Ford Motor Co. partnered with veterans groups to host veterans and their families at their Bronco Off-Roadeo event in Texas.
Last month, about 200 veterans, survivors, military members and their families participated in the event at Ford's facility in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. It featured a four hour off-road adventure, sharing sessions, motivational speakers, a special dinner, live music from Guitars 4 Vets as well as access to job placement and veterans services.
The participants included 70 Gold Star family members as well as Purple Heart recipients and members of veterans groups such as Blue Star Families, TAPS, Travis Manion Foundation and Guitars 4 Vets. Ford's trail guides on the off-road course also included many veterans to help deepen that sense of fellowship among those in attendance.
"We're super excited about this Bronco Off-Road Roadeo that Ford is doing for a number of military and veteran families," Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families and the spouse of a Marine veteran, told FOX Business in an interview. "They're taking families on an amazing adventure, up and down boulders building camaraderie and excitement."
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"But it's not just about this great day out and this time of showing appreciation to the folks who have served and their family, it's all about sharing the resources that are out there for families," she explained. Roth-Bouquet added that the event also gives the various veterans groups on hand an opportunity to connect and find ways to work together.
Nigel Fischer, director of advancement at Guitars for Vets and a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, told FOX Business that the group's performances at events like the Bronco Off-Roadeo help showcase that veterans who may have suffered injuries over the course of their service to the country can continue to perform.
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"The music is great, but we really showcase the adaptive qualities of our program and how we teach veterans that may have some physical issues that may prevent them from adapting to the style of playing that many others that don't have those physical limitations might have challenges with," he said.
"It's really neat to be able to share that in person and a lot of veterans will find us for the very first time by participating in this event, and then seeing that firsthand. There's no better example of what can be done than those testimonies of each of our folks that are here participating in the performance tonight, and then being able to get out among the crowd as dinner continues and answer questions about what their experience was like with the program," Fischer said.
Ford also brought some of their human resources team to help place veterans and members of the reserve forces in jobs.
"They're making a point to hire veterans, they're hiring folks who are doing reserve duty. We want to ask all employers to do that because we need a reserve force. Forty percent of our deployed forces right now are reserve or National Guard, so if employers don't make it possible for people to work and do their reserve service, we're not going to be able to take care of the country," Roth-Douquet said.
Staff from the Department of Veterans Affairs were also on hand to help veterans access services or address issues that had previously prevented them from doing so.
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Fischer said that when he retired from the Marine Corps in 2013, he had "a little bit of a rocky start with the VA" and said that "I think some veterans have heard some of those stories from peers, and we rely on that peer feedback a lot to help guide us as we transition."
"What I discovered within the past year is that there have been immense changes in terms of the quality of the service, the quality of the care, the quality of the processing of disability claims, and I found that to be absolutely true because I took that opportunity to renew my relationship with the VA through events like this," Fischer said.
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"I approached the VA and said, 'I'd really like to get connected with you again because from what I've heard, I will get better care than I might otherwise see in the civilian sector,'" he explained. "I'm really pleased to be able to share with you that through the course of that adventure and my own journey of seeking care again with the VA, it has been nothing less than top notch, so that is an important aspect of what we're doing here."
