a small town in Nebraska called North Platte. Oh yeah, you may have heard this, my uncle lives there.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, my cousin lives there?
Ryan Woodruff:Yeah, been there, so you're familiar with the canteen. Yes, that's right, it's a rail town yeah.
Ryan Woodruff:Yeah, and she attached herself to that concept and just said you know, there's these servicemen and women that were returning home from the war and the community embraced them by providing home-cooked meals as soon as they were coming off these trains. And she wanted to. She thought about, like how could we do this? We already we had a commercial kitchen that was already established on the property, needed some repair, but there was just opportunity right. So she started the concept locally of canteen, in which every Wednesday between volunteers and our culinary staff, we put on a luncheon open to veterans and their families. And that was the start. So it grew quickly in popularity, I mean, and we had canteen today and we had well over 200 folks coming from the 33 county catchment area that we serve in New York and beyond. I mean, people use the campus as otherwise, if they had nothing to do and not an opportunity to engage with other veterans and family members, clear Path provides that through its canteen. So every Wednesday actually Tuesday is prep time. So Tuesday you have 30 volunteers and a full-time staff about seven people right now including a corporate chef, a sous chef and a few culinary assistants to put together a meal to meet the need which usually we expect upwards of 300 people on any given Wednesday. Sometimes that's weather dependent and it's the test of time. I mean people when they think about ClearPath or they attend our facility, they immediately associate us with the weekly luncheons.
Ryan Woodruff:That we do Doesn't stop there. A couple of years ago we got a food trailer, so now we're taking the canteen on the road and we're going out to local communities across New York and doing what we call mobile canteens and just trying to bring as much of what we do here. It's hard to replicate it because it's a different type of atmosphere. Usually we're partnering with like a local legion or a community provider to allow us to use the space and we'll bring the canteen to them. The other part of that is we do what's called mini mobiles, so there's a lot of community living centers with veterans in them across the area we serve and we'll bring canteen to them as well if they can't get to us. So it's a full-blown show. I mean it takes a village for sure. We couldn't do it without the volunteers coming to support us every week. Oh yeah, pretty big operation, but they do an incredible job. They put out really incredible food. We have local gardens here, so um you know it's, it's.
Larry Zilliox:What are you serving? What's for lunch?
Ryan Woodruff:Uh it, it ranges. Uh, sometimes it's lasagna. Every week it's going to be different. Um, post the menu and let everybody know kind of what we're thinking the week ahead, but always very good food. I always tell people when they think of canteen, it is community building. It's not. While it can be a crisis need, if somebody can't put food on the table, if they need a place to eat, they're certainly welcome to come here and participate. But it's also just about bringing people here to share a meal and very limited to no barrier to entry. Right, we're not checking VA ID cards as people come in. We just open the doors and say come on in, sit down. It's also an opportunity for our peer mentors to go out and talk to other veterans and see if there's any unique needs that they need met to get them enrolled in a case management type of program as well.
Larry Zilliox:And I imagine it's got to be a pretty awesome community outreach program for developing core volunteers.
Ryan Woodruff:Oh yeah for sure, and there's a lot of folks in the community that have retired and are looking for what's next for them, and a lot of them with the cooking experience or are just interested in learning a new skill, and so our culinary team has embraced that, and we have a lot of regulars that just, uh, have stood the test of time with us, and a lot of new folks coming in to to help out how big is your staff there overall? We have 40 full-time employees, seven part-time, good.
Larry Zilliox:Lord.
Ryan Woodruff:It's a yeah mix of veterans and civilians, which is good, because we really part of our vision is bridging the military civilian divide. So we start that inside the walls of ClearPath and that permeates in those that we serve as well.
Larry Zilliox:Wow. Well, we're running here with one full-time executive director and five part-time employees like myself who work full-time, but everything else is done for us by volunteers full-time, but everything else is done for us by volunteers. We're extremely fortunate, and it sounds like you guys are. Most VSOs that are providing direct services to veterans are like that. They couldn't exist without volunteers and without the community giving back. And we also look at it like it's twofold it's we're providing services to veterans, but we're also giving the community a chance to do the same thing and participate in what we get out of it, which is we always get more than we give. And I'm sure you see the same thing with your volunteer community as well.
Ryan Woodruff:Oh yeah, I mean, it's part of our model is service after service, and our biggest desire not biggest, but one of our hopes is that those that go through our programs be it canine, culinary, workforce, development, peer support is that when they get to a place where they're better or that their needs have been met, that they'll turn around and want to give back to the fellow veteran or family member that's also in need.
Ryan Woodruff:So it takes a village, yeah for sure, really does. We're grateful for the community we have. I do miss having a small staff. It's a lot to manage, but it's everybody's here for the right reasons and we, new York state's very large Um again, we cover 33 counties, um, as far North as Canada, as far South as Pennsylvania, all the way out towards the city Buffalo, and our peer mentors live in the counties that we serve, which is good, because if we get a referral from a community provider in a catchment area that's outside of the commuting distance of our campus, the peer mentors that are residing within those counties can get directly to them and help them where they're at, instead of requiring them to come to the campus and so on and so forth.
Larry Zilliox:Sure, you're more likely to be successful bringing services to them than requiring them to travel distances to get service 100%.
Ryan Woodruff:A lot of the vets that we serve don't have transportation or are struggling with homelessness, can't put food on the table, and you know there's some that are really doing well and just getting after it and looking to brush up their resume or find a meaningful career. So there's a huge continuum of those that we serve and we try to have something for everybody, no matter where they're at when they connect with us.
Larry Zilliox:Right, so let's talk about the Service Dog Program, because I love these. We are connected with three or four organizations here in our area and I know many of our listeners understand how important service dogs are to veterans. When they have a service dog, their life changes and your ability to bring that to veterans is very special because you don't charge for anything. This is all funded by grants and donations. But what does your service dog training program look like?
Ryan Woodruff:It's pretty incredible and I'll go back to my experience. When I started here, it was in 2016, under what was called Dogs to Vets, and since we've changed that model and at the time, the organization was partnering with local shelters and helping to rehabilitate some of these dogs coming out of the shelters and train them as service dogs, which is a common model in the industry, and it's not that it can't be successful, but I will say there are a host of challenges that come with a shelter dog model and, at the end of the day, we'll serve a veteran from any era, you know, any age group it's, and we have to ensure that, when we place the dog with a veteran, that they can live a meaningful working life and continue to do the job and also be bulletproof to whatever the environment brings their way running by the restaurant, food being dropped on the floor, you name it. I mean, there's just so many things that a dog is faced with when they're brought out into the community, and so when I started, I I went through the program, so I was a recipient and, uh, I didn't. You know, candidly, I did not have a great experience. I ended up with a dog that could not meet the criteria to become a service dog and I ended up self-selecting myself out of the program.
Ryan Woodruff:But I was left with this dog and she was challenging, to say the least, and I'm grateful for everything that she was, because she really helped me discover my affinity for dog training, for working with other veterans that were going along a similar journey. So the staff at the time invested in me a little bit professionally and they sent me to a dog training school and I learned more skills of the trade. And then I got myself formally involved as a dedicated staff member within the canine program and started to do exactly what I was doing within the peer program, which was just critically evaluate. You know what are we doing? Where's the bar and how do we meet the bar to ensure that this, this is truly meeting the unique challenges of those facing whatever those struggles are that aren't helping them meet their independence.
Ryan Woodruff:And it's there's so many comorbidities when it comes to post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury that not one service dog coming out of our program is going to be the same, because people are different and how they respond to some of these challenges is going to be different, and the dog that they're going to be most compatible with is gonna have to, you know, be able to perform those specialized tasks and those behaviors to help mitigate those symptoms. So, real quick, I went in 2017. I had I went to a conference for assistance dogs international and it's a governing body of providers that establishes very high standards in the service dog industry, and I was immersed in an environment where I saw all of these service dogs that just looked impeccable, like really keyed into their handlers, they were doing their jobs and they were just really incredible and that's that I took away from that. I was like that's the bar, that's where we need to go. We need to become accredited by Assistance Dogs International. We need to establish a breeding program that purposely breeds these dogs that are for this type of job and it's not to discount the human-animal bond in any dog, the human animal bond in any dog and most people get dogs because they're looking for canine companionship and the benefits of the human animal bond, which are all incredible, but when you're taking that dog into public, wherever the general public is legally allowed to go, there's a high bar to be set. And so learned this very quickly through my own experience, through networking, through going to various conferences and learning more about the industry. And for the next four and a half years, we set off to become accredited by ADI and completely transformed this program, and so we were able to achieve that and in 2022, we became accredited by ADI.
Ryan Woodruff:We have a purpose bred puppy development program. We place dogs nationally across the country with veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury and other comorbidities that are associated with that. It takes two years to train our service dogs that was my next question. Yeah, and it takes a village right Volunteers Sure, we have a ton of volunteers Yep Puppy raisers we call them canine guardians that agree to raise these dogs in their home for 18 months and all the while they're receiving training from us and once the dog is 18 months old, they go into their intensive training. They stay with us for six months, in which we professionalize everything about the curriculum. We make sure that they can do all of the tasks associated with the veteran that they're going to eventually go to, that they can navigate all of the challenges with the general public and that they can do it right, because not every dog in training is going to be a service dog. Even when you have the best breeding programs in the world, there's still a rate at which not everyone will make it.
Larry Zilliox:And what's the waiting list look like?
Ryan Woodruff:That's another good question. So our model is unique in that we do open enrollment and so if we can't place a service dog with a veteran within a 12-month period, we're going to refer them to a partnering organization that's also accredited by ADI and that's in the best interest of the veteran that's connecting with us. I just don't believe that telling somebody it's going to be three to five years in order to place them with a service dog is in the best interest for anybody, right in the best interest for anybody.
Ryan Woodruff:So we take a very close look at our forecast every year to know exactly the number of service dogs we're going to be able to place within a given year. We open up our applications and we'll take just a little bit more in case there's a circumstance within the individual's life that changes, so that we have a number of veterans that can be connected with all the service dogs that will be ready for training that given year, which is about 12 to 15 each year. Okay, not a ton, but again, it takes two years to train every dog. We have about 40 dogs in training at any given time and on that staff specifically is about 12 people that are dedicated to doing that work.
Larry Zilliox:How much does it cost you to train the dog through that whole life cycle?
Ryan Woodruff:It ranges. So it'll cost tens of thousands of dollars. I will say it's well over 25 grand to fully train a service dog. At the high end it could be upwards of 50 grand and that really comes down to veterinary health ensuring that they have health clearances for hips, eyes, elbows, heart and the one-on-one training that they're receiving from their trainers. There's a lot of time involved with that, clearly over a two-year period. And then when we're bringing a veteran in from anywhere across the state, we cover all the costs, including accommodations, food, travel, just everything so that it can have that all-inclusive experience and not have to spend a dime. So it does cost a lot of money.
Ryan Woodruff:Unfortunately, we have a series of grants and donations and fundraisers that we do throughout the year to continue to support that effort. Again, I keep saying it takes a village. It certainly does, but we're very. We hold in high regard the animal welfare. So beyond all else we want to make sure that the dogs are getting the highest quality of life, best food available, best training and the best health care available that they can receive. So you know, bringing a veterinarian to come in and do eye clearances, an ophthalmologist or a cardiologist to look at their heart and do ectocardiograms. It costs a ton of money, but it's really important because we want to ensure that when we place the dog, that they're going to live a long, happy, healthy life, to be able to continue to perform the work without an additional burden on the veteran that would require specialized diets or medications or things that wouldn't be reasonable to pass on as a service dog placement.
Larry Zilliox:Right, well, listeners, you heard it there $25,000 per dog just to get them trained up, get them healthy, get them out the door, get them paired with the veteran so that they're performing all the needed tasks. It's not cheap and I want to direct everybody to the webpage. It's clearpathforveteranscom. The four can either be a number or it can be FOR, but I want everybody to go to the webpage, clearpathforveteranscom, and our regular listeners know what I'm going to say. That donate button is up in the right-hand corner. It's red, like every other VSO. Bang on it, give what you can, and I know there's some of you out there going. Well, geez, he says that for every episode. Yeah, I get it, but pick, you know, pick and choose. But this is this is one that really really puts your money to good work. I mean, there's just no doubt about it. I know my sister had a service dog and it changed her life and then it changed her life again, nearly paralyzing her life when her dog passed away, and so I know how important a service dog is to a veteran and they do a lot of programs. They do some amazing work. The culinary program up there is just incredible, but the service dog program is really, I think, the premier program that they offer and it's really the gold standard for any organization that's providing service dogs.
Larry Zilliox:And sadly, there's some out there that just aren't worth anything, that their training is ridiculous, it's very limited, they're charging and if you're a veteran listening to this, you should never have to pay for a service dog. There are organizations that will provide them and it may take a little while, but you don't want to pay. We don't want you paying for a service dog. Most of the organizations that charge for service dogs. You're just not getting anything worth your money, believe me.
Larry Zilliox:But this organization is different. This organization really focuses on the quality of life for the dog, which means that dog is going to be available to that veteran and help that veteran on a daily basis for a long time. And so again, clearpathforveteranscom, bang on that donate button, give what you can a dollar, $10, $1,000, whatever you got. Give it and know that this is an organization that is going to provide, safeguard your money and really use it wisely and and definitely provide an amazing service for veterans. So, ryan, as we kind of wrap up, what's the one thing you want to leave our listeners with that they should know about clear path for veterans?
Ryan Woodruff:well, I would say you back to what I've been saying, less about Clear Path and more about our responsibility as a community. 200,000 plus veterans are leaving the service every year, and it is we owe it to them to pay back for their service, to welcome them home and to provide an environment where they can be as successful as they possibly can be, help them realize their potential. There is no one. I think it's really important that we continue to collaborate as a community of providers and we're not trying to duplicate services that other people are doing well. We're just trying to meet the need and fill gaps. If you're out there and you're providing a unique service and you want to connect with ClearPath so that we can add you to our partner list, we'd love to do that and just keep being a community that cares. So thank you.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah Well, I really love what you say about welcoming them home, because that's our motto here. We have a huge sign at the entrance to the driveway and it says welcome home. We don't say thank you for your service and we're excited to explore a partnership with you. All you know we're a good distance apart, but we're always looking for resources to help inquiries and veterans that need help and service anywhere in the country, and it's just been great having you on today. I really appreciate it.
Ryan Woodruff:Thank you, larry, likewise Appreciate it.
Larry Zilliox:Well for our listeners, we'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. If you like to get up early and listen to podcasts, you can find us on all the podcast platforms. We're also on YouTube and Wreaths Across America Radio. So until the next time, thanks for listening.
