SEASON 3 EPISODE 1 | Dave Woodruff from the Bob Woodruff Foundation

In this episode, Founders Ellen Gustafson and Ben Keiser speak with Dave Woodruff from the Bob Woodruff Foundation to discuss the foundation’s mission and its partnership with the NFL’s Salute to Service initiative, including its presence at the Super Bowl. They also highlight the impact of the Wheelchair Football League, which empowers veterans through adaptive sports, and the VIVA Program, which has helped bring 92 babies into the world by providing in vitro fertilization (IVF) support for veterans. Additionally, they dive into the foundation’s efforts in mental health, housing, food insecurity, and disaster relief, and how listeners can get involved in supporting veterans and military families. 

•
Vetted Conversations is available on
Apple Podcast - apple.co/4m9yiiI
Spotify - spoti.fi/44njiax
Youtube - bit.ly/434md5s
•
#VettedConversations
#NewPodcastEpisode

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Vetted Conversations, where we delve into the foundations, workings, and current challenges to the American way of self-governance. Our mission is to ensure that you, the listener, gain the knowledge and insights alongside us, your veteran and military family member hosts, to become more informed and engaged citizens.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Today, we sat down with Dave Woodrow from the Bob Woodruff Foundation to discuss its origins, salute to service, and how to get involved in 2025. Are we rolling? All right.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Dave Woodrow. Good to see you, Mike. What's going on, Ben? How you doing? We're back here again. I know. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Thank you. Finally get to come to the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Is this the first time you've been here?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

It is. I mean, I think it's because I'm grew up in Philly, so they just like threw me a bone.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, you know, it's the the it'll be a theme throughout this, but you know, I was horrible, terribly hurt by the fact that my lions aren't here.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

I'm sorry. So Bob Woodrup Foundation is a swing to service partner.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

We are.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

How long have you guys been partners?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

We've been partners six years. So I think this might be year seven. Oh, great. And you know, when the NFL came to us and said, look, we we've got all this revenue coming in from swing to service, you know, product that they were selling, you know, they they all of a sudden said we want to honor veterans and all for the right reasons. But they said, gosh, you know, apart from a few key organizations that we're already partnering with, we need a solution to making sure that money goes out and does the best work it can. And they they signed us up and we've been great partners ever since. And the NFL's been an amazing partner for us. They really are, as you know. In 2006, right after my brother Bob Woodruff had been named as new co-anchor World News Tonight with Elizabeth Vargas, uh, he, you know, in typical fashion wanted to be the anchor out in the field in the first assignment. So in January of 2006, and he went over to cover the Palestinian elections, ironically, when Hamas was, you know, came to power. And when that happened, it was a big surprise. So they said, look, ABC said, and David Weston, my good friend now, uh said, look, stay there and you know, cover the reactions. You gotta have George Bush's State of the Union, he's gonna react to that. But Bob, in typical fashion, had already been working on an embed with the 4th Infantry Division in northern Iraq and went on an embed, um, was with his cameraman Doug Vogt doing a stand-up in the this lead Iraqi vehicle, which he wasn't supposed to be in, and an IED went off. But Bob, you know, thank God with the obviously the military medical care he got at Ballard Air Base, Launch Duel in Germany, recovered from a 37-day coma, a serious head injury, and went on back to work a year later. And when that happened, when we realized that he was going to recover and do really well, my wife and I and my sister-in-law said, you know, we could do good with his celebrity. There was nobody talking about TVI, and that was really his big injury at the time. Those explosive uh injuries that were happening. So he could be that guy. He could be the, you know, he could be the Christopher Reeve at the time Chris was still around. Um TVI, you know, and so we started the foundation, and we didn't have any designs on anything other than just helping a few of the families we met at Bethesda Naval Hospital. And we we were like, we can raise a few bucks, not sure how we do that. And then that fall, the New York Comedy Festival popped up and said, We'll do a show, we're doing a show, you guys can be the charitable partner for the opener. And they said we could probably raise $100,000. So we were like, oh my god, that'd be amazing. And then about six weeks before that show, this guy, Bruce Springsteen, contacted my sister-in-law and said, Hey, whatever I can do, you know, let me know. I love Bob's story, it's amazing. And we said, Well, why don't you play the show for us? And he came and we raised two million dollars and it was off three races. So that's the rest of the history. And you know, we we started out working on TBI and all those injuries, those, you know, the invisible wounds of war, we called it. And then we've since then we've evolved because we've evolved with the needs of the of the community. And we're now we're and we can talk about some of that, but we're we're working in all different spaces, everything from housing to food insecurity to mental health, but whatever veterans and now active service members and their families need.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

It's amazing. Yeah, well, the connection is so is so crazy because I was working at ABC News uh at the time when that happened, kind of way, way, way, way down below. But um I it's it's amazing to come full circle and be be working with you guys here. What's your kind of focus this year at the Super Bowl um for the for the you know foundation and obviously all the many needs of of our of our military members and families of veterans? What kind of are you most excited to talk about?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Well, I'll tell you, we had a lot of fun on Monday because we did we, you know, one of the things we've done with the NFL service program is stand up the Wheelchair Football League. And so we had the Wheelchair Football League Veterans All-Star Game on Monday was the first community event for the NFL this week. Seems like it was ancient ago, like you know, dates ago. But that was an incredible event because you see guys, and it was all veterans, obviously, mostly Army this time, who are you know overcoming something that you can't even imagine, you know, amputations, everything. They're in wheelchairs playing essentially what is full contact football. So we did that and focusing on that relationship and you know, that idea of you know, I can get up from my injuries, I can do what I, you know, I can become active again, is a big part. And it it's all about stabilizing people so they can have those successful futures. And we're gonna be doing that. It all kind of ladders up to mental health. The mental health crisis, not only in the U.S. general population, but in the veteran population, is is a is a crisis, it really is. And that's a big focus of our work right now and going into the future.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

That's awesome. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

We got a chance to hang out with the uh winning quarterback yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, yeah, John Rick said. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And he, you know, those guys, I've had this conversation with a number of these athletes now over the course of time, and they almost to a person, especially the veterans that are playing the game, say if it wasn't for wheelchair football, they wouldn't be here. I've heard that multiple times. So, you know, if if you're looking for outcomes, that's a pretty good one. Yeah, but I think what we're now really looking at is, you know, how can we make an exponential impact in this the community that we're serving? Um, you know, Bob is uh I love my brother, and he's as Ellen knows, because he knows personally, he's a real humble guy. This is not, this has nothing to do with you know his career or anything like that. It is really all about trying to be the most effective organization we possibly can be. And for us, you know, we have one program that we stand up, which we're proud of, that we actually operate, which is Viva, our Veterans In Vitro initiative. Yeah. You know, we've had 92 babies born to that program. It's really cool. But we're a grant maker, so we're always out looking for the organizations, organizations that are in this room, organizations that are out there doing the work on the ground, and finding the most effective ones for the dollars that we are so lucky to manage for people and organizations. So in the midterm right now, we're really out very focused on the mental health crisis. And one of the areas that I really impacts me greatly is military kids' mental health. Yeah. So they are subject to, you know, the pressures on kids right now from a social media standpoint, from a performance standpoint at school, all that, all that's just social pressure is creating a mental health crisis. Military kids have it even worse. I mean, they get moved around constantly. I mean, you know, you're yeah, you're you have military kids in it. When you PCS, when you're moving around the country, you have to have a no set of friends. That pressure is really problem. This there's a RAN study about to be released that's really disturbed. Yeah, and it basically says the military kids are are are and and kids military children are committing suicide at a higher rate than better. Yeah, that's just higher rate than better. It's an inexcusable situation for us. And so we're working really hard in that space. We've got some dedicated donors. Um, we're also working, you know, with one of our great partners in Craig Newmark on cybersecurity as it relates to defense. And that's not a primary thing for us, but it is for Craig. And also uh with Craig's assistance, we're working in a lot of space in the natural disaster area. Yeah. You know, what happened, you know, you think about natural disasters, you think about what happened in LA three weeks ago. That's that's affecting veterans. Yeah, I wouldn't think it is, but you know, are you gonna hear the oh it's a bunch of billionaires? It's not. And so we're working in that space as well. Um but for as it turns out, veterans and military family members are kind of everywhere. They're everywhere. Absolutely. And you never, you know, we we we were able to deploy that money very quickly there, down in North Carolina, down in Florida over the course of the last three years with with the hurricanes, et cetera. So we're doing a lot of that work. But I for us, it's also we're also trying to be a part of the positive messaging about service, right? Because we're in a situation right now with recruiting that we can't afford to not support that, right? The VSO community, I think, has to be part of the positive messaging about military service being a thing that you should aspire to. It's a it's a great way to get a leg up as you go into the workforce. So we're doing a lot of that kind of on the side of making sure that we're supporting not only those folks that are getting out, but the folks that that are thinking about getting in because it's a positive thing and you're not you know, this messaging over years of, oh man, if I go into the military, I'm I I'm gonna come out broken. That was just kind of permeated the messaging out there. That's not the case, and we're trying to support quite a lot. So a lot of long-winded answers.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

No, and it's true, it's true. And and and I mean, as a as a as an active duty spouse and a mom of military kids, I can tell you a funny alternative story about military kids that my seven-year-old, um, I've been traveling for these like three-day trips with our organization, and uh her dad had deployed in her seven years of life six times. Yeah, she had the audacity to tell me that my three-day trip was longer than one of his deployments. And I was like, okay, girl.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yeah, because that's your daughter. She's exactly like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

But I do, but I think I think it's true. I think, you know, we're uh the VSO community is in this hard spot of saying, well, we have to raise awareness about the real issues while also not making it seem like the whole story is negative. So I think, you know, one thing we're talking about here a lot is this idea that veterans and military family members are actually more likely to do all positive things in our country, continuing to serve, volunteer, run for office, all the things, donate money, be involved in community organizations. And that's actually the positive narrative, right? Like you you can get out of the military, then go on and do incredible things. Absolutely. And and that's what we're we're here to celebrate as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Good, because I think that's I mean, it's critical, I think, just for the the overall health of the military community, but also for the security of the country. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. And we're who knows where we're going. None of us had military experience. My father served during Korea, but he'll tell you he won't tell you now, unfortunately he's gone, but he will tell you that, would have told you that, you know, he went, he got drafted because he bailed out of college like three different times. Um he ended up being a radar technician in London during Korea. He never went to Korea, but those two years that he was in set him up for his career. He didn't know it. I mean, he ended up becoming working for a reliance electric guy to Dayton, Ohio, and was an incredibly successful sales guy because he learned electronics while he was in the army for two years. But we had no experience with it. So for us, when we started this, this getting involved with the military, we we just we saw people think who were heroes to us. Like literally, for my brother, guys like you know, Rocco Armanda, who was his his neurosurgeon, who saved his life basically. Uh you know, the guys that we have met over the years, like I met like Jim Casquerette, his commanding officer, who when he found out he was in a lot of trouble, he took his entire he was it was the three-star charger, two-star, he took his entire security team to Ballot Airbase to see how Bob was doing. He got there and they had run out of his blood type. And three of his guys matched, they did direct in transfusions to my brother. He just we just found this story out this year.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

So for us, we were just like, we have to give back to these guys. We have to do this. And you know, people ask us all the time, like, well, you know, Bob could have just gone on with his career, like said, you know what, thanks guys, I appreciate it. I've got a job to do. Wasn't in them. Yeah. What was in them was to to do this and give back and and make sure that uh I took care of the guys that that you know he met over all the the years from you know his time in Bosnia all the way through to Iraq. So it's been a it's been a great thing, and we we want to see it continue. This will be this is year number 19.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

It's amazing. I know, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Thank you guys for doing you know, and small of us, you know, veterans, military valley members. How can we help you? How can the folks watching this?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

You know, I I I it it's interesting because obviously, I think for us, here's the other thing, and this is gonna sound she's gonna laugh at me because it's gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

We don't have a lot of awareness. And the reason for that is you know, we're not we're not a you know retail brand of the PSO space, right? We're our friends out there, you know, Wood and Warrior Project and DAV, they are well known. I mean we've got about, if you look at the numbers, about a 25% awareness, which is actually pretty good. But like people can help by I think just just talking about what the foundation does. It's hard because we we give the credit to the organizations that are doing the work on the ground, right? We we want to we want to promote them and and we do that by the way through the Got Your Six network. And that's a that's something that you know has come to fruition over the course of the last you know few years, um, thanks to Craig again. But that is uh now the biggest non-governmental network of of veteran serving organizations in the country. We reach about 98% of all veterans and service members. I think there's only 14 counties that we don't have reach into. So getting people to, you know, I think helping us talk about the foundation, what we do, talk about the need for those local communities organizations supporting them. I mean, we can do a lot of that, but it's really important to local folks in their hometowns who help their organizations as well. And obviously getting involved with you guys and supporting Military 250, I think the you know the way that everybody's coming together in this this anniversary year of the of the arm or of the Marine Corps and everything else is really kind of a great time right now to bring the focus back because we're we're a lot of years out from active wars, although all of us know there's people fighting and shooting every day for us. But that's I think I think telling the story, keeping everybody aware that the needs are still there, they're not getting any smaller. Right. I mean, we're trying to, you know, we we saw an 8% reduction in veteran homelessness in the last two years. I'd like to see it you know go away, you know, like this these efforts for built for zero and things that organizations are doing. But we're making an impact, we know that, but I think we just have to keep people thinking about it because there's been a lot of distractions when you know we come out of a political year, people are donating to political causes. They're maybe they can come out of that now. We've got um you know social justice issues which are extremely important, uh, and and we want people to support those. But think about the military, think about veterans because they're still there fighting for us. 200,000 a year get out, we need to help them when they come out.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Well, I mean, people within the community know about the great work that the Woodrow Foundation does, so you can you can rest assured with that. In today's confusing world, it's more important than ever to understand how our government works and how we as patriotic citizens can actively participate in conversations about protecting our freedom.