In a meeting with our team recently, we had a discussion about veterans. More specifically, our entire team was discussing vets in our local Portland community and how they are viewed and subsequently treated. This discussion broadened to talking about how we as a company could make a positive impact in the life of a local military veteran and at the same time cause an even greater good to result.
After a lot of discussions we decided to bless a local Portland area veteran with new hardwood flooring. We reached out to our local connections to active duty and retired service members to begin formulating a list of candidates that we could interview. We were fortunate to get a stream of local Portland vets that were nominated.
Picking A Local Portland Vet
What we found most amazing during this entire process was that all of those that were nominated were so humble. Regardless of their personal circumstances, every single one of them made a similar statement to us. Something to the effect of “I am sure there is someone else that is more in need than I am, so if there is someone else more deserving, please select them.” This was not only admirable, it made each and every one of our team members become emotional during this process.
After interviewing several candidates that had been forwarded to us, there were two that really stood out to us. But the question then became, how do we pick the one Portland veteran that we were going to bless this holiday season? From these two amazing vets and their stories, how could we narrow our choice to one over the other? It quickly became clear that we would not be able to select just one. So we picked them both.
Honoring These Two Portland Veterans
When we started this journey, we wanted to accomplish two main objectives. First, we wanted to bless a Portland vet with new hardwood flooring. As it turned out, we are doing that for two local vets instead. Secondly, we wanted to use this to highlight our area veterans and inspire our community to also get involved in touching the lives of other vets around them. Whether through a formal organization that helps vets in the Portland Vancouver area or one-on-one with a vet you come across.
Either way, we wanted to foster a heart of giving, helping and touching the lives of our military service members that have sacrificed for our country. So many of them are in need. Not just a financial or home improvement need, but even a heart need. An internal emotional need.
Get Involved
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking our customers, social connections and readers on a journey. This journey will introduce you to these two Portland veterans, tell you their stories and hopefully inspire you to also get involved with reaching out and helping a Portland vet. There are so many deserving veterans that are hurting and in need, we hope that you will be touched and motivated to get involved also.
There are three things that you can do to help.
1) Share this story. The more people who hear about these two local vets and their personal stories, the more people could be inspired to also touch another local veteran.
2) Get involved with your local veteran groups to see how you can help this holiday season. Here are just a couple of the groups we suggest:
Home With Heros – Washington/Oregon
Team RWB – National Portland Facebook Group
Operation Homefront – Portland Office Info
3) We would love to get a local newspaper, radio or TV station involved with telling this story with us over the holiday season. If you know someone at any of the local stations, have them connect with us.
Want more information on this story? Here’s our Press Release
