The Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience
Nikki Bascome and Reuel Sample combine to bring you a tour de force of events and happenings in New Hanover County, North Carolina. Tune in to hear political discussions from the realistic right, cultural discussions, and laughter at the always crazy reality of our present culture.
The Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience
Military Missions In Action - with Zak Keisler
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Summary
In this episode of the Nikki and Reuel podcast, hosts Reuel Sample and Nikki Bascome welcome Zak Keisler from Military Missions in Action (MMIA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting veterans in North Carolina. Zak shares the impactful work MMIA does, including providing essential services to unhoused veterans, building ramps for accessibility, and the importance of community support and donations. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by veterans, the organization's growth, and upcoming fundraising events to sustain their mission.
Takeaways
- Military Missions in Action focuses solely on North Carolina veterans.
- The organization was founded to address unmet needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
- MMIA has significantly reduced the wait time for veterans needing assistance.
- They assist unhoused veterans through various programs, including care packages and furniture delivery.
- Community collaboration is essential for the success of MMIA's initiatives.
- The organization relies heavily on donations and volunteer support.
- Zak emphasizes the importance of addressing mental health and addiction issues among veterans.
- They have a strong relationship with local veteran service officers to assist veterans effectively.
- Upcoming fundraising events are crucial for sustaining their programs.
Sound Bites
- "We only service North Carolina."
- "It's a multifaceted problem."
- "Every dollar makes a difference."
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Welcome to the Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience. I'm Reuel Sample always joined by my very good friend Nikki Bascome. Good afternoon Nikki.
Nikki Bascome:Good afternoon. And we have to be honest, though, I'm not always here. Um, mentally or physically.
Reuel Sample:You know.
Nikki Bascome:It's great to see you today.
Reuel Sample:I wasn't going to say anything. We've actually taken a couple weeks off. Uh, had to had to attend to some things, and, uh, other things came up. Uh, we always like to give you a good quality experience here on the podcast experience. So thanks for joining us again. We have a really, really great guest. And when Nikki sent me his information, I was really excited about it because as a veteran myself, uh, an organization like this is near and dear to my heart. So Nikki, who is our guest today?
Nikki Bascome:Oh my gosh. And the craziest part is his wife is one of my best friends for over 20 years. So it's exciting to have Zak joining us today. Come on in, Zak. Tell us all about the wonderful things that you have going on.
Zak Keisler:Well, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Reuel Sample:Zak, you are with an organization called Military Missions in Action. And just a just a minute here. I'm going to show you. Zak sent us a whole PowerPoint presentation. I wish we could go through the whole thing, but we're not. But we're going to get into some stats of what you folks accomplished in 2024. But first off, give me a brief overview of what is Military Missions In Action. Mia. It actually sounds like a martial arts organization in many ways.
Zak Keisler:I've actually got mistaken for, excuse me, an MMA fighter. One time. It's like, oh, my grandma watches y'all on TV all the time. That's MMA, not MMA. But thanks. Uh, we're a volunteer driven veterans organization based out of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. We only service North Carolina. No plans on ever branching out. Um, I don't think that there will ever be a time when we're able to serve all the vets that need help in North Carolina and be able to go outside that area. Um, we're a small organization. We were founded in 2008 by a retired Coast Guard warrant officer. That was a contractor, and he just saw the need of the vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. That wasn't really being met in a timely manner by the VA. Uh, one of his big things was if a vet asked for a ramp or needs a ramp from the VA, if they were getting it in six months, they were lucky. Um, our turnaround time is usually less than than a week.
Reuel Sample:Wow.
Zak Keisler:I had a vet just this week. Uh, matter of fact, it was a guy I know. He was a volunteer of ours. Got in a motorcycle wreck. He's coming home from the hospital Wednesday, and we have a ramp up at his house already waiting for him.
Nikki Bascome:Wow.
Zak Keisler:That's just just one of the things we do. Uh, Mike, when I said Mike started this in 2000, he started 2007, we got our, uh, IRS letter to be a nonprofit in 2008. He found a vet, actually a Marine, active duty Marine who was deployed, lived off post and had water coming through his house. His wife said there was water coming through the ceiling because the roof was bad. He sold his motorcycle, bought the supplies, got some of his buddies. One of them had a rollback wrecker. They loaded everything on that, went down to Jacksonville, redid the roof and it's kind of just blossomed from there.
Reuel Sample:Wow. Well, hopefully that wasn't base housing that he was wrestling with.
Zak Keisler:No, no, it was off post.
Reuel Sample:Okay. Okay. Well, as I said earlier, I wanted to bring in this, uh, this slide that you sent to us earlier because it in one fell blow. It shows everything that you are doing as an organization. And I want that these numbers are all about North Carolina. Is that right? Is that everything on the screen is talking about North North Carolina?
Zak Keisler:Yes.
Reuel Sample:So let's we're going to go through this. We're going to go through everything. But you directly impacted over 5800 veterans and and their families in 2024. And that was almost a 40% increase in 2023. What was going on?
Zak Keisler:We got we were lucky to get a grant from from the North Carolina Department of Veterans or the North Carolina DMV, a Department of Veterans and Military Affairs that really allowed us to expand last year. Um, just to help the vets that, you know, we didn't have the money to help before. Um, we started a new transportation program last year. Uh, we were able to hire, uh, basically two part time people to help deliver and pick up furniture for our homes for healing program. So instead of having to depend on strictly volunteers to do that, we were able to have two part time people that could do that almost every day for us.
Reuel Sample:For those of you who are listening, uh, instead of watching the video, I've got a screenshot up here of their Year in review. There's a whole bunch of numbers in here. Uh, one of the things I was looking at is that you assisted over 1400 unhoused Veterans. First off, what is an unhoused veteran and how do you assist them?
Zak Keisler:Uh, for the unhoused veterans, we do it two ways. We have, uh, we have four different programs. Let me let me say that first, if you don't mind. Um, we have our, uh, fill the footlocker program.
Reuel Sample:First off, I don't I don't mind at all. That's what you're here for, so. Okay. All right, well.
Zak Keisler:Just because I'm I'm I'm gonna say the names of the programs. I just want people to know what we're talking about. Hang on a second. Um, now.
Reuel Sample:Now, this part I do like. But no.
Zak Keisler:We put, uh, old World War Two foot lockers, and we've actually had to start making our own, like, reproductions. Um, and we put those out in businesses, churches, schools, anybody that calls us and wants one. And we have, uh, a donation list of things that we take in the foot lockers, mainly hygiene items, snack food, things that go in care packages overseas, but also as part of that, we pack backpacks for homeless veterans. A lot of, uh, counties around the state will do a homeless veterans stand down where they try to get all the the homeless. Now they're called unhoused vets. That's the new way to say it. Okay. Excuse me. From that area. And they'll have different organizations come in. Usually the community colleges will bring in their barber school to give them haircuts. They'll work with someone to bring a shower trailer so they can get showers. The VA will be there to try to help them get benefits if they need that. Um, other nonprofit, you know, veterans, nonprofits that can help them out. And we we give them backpacks with hygiene items, uh, a towel. Uh, we have these ladies that crochet blankets out of grocery bags. Have you seen those?
Reuel Sample:I've seen those. Those are pretty cool.
Zak Keisler:Yeah, yeah, I have about Seven four foot square boxes that are four feet tall, that are full of them, that these ladies have made their machines making these things. We give those out because they don't, uh, they don't hold water, they don't rot or mildew. They're a good ground cover. So we did about 1300 veterans through those stand downs with the Fill the Foot Locker program, and also our main flagship program, our homes for healing program. We pick up used household items in in the Raleigh area, Fuquay triangle area, and we deliver it to to veterans that have just gotten permanent housing. So they were unhoused a month ago. And they either their caseworkers will call us or they will call us directly. We'll determine what they need, make sure they're a vet. And then when we go, they have everything they need when we leave to live comfortably in their new apartment home. Whatever it is, they got.
Nikki Bascome:Ah, no, don't come to me. I'm going to cry here in a minute. Um, it's it's pretty amazing to hear.
Zak Keisler:I can tell you some stories that would make you cry.
Reuel Sample:No no no no no no no no no. We we we just we just don't have that kind of budget here for the for the tissues that she would need here at the TWC.
Nikki Bascome:So I just, I just put mascara on. We don't we don't want that running. It's just absolutely amazing to think of how many unhoused, um, veterans there are when, you know, these are the people that sacrifice their lives for for us to be able to have our homes, the freedom to buy a home, a freedom to to rent a home, to move into a home, freedom to get a loan. And And here they are.
Zak Keisler:Well, they have a there's a program. Most of them get, uh, a housing voucher through the HUD Vash program. Um, and they're usually their caseworkers will reach out to us. We we we have a good relationship with the, uh, the Hud-vash program and then also the county and state veteran service officers. Uh, we've been to a couple conferences and met just about all of them. And they know that when they have a vet that needs furniture or a ramp or something like that, they can call us and all of our services we provide at no cost to the veteran. We don't ask the veteran for anything. Um.
Reuel Sample:So yeah, one of the questions I want to focus on, since you're talking about unhoused homeless veterans, these were people who proudly served in the United States in their capacities, uh, all across the spectrum. And now they are homeless. That's despicable. Actually. Is that these. These are men and women. Probably primarily men, but men and women who put their lives on the line, and now they are living underneath bridges on the streets. How did they get there? And is is there something in not working that has gotten them there?
Zak Keisler:It's that something not working is is a is a small part of the problem. A lot of it is addiction, mental health issues. A lot of them, I won't say a lot. There are some that choose to be homeless. That's the lifestyle they want to live. Um, we have run into that. You know, where they they choose. That's how they want to live. Um, but yes, it's a multifaceted problem. Um, and there's not one easy solution to take care of it. It's a it's a process that involves like a holistic approach to the veteran's life with, you know, financial, uh, counseling, mental health counseling, health counseling, um, transportation is an issue. That's that's the reason we started the transportation program. Um, and then once, you know, just getting them the house, what we noticed is. When we go into a house that they have just moved into. Matter of fact, yesterday, uh, I had a volunteer go out on a delivery, and he said it was like eye opening for him because he got there and the lady was sleeping on the same dirty sleeping bag she had that she was using out on the street. It, she had, she had a house, but she didn't have anything in it. And that's why we do our homes for healing program, because if they have a house that they can thrive in, that they got pots and pans to cook dinner, they got a microwave. Um, we had a vet up near, uh, Charlotte. We got to him and, uh, he wasn't there. So they called him. He said, hey, I'm on the bus. I'll be there in 20 minutes. Please don't leave. We're like, hey, no problem, we'll be here. He got there and he was literally in tears because we gave him a microwave. He said he would walk four blocks to the convenience store in the morning to heat up his frozen Jimmy Dean biscuit. Rain or shine. That's what he ate in the mornings. And he was having to walk four blocks to heat that up. I mean, it's just the little things that we take for granted that make a big difference, and that that little microwave might put him over the top to to not be homeless again. You know, you never know.
Reuel Sample:I just put up on the screen your homes for healing slide that you sent to us. Um, yeah. Furniture, dishes, cutlery, linens, and in addition to all those things which I imagine most of them, if not all of them, are donated. There's also an associated delivery cost, right? Because you've got to rent the truck.
Zak Keisler:That would be the cost of every. That's that's how much it cost to make a delivery that includes the furniture. Like we buy, uh, the bedding we have, we have had to buy. We, uh, it's hard to get good clean bedding. You know, uh, we have partnered with two other nonprofits, and now we are getting new beds, brand new beds. Um, we don't we don't like to take old mattresses because we can't clean them. We can't sanitize them. Yeah. And, Nikki, you know, Allison, if I bring bed bugs home, she's going to burn the house down with me in it. Um.
Reuel Sample:Okay. Hang hang, hang on just a second. Zak, is that. We have to remind people that. Nikki is very good. Friend. Is married to. No, no. Nikki's very good friend. Yes. Is married to Zak. And so any any kind of crosstalk like this is based upon years of knowing each other. So, um. So I'm hopelessly outnumbered in this conversation. Go ahead. Zak.
Zak Keisler:Yeah, but, um, when we can't get stuff to deliver and we have the funds, we will buy it new. Um, but here recently, we've been blessed that we haven't had to make a lot of purchases. Uh, we use social media to put out. Hey, we're we're running low on coffee tables or end tables. You know, things like that. And usually the community rallies and gets us what we need.
Reuel Sample:Well, you glossed over real quickly that you actually found a donor who's giving you those new mattresses. Can you share who that donor is so we can give them a shout out?
Zak Keisler:It's a it's a nonprofit out of Aberdeen called Dreams For All.
Reuel Sample:Okay.
Zak Keisler:And, um, you know, we're a big believer of rising tides. Float all ships. So, you know, we're not a nonprofit that's going to say, hey, no, we don't, you know, this is our lane. Stay out of it. We'll work with anybody that's willing to work with us. A friend of mine, Stacy Buckner, she used to work at the VA. Now she works for Veterans Services of the Carolinas. She was one of CNN's heroes, one of the finalists for the CNN heroes last year. She actually put us in touch with them. She said, hey, they donate beds. Hey, you. You need beds. Give her give. Give these people a call. I called them and like, literally that week we were going to pick up 15 brand new mattresses and platform frames from them to deliver. And this is going to be an ongoing thing.
Reuel Sample:That's amazing. And I want to commend you as an army. You're an Army veteran. I want to commend you on using a naval term, uh, to, uh, in, in in describing a rising tide. So.
Zak Keisler:Well, I'll have to give Greg credit for that. He's the one I heard it from. Okay. It really encompasses how we feel about working with other nonprofits. You know, we're all we're all striving to meet one goal, which is to help the vets. And there's no reason why we shouldn't be working together. And also, just last week, another nonprofit that's local to us, uh, the Joel Fund in Wake Forest. Um, they used to do furniture, but they have gotten out of that because it's it's a big undertaking. Like, we have probably 30,000ft² of storage that we rent. Luckily, the the guy that we rent it from is really good and gives us a really good deal. We couldn't do it without him. But, uh, they called us and said they were getting a transfer truck load of new Tempur-Pedic mattresses and wanted to know when we could come, if we could come pick them up when they got them. They're just so. Yeah, it it's, you know, it on this paper. It looks like, you know, you see all the things we've done. It's not just us. It's a community effort from the volunteers, the other nonprofits that we work with. It's, you know, we have myself and Greg are the only two full time employees of MMIA. I have seven part time people that help me. The rest is all volunteers. I got two drivers that help with pick up and deliveries. I got a part time warehouse guy, our bookkeepers part time, and we have a, uh. We have an office in Moore County. Southern Pines area. And we have a Sandhills regional coordinator. That's part time. So all this stuff that you see was done mainly with volunteers.
Reuel Sample:Nikki stop crying over there. Your eyes are still misting up.
Nikki Bascome:They are. Well, the craziest part, Zak, is my next question for you was how many people it takes to to carry this organization and all of the wonder and you just I'm going to sit here and listen to you all day long. You didn't even need me to ask a question. Um, but on a on a regular weekly basis, how many volunteers do you think it takes to to run all four of these arms that you have going at all times? And who coordinates all of these volunteers? Is that you?
Zak Keisler:Uh. Another volunteer? Wow. Volunteer. We have a volunteer coordinator, and she's a volunteer. We have. Let me see.
Reuel Sample:This real time computations right here on the Nikki and REuel Podcast Experience. We're not making any of this up. This is this is real time.
Zak Keisler:So I have five volunteers that show up on a regular basis every week to help in the office. Um, and they of those five, one of them is the program manager for homes for healing. Uh, another one is the program manager for the ramp program, Operation building Hope. She's also the volunteer coordinator and one that helps us, like on the fundraising end of it and some that just come and help in the office. So those are just the the core volunteers. And then we have others that, um, like we have a lady, Lucy, that helps in the warehouse four days a week, you know, from sometime. I've been there at six in the morning, and she's been there setting out stuff to get delivered that day. Um. I would say we have about 200 regular volunteers, you know.
Reuel Sample:200?
Zak Keisler:Yeah. Now, when I say that some of them are just, you know, once a month or once every couple months, but, I mean, that's what it takes. I mean, we couldn't do it without the volunteers. We have people that we did a we did a delivery down to Jacksonville, actually, Greg and one of, uh, a guy that used to help us with fundraising, Devon, loaded the truck and drove it down there and had, uh, the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association. Um, some of their members met them there to help unload the truck at the two different locations we were delivering to.
Reuel Sample:Yeah. I wanted to bring in this this other screen. I like all this stuff that you sent me. Uh, it makes my life a whole lot easier. Uh, you you you talked a little bit before about Operation building Hope, and you're a good military organization because you make acronyms out of all this stuff. So this is your OBH. Wheelchair ramps, emergency ramps. One of the things that really got me on this was counter lowering, and I've never thought about that. But if you're in a wheelchair and going into a new house, all the counters are far too high. And so your organization does all of that to accommodate what I assume are disabled vets.
Zak Keisler:Yes. Now I will have to preface this with right now we have had to transition to where we're only doing ramps because of funding.
Reuel Sample:Okay.
Zak Keisler:We don't have the money to hire the contractors to do some of these other things. The door widenings and the showers. We have done them in the past, but right now we had to put that on hold just because they're expensive.
Reuel Sample:We need to get you some funding.
Zak Keisler:Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yes, when Mike Dorman, you know, from 2007 to 2021, he was a contractor, so he could get volunteers and go out and do this stuff. And our insurance covered it because he was a licensed contractor when he passed away. We don't have that luxury anymore. So we have to either find a contractor that will donate their time or we have to hire one.
Reuel Sample:Okay. So here's what we're doing is we're putting out a call for not just one licensed contractor. But I imagine if you get 2 or 3 licensed contractors to cover the entire state, they need to give you a call. I am looking at that ramp. I have seen ramps put in that I wouldn't put, uh, you know, a 50 pound person up and down. That's that's a ramp and that's that. I mean, you could drive a tank on that ramp.
Zak Keisler:Absolutely. Uh, the guys that build the ramps for us locally around, uh, the Fuqua area, and we have a ramp crew from the Southern Pines office. They take pride in it. They they do a good job. I'd put them up against any, any other company building ramps. And I guarantee you that ramp that you just saw a picture of, they build it in one day. Um, they they're quick. They, they don't like to mess around. They want to get out and get it done. And I've even had times where, uh, the recently the guy that that was in charge of our ramp crew just passed away. His name was Quinn King. Um, I called him one time and I was like, hey, Quinn, can your guys travel this far to do a ramp? He was like, send me the address. I was like, alright. So I sent him the address and I didn't hear back from him for a couple days, which was kind of odd. And I called him. I was like, hey, you never let me know about that ramp. He's like, we've already built it. I was like, Quinn, I don't even got the paperwork on it yet. I just wanted to know if you would go that far to do it, or if I had to find somebody. I mean, he literally just got his guys together, and they went out and put the ramp up. So.
Reuel Sample:Wow. Yeah. Wow. So on. On our little chat thing, Nikki says that, uh, she's got a question, so I want to. I don't want to. I don't want to cut off Nikki. Nikki.
Nikki Bascome:I am trying to behave myself and not talk over you. Reuel. Um. Oh. As hard as it is to behave.
Reuel Sample:Talk over me. What? What else is new? Don't change now.
Nikki Bascome:Zak, you were talking about having a warehouse. Um, who mans your warehouse? And, you know, is your warehouse right there with your offices? I noticed that you got a a nice office there. Um, so. So how do you guys pay for all of that? Is that through your donations? Um, the.
Zak Keisler:When Mike Dorman decided he needed to have an office, he went out one morning to to find find an office he could rent. And he saw a man named Sam Honeycutt carrying a for rent sign out. Sam owns is called the young Group of Fuqua. It's a Erie Insurance Company. And Mike pulled in. They went to breakfast and our office space has been donated 100% since that day. We've never paid for office space here at the young Group. Um, they provide our utilities internet. Wow. They take, you know, they take packages for us when we're not here. I mean, like I said, team effort. We couldn't do it without them either. Um, the warehouse is an old tobacco warehouse. Tobacco? Fuqua is a tobacco town. Um, and one of the big warehouses here was called Jim Tilley Storage. Now, a guy named Jim Serino owns it. He gives us about a 33% discount on storage there. It's about five minutes from our office. Um, I have a clicker, so we have, you know, for the roll up door, we have 24 hour access. Um, he pretty much gives us the run of the place when we had to. When Mike Dorman passed away, we used to do all the care package packing and the bathroom and kitchen boxes for the homes for healing program. We packed them in the basement of his house. MMIA owns his house. Um, it was part of his salary. He lived in the top. The bottom was, you know, we worked out of. And, uh, it's currently for sale. If anybody's looking for a house in Fuquay, it's right downtown. It's been totally restored. Really nice house. Just got a plug.
Nikki Bascome:And downtown Fuqua is really nice. You have some nice breweries around there.
Zak Keisler:It is? Yeah. Um, yeah.
Reuel Sample:Um.
Zak Keisler:But, uh. Yeah.
Reuel Sample:Just a second. Hang on just a second. Nikki, you know where all the breweries are in North Carolina?
Nikki Bascome:Well, no. Just Fuqua. That's. That's where my family's from. My family is all from Fuqua. My. My mother grew up in. Probably hung out at that tobacco barn that you're talking about. That's that's what my my. I come from a long line of tobacco farmers and strawberry farmers, right? Yeah. Yes. Johnson. Strawberries. That's my family. Your wife. Okay, so let's talk about Zak's wife for a minute. So my cousin owns Johnson's Strawberries, and I think it's on. What highway are they on? Are they on 50 or 42?
Zak Keisler:42?
Nikki Bascome:42.
Zak Keisler:They're on 50. You're right. It's 50.
Nikki Bascome:They're on 50. So Johnson Farms has the best strawberries in the world. And Zak's wife will go pick up two buckets of strawberries and bring them down to Wilmington. Just for me.
Zak Keisler:Yeah, she told me the other day, we got to go get some so she can make some strawberry jam.
Nikki Bascome:Yes, yes. See, it's like the the blood runs deep here. Reuel. It does. It's it's.
Reuel Sample:You never know what you're going to get here on the Experience. Uh, so, uh, Zak, final question, I'm going to bring up your, your, your overall slide here of the number of people, and I am assuming that, um, that this is, uh, bringing in. I actually hit the wrong button here. I got to figure out where I'm at. Um, I am assuming that this is a lifetime achievement for this particular, uh, this particular, um, this particular slide. Yes. And you are saying that, um, um, over 136,000 veterans, over a thousand families, uh, 88,000 care packages to service members deployed overseas. But here's the big number down here, folks, that I want you to all see. All of their programs come from donations. 86% of all of the stuff that they're doing come from donations.
Zak Keisler:Yes, that's one thing we pride ourselves on because we get a really good discount on storage. We don't we don't have office overhead. Myself and Greg are the only two full time employees. We were able to put most of the money back into the programs, which is, you know, the only reason we're able to do this.
Reuel Sample:So how can people help you? Because this is this is big stuff. And no matter who is in the White House, no matter who's running the Veterans, Veterans Administration, no matter who's in the governor's mansion, is that we we are going to have veterans who need help and even active duty folks who need help.
Zak Keisler:Yes. And we also help active duty. We have built ramps for active duty families that lived off post. We have gotten furniture for active duty families who needed help. You know, we're not just you don't have to be just a veteran. It's active. It's veterans, active duty members and their families.
Reuel Sample:How can people help?
Zak Keisler:The biggest thing is, is, is donations. We need. We. It takes money. Um, you know, the hardest part of my job is asking for money, but we can't do it without it. You know, we don't do anything to generate income. Um, we have a sale. We do. We do the two, uh, fundraisers that we put on and usually in September, furniture that we get donated that the vets can't use, whether it's too big. Um, just for whatever reason, they're not going to use it. We sell it at at the end of the year. We take donations for it at the end of the year. Um, just to keep keep it out of the warehouse to keep our storage costs down. Um, but, yes, uh, we have a recurring donation campaign. Recurring donations are really big for nonprofits because it provides a predictable income. As little as $10 a month. I hate to sound like the Sarah McLaughlin commercial, you know, showing the sad puppies, but, you know,$10 a month will provide gas, you know, for a vet to get to a doctor's appointment or a pack of socks for the the the homeless veteran stand downs. You know, $25 will buy a new set of bedding. Um, and I can send the link for for our donation page.
Reuel Sample:And that's all that that's all a pizza that really that, you know, just forgo one pizza a month and you're going to be.
Zak Keisler:Able to buy a pizza. But I hadn't bought a pizza for less than $25 in a long time. I got some cheap pizza down there in Wilmington. Huh. Get some down there. But yes, I mean, it's just just as little as $10 a month makes a difference. Every dollar makes a difference. When you consider that 86% of every dollar we take in goes back to the programs, you know, your money's going to veterans. I whether you give to MMIA or not. Look at their financials online go through uh, Charity navigator uh GuideStar. Look up the look up the nonprofit that you donate to. If you can't find their financials on there, there's a reason look. And ours are on there for every year. You know, we we put it out there. We're not ashamed. You know, that's.
Reuel Sample:And when you're, when you're giving to a nonprofit, one of the things that you always have to look at is the administrative cost to, uh, to operational cost ratio. And from everything that we're learning from you, your administration costs has got to be minuscule as opposed to what you actually do.
Zak Keisler:Yes. And we it's like that for a reason, you know, none of us that are here myself, Greg, the part time people we have, we're not here because we're making a lot of money. You know, we're here because we have the passion to help veterans. The way I got into this, I was working at a place here in Fuqua, not going to name any names. Uh, and would almost cry in the mornings when I pulled up in the building. Wasn't in ashes. It was just the worst job I ever had. And I came home one day and I told Allison I gotta quit this job. She's like, I don't know why you even work there. I'm like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. She's like, what do you want to do? I was like, I'd like to do something helping vets. And she was like, why don't you call Mike Dorman, see if he's got anything? And I was like, I didn't even think about him. I had met Mike. I'm a member of the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association. I used to be the the chapter commander for the Raleigh area, and we had donated. You look like a biker. There's a little bit of the biker around you. Do you have the leathers and the. And the spiked helmet or just. Just the leathers? No spiked helmet, but the leathers. Yes, yes. Um, and we had donated to Mia, and I just called him up. I was like, hey, man, I need a job. You got anything? He's like, do you mind moving furniture? And I'm like, I don't mind doing anything. So when I started, I took over the, uh, homes for healing program, and it was just me and two other volunteers. I did all the pickups, me and these two volunteers, the pickups, the deliveries, the organizing stuff and the warehouse cleaning it if it needed to be cleaned, fixing it if we could fix it and reuse it. And, uh, it's it's grown from there. Now, that program is probably the only one I know of in the state that does it to the breadth that we do. Um, because we deliver. We've delivered from Candler, which is on the other side of Asheville, to Jacksonville across the state. This year. We've already done 50, I think, 54 deliveries across the state this year. Um, and I have 54 vets on the list waiting. And we got eight Applications last week. So yeah.
Reuel Sample:You've got a concert fundraiser coming up as well there in Fuquay.
Zak Keisler:Yeah, there's going to be at the Fainting Goat May 17th. Um, it's called Vet Jam 25. This will be the third year we've put it on with The Fainting Goat. And, uh, we got a really good lineup. I think there's ten bands. Starts at 12. Goes to ten. Uh, right there on Main Street in Fuquay.
Reuel Sample:And your website that people can go to donate and get all this other information is where.
Zak Keisler:Militarymissionsinaction.org.
Reuel Sample:Military missions and action.org. Zak from military missionsinaction.Org or MMIA - another great acronym. Military folks. Thanks so much for joining us today, Zak. I am so glad that, uh, your your your wife is a friend of Nikki's, That we could connect with you today.
Zak Keisler:Well, I appreciate you guys having us on here and giving us the opportunity to spread our message.
Reuel Sample:Well, you are more than welcome and happy Easter to you and enjoy this week. And, um, I'm going to put you back in the green green room and we'll talk to you soon.
Zak Keisler:Okay. Thank you, thank you.
Nikki Bascome:Zak.
Reuel Sample:Awesome. Nikki, you find the best of guests. I'm telling you, you find the best of guests.
Nikki Bascome:Oh. Thank you. I try, I try every once in a while. There's a spark in my head. It's, um, what's really absolutely amazing. And I hope, um. Because, you know me, I'm kind of wacky sometimes. I just hope that our podcast, um, teaches other people to to get outside of their own personal bubble and everything that's happening in their lives and start talking to other people. Um, if, like I said, I Alison's been one of my best friends for over 20 years, and I knew that Zak did something like this, but I never really paid attention and I wish people would pay.
Reuel Sample:That's why we call it the experience. It looks like we're having a little bit of technical difficulty, as our video is a little bit out of out of sync. So, um. Or are you back? Nikki, are you back? Uh, are you back synced with us?
Nikki Bascome:I, I don't think so. Oh, maybe. Maybe not. I don't know, I just keep on going.
Reuel Sample:You are. Maybe you are synced.
Speaker4:So you just you just never.
Nikki Bascome:Know with me, you know, it's just.
Reuel Sample:We're just going to keep on going. But this is, uh, folks, check out, check out MMIA. If you are a vet, you know what it's like. Uh, there's a there's a brotherhood. There's a fraternity, uh, brotherhood. Sisterhood. It's a fraternity of folks who have served, uh, our country and and, uh, folks really need our help. And so please check out MMIA. That's military missionsinaction.org. Uh, if you're up in the Fuquay area, and if you can stay away from the strawberries and the the beer that I guess is up there, uh, make sure that you check out the concert as well, and, uh, stop in and see Zak and the folks at Military Missions in Action. Uh, once again, Nikki, this is this has been a great show. Thanks for getting bringing Zak on board. And, uh, for all of us here at the Wilmington Conservative. I'm Reuel Sample.
Nikki Bascome:And I'm Nikki Bascom.
Reuel Sample:Thanks for listening.