In order to understand my charity and my mission, I’ll need to give you some background on my life.  Very tragically, I lost my son, Ethan to suicide after he lost his battle with PTSD.  I  floundered through my life in the months afterward trying to find meaning and purpose while I came to grips that Ethan was really gone from this world but always held so tightly in my heart and mind.  I had been a loan officer for 20 years.  Suddenly that didn’t seem important at all. I met a filmmaker that had just released a film on PTSD and subsequently was asked to join the board of his charity.  Their mission was to highlight and explore Veteran issues through film.  Last year they approached me to see if I would be open to telling Ethan’s story.  I immediately said “yes” knowing how difficult it would be to relive everything but also knowing how important it is that his story be told.  

 

The 503©(3) charity has been established for Ethan’s Reach.  

The focus will be twofold:

 

1. To bring awareness to Veteran’s and their support systems (spouses, parents, friends etc..) as to the potential problems/issues they may face in regards to PTSD as they re-enter civilian life.    

2.  To host annual reunions for Veterans to stay connected with one another as well as continuing to foster the strong bond they shared while serving together. We have found that  “Veterans helping Veterans” is very effective in reaching them in their time of need as well as finding them the help/support to make it through their darkest hours.     

 

So many of our Veterans are struggling when they come home and to make matters worse, they feel lost, isolated and alone now that they have lost their day to day “brotherhood” and camaraderie.

 

They fought for us, I feel so strongly it’s time to fight for them.  I lost my son 6 months after he separated from the Army. I was blindsided. I knew he was struggling having lost the structure of the military and  trying to find his way. He had started college on the GI bill and had bought a carriage house in Denver, CO. I had no idea the strength of the PTSD demons  and how far down they were pulling him at the time.  He had never been suicidal so I misjudged/underestimated what he needed. As his mother I will carry this with me forever. My mission, through better education/awareness, is to elevate this on-going issue as well as to continue to bring Veterans together so they may help each other navigate their next mission- to assimilate into civilian life again..