SUPPORTING EACH OTHER THROUGH SHARED EXPERIENCES
Wounded Warrior Project Alumni Participate in Pheasant Hunt
By Vesta M. Anderson
Peer support plays an important role in the healing process as it allows individuals to build relationships based off of shared experiences. The experiences themselves, past and present, play just as critical a role in bringing forth the change in mindset injured veterans must adopt to better transition to civilian life. At a recent Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) Alumni program event in Ellensburg, Wash., everyone experienced first-hand what is possible when injured veterans are exposed to programs and services that both honor and empower.
Injured servicemen and women enrolled with WWP are referred to as “alumni” – a special word that indicates a mutually shared experience and denotes that the wounded veteran’s place in WWP was earned – not purchased. Through its 20 programs and services, WWP honors and empowers its alumni with a goal to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of injured veterans in the nation’s history.
Alice and Doug Brunett, co-founders of Cooke Canyon Hunt Club, a non-profit membership club that focuses on hunting and dog training, have been hosting WWP alumni at special hunting experiences for four years. The two-day experience, which involves both skeet shooting lessons and a pheasant hunt, is an example of the variety of WWP events offered across the nation and abroad. These events help to build a peer-support structure that is instrumental in an injured veteran’s recovery process.
“Alumni events are important because they give wounded veterans a chance to network with each other,” said Ross Magill, WWP outreach specialist at Seattle, Wash., and wounded service member. “It helps warriors realize they are not alone.”
Injured veterans, in fact, are not alone. As of April 2015, WWP serves more than 65,000 warriors and more than 10,000 caregivers and family members. The growing need for programs and services is evident. In order to meet the increasing need over the last five years, WWP has grown its programs and services at an annual rate of 50 percent, providing an additional $400 million in support to warriors, their caregivers, and families.
During this year’s pheasant hunt, the Brunetts experienced an increase in alumni participation by more than 41 percent from the same event last year. For more one-on-one time, the 17 attendees were divided into five groups. Each group included one WWP Peer Mentor.
“Peer Mentors are important at these events,” said Magill. “They’re also WWP alumni but are further along in the recovery process, so they help create important dialog.”
Peer Mentors know what it is to endure the road to recovery—this unique equality in the relationship allows them to serve as a role model, motivator, supporter, and friend, while also maintaining close vigilance of each warrior’s needs and potential triggers.
The Peer Mentor role during the recovery process is so crucial that WWP has a program specifically focused in this area called the WWP Peer Support program. The goal of the Peer Support program is for every warrior being mentored to eventually mentor another warrior, thus embodying the WWP logo of one warrior carrying another. By becoming a Peer Mentor, warriors who once were the warrior being carried have the opportunity to become the warrior who carries others.
Essentially, Peer Mentors are able to connect a mentee’s past experiences to his or her current experiences, ensuring the warrior is benefiting from the full intent of the event. As warriors absorb the lessons learned through these activities, liaisons are indispensable to warriors who are actively repositioning their thought processes.
Magill recalls fellow warriors with their rifles “in the ready position” during the pheasant hunt. “They each had their rifle strapped neatly to the front of the chest,” he explained. “They would hold it just low enough to see over the sights.”
“The veterans that come to hunt are trained combat professionals,” said Alice. “They naturally hold their rifles in combat position. We then teach them to hold their rifles in a bird hunting stance.”
The visible, mental transition is evident: not every weapon is for combat. That thought creates a crack in their shell – a crack just wide enough to start the dialog needed for change.
“When they are told to point their rifles in the air or to the ground, in the bird-hunting stance, you can see something start to turn in their heads,” said Magill. “They start to realize they’re not on guard. They’re not here to protect anyone—they’re here for fun.”
It is all part of the healing process. The shift in mindset triggers a deep realization in wounded veterans.
“This is our new normal,” Magill explains of both his and his fellow veterans’ new lives. “We were different people before we signed up for military service—even more different after combat. We come out [of service] still wired for sound.”
WWP Alumni events and activities provide long-term support and camaraderie for wounded service members. These events unite the shared experiences among injured veterans and allow them to bond and grow in this unique support structure. Participants connect deeply to their peers through shared stories, many making friends for life, many more considering each other family.
“It’s just a special time for them,” said Alice. “They go out in the field to hunt a little hesitant. The walls are up. But when they come back for lunch, they are wearing smiles and sharing stories. This [event] helps relieve the pressure. Let’s them forget for a short time the things they went through—that they still go through.”
The change brought forth impacts more than just the wounded veterans participating.
“Yes, we donate the birds – we donate the event,” said Alice. “It’s our honor,” she states. “But we have been paid many times over. We are paid through their smiles and hugs. We are paid through their stories. We were already paid through their service.”
If you or someone you know is interested in receiving peer mentoring or peer mentor training, please contact the WWP Resource Center at resourcecenter@woundedwarriorproject.org or 888.WWP.ALUM (997.2586).
About Wounded Warrior Project
The mission of Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. WWP’s purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.
