Wounded Warrior Project
The Elks National Veterans Service Commission has become a collecting partner of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, which collects and preserves the extraordinary wartime stories of ordinary people. Learn how you can participate by collecting interviews with veterans from your lodge and your community.
Telluride
Wounded Warrior is all about building friendships and networks among the injured veterans. Read how Telluride helped the Warriors to form bonds over a great weekend!
Summary of Events
Summary of events by Cindy Bellai, Exalted Ruler of Telluride CO Lodge 692, for the Elks/Wounded Warrior Project event August 12-15th, 2010.
Thursday, August 12th
7 Wounded Warriors and 2 aides arrived at the Durango Airport in Durango, CO. (An additional veteran was supposed to arrive in Montrose, but his house flooded the night before and he had to cancel.)
The group was met by Cindy Bellai, Exalted Ruler of Telluride Lodge #692, and 3 members of Durango Lodge #507: Bing Fretwell (Exalted Ruler, PDDGER), Fred Zimmerman (Trustee), and Bodie Todeschi (Veterans Committee Chair). Durango Lodge treated everyone to lunch at a restaurant called Christina's.
Then everyone loaded into the van and took a beautiful 2.5 hour drive to Telluride, CO, elevation 8,750 feet. The camp in town park had been set up by members and friends of Telluride Lodge, and they were greeted by Red Brown (Veterans Committee Chair), Bill Langford (Chairman of Trustees), and Pat Dalpez (Trustee). Dinner on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights were provided by the Telluride Elks Lodge and the Colorado Elks Association.
They spent that night at the campsite, settling in and watching the spectacular meteor showers. Tents were donated by the Montrose Boy Scouts.
Friday, August 13th
Everyone in the campgrounds rose to Wounded Warrior Joe Perez's "Revelry" bugling, then the Warriors headed to Maggie's Bakery for a free breakfast where they were greeted by former USO CEO and Telluride Lodge member Ned Powell.
After breakfast, we headed west for a full day of horseback riding and fly-fishing. The group split into two and alternated events in the afternoon. The staff of Many Ponies, of Norwood, CO, took them horseback riding, and Telluride Fly-fishers took them fishing. We met at the Lone Cone Restaurant for lunch that day. Everyone had a fantastic time, and before dinner we stopped at the Lone Tree Cemetery in Telluride to see the welded bench Red Brown had made dedicated to veterans, POW-MIAs, and his brother who was killed in the Vietnam War.
We had dinner at the Telluride Lodge that night.
Saturday, August 14th
St. Patrick's Church treated us to breakfast, then we headed to Ridgway, CO for whitewater rafting.
On the way we stopped at the Placerville Fire Department's Annual Picnic, and the Warriors were treated to a ride on the old fire engine and t-shirts.
Before rafting, a large contingent of Elks from Montrose Lodge #1053 greeted us in Ridgway Town Park with lunch. Among those present from Montrose were Ken Abts (Exalted Ruler), Kerry Henderson (Secretary), Paul & Nancy Moore, Roger Conant (PDDGER) and Dharma Conant, and Joe Vigil (Veterans Committee Chair).
Rigs Guided Tours took us on a beautiful rafting trip down the Uncompaghre River.
Sunday, August 15th
We were all up early to go on an off-road Jeep tour to Ouray, CO, sponsored by Dave's Mountain Tours (a member of Telluride Lodge). We stopped at various points along the way, including the historical Smuggler's Mine and at the top of Imogene Pass - over 13,000 feet in altitude!
We were greeted in Ouray by Lodge members Jim & Kathy Pettengill to a very nice lunch, then it was on to Orvis Hot Springs for soaking and massages.
Sunday night we held a nice dinner at Telluride Elks Lodge and invited our members and sponsors to come meet the Warriors. Afterwards we celebrated the impending marriage of Warrior Michael Green.
Monday, August 16th
Warrior Renee Peloquin was the first to go - she flew out of Montrose, CO. The rest flew out of Telluride, CO.
It was a sad day for me, as I felt like I had made 9 great friends in 4 short days. The men and women who came to Telluride with the Wounded Warrior Project are amazing people, and they have inspired me in so many ways - not only to be strong of character and heart, but also inspired me to pay close attention to what is going on in the world and how our veterans are being treated, inspired me to remember that not all injuries are visible and to treat everyone I meet with respect and empathy. As a group, they fully embody our precept of brotherly love.
On a happy ending note, 2 of our visitors are coming back next month for one of our music festivals! I can't wait to see them again!
Article from the Telluride Daily Planet
Telluride Daily PlanetAugust 17, 2010
Reprinted with permission of the editor
Article by Kathrine Warren, photo by Kevin Ludwig
"We don’t do normal no more, we do it our way now."
Wounded warriors visit Telluride
By Kathrine WarrenStaff Reporter
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:13 PM CDT
Post-traumatic stress disorder is something many have heard of but few understand. It’s the result of a physical or psychological injury, and it causes anxiety, depression, mood swings or personality changes to strike like lightning.
“There are different triggers to PTSD,” said Joe Perez, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was injured in Iraq in 2003. A bumpy car ride. A certain smell. The boom of fireworks. Anything can snap a person back to the time and place where they were injured or traumatized.
For Perez, it’s the smell of a broken water pipe.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “We don’t do normal no more, we do it our way now.”
Perez was in town from Thursday through Monday with seven fellow veterans suffering from PTSD or traumatic injuries through the national non-profit Wounded Warrior Project, which works to honor and empower injured veterans through programs and services.
The Telluride Elks Lodge hosted veterans from California, Nevada and Washington with funding from the Elks National Foundation and the Elks National Veterans Service Commission.
The group got to experience all the Telluride area has to offer with camping in Town Park, horseback riding, fly fishing, four-wheeling, whitewater rafting and hiking.
Army veteran Norberto Lara has worked with Wounded Warrior since being injured in Iraq in 2005 when he lost his right arm.
Lara said Wounded Warrior is all about building friendships and networks among the injured veterans. “We have them interact [with fellow veterans] so they don’t feel alone anymore,” he said. “They can exchange information [with each other] for someone to call if they’re having a crappy day.”
The group took a Jeep tour over Imogene Pass to Ouray and Perez said the bumpy road brought him back to being in a Humvee in Iraq. “But we had each other and were enjoying each other’s company,” he said.
Michael Green lost his right arm in Samara after only three months in Iraq with the Army. He was roommates with Lara at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the two became friends as they recovered.
“Obviously coming here and doing these activities is really fun, but being around fellow warriors can be a healing process itself, ” Green said.
A consensus was reached Monday morning that rafting and fly fishing were the highlights of the weekend. And celebrating Green’s upcoming marriage next week with a bachelor party of sorts on Sunday night.
“Hopefully they’ll invite us back for the winter program,” Lara said with several nods of agreement from his friends.
Mike Wilson, who returned from Afghanistan less than two months ago after suffering a brain injury, was already planning a return to the box canyon.
“I’m moving here, I know I am,” he said. Wilson met Lara before his injury when he worked at Walter Reed as a liaison for the Marine Corps, and was hired by Wounded Warrior in San Diego after coming back from Afghanistan.
Cindy Bellai, exalted ruler of the Elks Lodge, worked to receive the funding and plan the trip. On Monday afternoon, after dropping the last of the group off at the Montrose Regional Airport, she was sad to see them leave.
“It was a fantastic weekend, I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” she said. “I’m still amazed by them and what a great group of people they are individually and as a group.”
She said the trip was better than therapy for the vets because they were able to connect with one another and realize they’re not the only one struggling with a return to civilian life or traumatic injuries.
Bellai hopes to bring the same group back to Telluride in the winter with the help of Telluride Adaptive Sports or Wounded Warrior’s Odyssey project.
“They were just so lively and spirited,” she said. “They were so much fun.”
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