Our mission would not be possible without the tremendous support and generosity from so many selfless Patriots across North America who go above and beyond to honor the service and sacrifices of America’s combat-wounded Veterans.

Today’s guest on the WWIA Podcast is one of these special Patriots who has proven time and time again that there is truly no limit to the good works that can be accomplished, and the contributions and impacts that can be made, when people work together for a common cause. WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel proudly welcomes long-time WWIA supporter and valued friend, Mr. Mike Davenport to the program.

Mike is the President of the WWIAF Southern Vermont Chapter, alongside his wife Debi, who serves as the Treasurer. Mike and Debi have both recently retired after having had wonderful careers with UNICORR in Bennington, Vermont; and they also relocated to warmer weather, having made the move to the beautiful state of Tennessee.

The WWIA Southern Vermont Chapter is a 2-time WWIA Medal of Honor Decorated Patron, having raised over $559,000 in support of our Purple Heart Heroes since 2013! That is just incredible! John and Mike discussed the early origins of this remarkable fundraising juggernaut, and how the local residents and businesses of Bennington, Vermont come together year after year in support of the mission of WWIA.

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode, and we are excited to introduce you to Mike and his story.

Takeaways:

• The WWIA Podcast aims to honor and support combat wounded veterans, emphasizing community involvement.
• Mike Davenport's fundraising efforts have raised over $559,000 for veterans since 2013, showcasing exceptional community spirit.
• The podcast highlights the importance of sponsor appreciation, fostering long-lasting relationships with community businesses.
• John McDaniel and Mike Davenport discuss their shared commitment to expanding the mission of supporting Purple Heart recipients.

Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast. We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you if you're a returning listener. Thanks for coming back. Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing.

Our mission would not be possible without the tremendous support and generosity from so many selfless patriots across North America who go above and beyond to honor the service and sacrifices of America's combat wounded veterans.

Today's guest on the WWIA Podcast is one of these special patriots who has proven time and time again that there is truly no limit to the good works that can be accomplished, nor the contributions and impacts that can be made when people work together for a common cause. WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel proudly welcomes longtime WWIA supporter and valued friend, Mr. Mike Davenport to the program.

Mike is the President of the WWIAF Southern Vermont Chapter alongside his wife Debbie, who serves as treasurer. Mike and Debbie both recently retired after having had wonderful careers with Unicore in Bennington, Vermont.

And they they've also relocated to warmer weather, having made the move to the beautiful state of Tennessee.

John and Mike discuss the early origins of this remarkable fundraising juggernaut and how the local residents and businesses of Bennington Verm come together year after year in support of the mission of wwia. There's a lot to unpack in this episode and we're excited to introduce you to Mike and his story.

So without further delay, let's join Jon and Mike now.

I am John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation. And this is our podcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.

So today I have with me a treasured friend and a great person who's helped the foundation and our heroes as much as anybody, if not more, in the past. What is it, 13, 14 years? Something like that, Mike? Yeah, 13 years. 13 years. So welcome to the program. Mike Davenport out of Vermont.

Thanks, John.

Yeah, it's good to see you. We've been planning this one for several years and are finally now getting around to do it. Mike came into town the other day.

We're here in the office at the WWI headquarters. And we're just chatting about lots of stuff for the future.

But, Mike, why don't you tell us a little bit about how this whole thing, the relationship with the WWI, began dating back, whatever it is, 14 years from now.

And they asked each of our facilities, there was five of us, to take a $2,500 seed and turn it into something good, whether it be for a veterans organization or something in the community. And it was a competition. They wanted to see who could do the most with that amount of money.

And so twenty five hundred dollars came from the company. Unicorn.

Yeah.

To how many groups there was five of us. Five of us.

Yeah. And part of the criteria was they wanted as close to 100% participation by the employees as you could muster up.

So, I mean, and that's quite challenging when you think about, you know, what group are you going to target? Who are you going to raise the money for? You know, because everybody has their own ideas. So within the community of Bennington, it's a.

It's a big hunting and fishing environment. And I happened to be watching a program on TV one weekend, and it was a program of the Wounded warriors in Action.

Nosler's Magnum tv.

That was the show, correct?

Right.

And I was like, well, that's it. I mean, I can get. I know I can get most of my employees behind this. So I brought the idea into the. Into the plant, and I spoke to all of my.

My employees and said, you know, this is what we're going to do. They. They have gave us a total of $2,500, and we got to turn that into much more. And we're going to.

We're going to send all the proceeds to the Wounded warriors in Action. So I went out and I purchased a UTV with. I financed it myself, knowing that that would drive me to sell tickets to pay it back.

Right.

At the end of the summer, we decided we're going to have a banquet dinner, we're going to have an auction, we're going to raffle off guns, we're going to do all these things, but one of the key components was we wanted you, John, to come to the event. We thought it would make it special. And after much convincing, we. We finally coerced John to come to Bennington, and the rest was history.

Yeah.

If I'm not mistaken, I think that's the number. And it was. It was a great time. And then it just. It turned into something much larger after that. We won the competition, I should say.

And then you invited me to go to the MOCAN event.

That's right. That same year, you met Brian and.

I met Brian Roderick. And you thought it would be a good thing to, you know, expose me to the other side of.

So you could see the ground. Tactical piece, if you will.

Correct. And after that, I was hooked. I was like this. I can't be. Once and done with this.

Yeah.

That we. Then you and I spoke, and we. We did all the proper work to become a legitimate chapter in the state of Vermont.

Because I thought that it would be better to. If I was going to be out there asking for people to give us money, I didn't want them giving it to Mike Davenport.

Yeah.

You know, I want. If they wanted to write a check, and I wanted it to filter through me so that we would. So Vermont.

So Bennington would be getting the credit for the funds that were collected. So that's when you and I decided, okay, let's make this a legitimate chapter. So. Which we did.

So now we're going to fast forward to this year will be our, I believe, our 13th banquet dinner that we hold every September. And It'll be our 13th one in 14 years.

Yeah.

And it's just been an incredible ride. I just. I can't even. It's hard for me to even explain to you the support in that community. And you've been there every year. You've come every year.

You see it. It's. You can't even put words to it.

Yeah. Well, this year.

That ever broke the $500,000 mark. So we put you in this. I was sitting here thinking to myself, well, what could we possibly do? I just couldn't believe it.

You know, and so what we ended up doing was creating the 500k club.

Right.

And we, you know, you're the, you're. Now there's one other one in there that just has achieved that. Brian. Of course, you two have been battling it out for one, two for years.

Well, that's good company.

Yeah, that's very, that's good company. Yes, very good company. The two 500 pound gorillas. Right, right. But yeah, so it's really amazing and what a great community.

You have all kinds of sponsors and you walk into that room and you hold, you've held at venues, but the one that we're kind of on now is the, you know, the Elks Club there. And you walk into the Elks Club in Bennington, Vermont. And you know, you see, you know how many tables you got there? You reckon?

We do. We try to keep it around 20. 20 tables.

So 20 tables. And these are sponsors.

Most of them are sponsors.

Yeah, yeah. That have said, hey, I want a sponsor. So they, they buy in a sponsorship that gets them a table for their company or corporation.

Well, what it does, a sponsorship, there's different levels. So a typical sponsor is like a thousand dollars. And what that does is that'll get the sponsor two seats at the table.

Okay.

They typically will buy the other six seats for employees or friends or whatever.

Okay.

And out of that sponsorship, they'll get a sign put up in the room with their company logo on it.

Professional made, professionally made. Looks beautiful.

And then we give them the swag bag. And because different levels of sponsorship they get, it'll depend on what they get for swag.

But then what you and I came up with early on was let's do something a little more for them.

So anybody that sponsors $1,000 and up for every thousand dollars you sponsor, you get put into a drawing to do this weekend getaway down here in Tampa with you and I doing inshore fishing.

That's right.

And that's turned into a pretty, a pretty good draw. People really like that.

Yeah, so do I. I mean, you and I both like it. It's cool.

You know, you usually a couple comes down and you and Debbie come down and then, you know, there's me and you know, we go offshore fishing or inshore fishing, you know, always somewhere. Now we're down in, in Punta Gorda at the Fisherman's Village. We like that an awful lot. We've been here in Tampa, fish in Tampa Bay.

But it is, it's wonderful. It gives us a chance to get to know, one of your valuable sponsors and let our hair down a little bit and enj the sort of the fruits of our labor.

But yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful time.

And, you know, if you could, you know, if you just picture walking into this, this Elks Club, which just, you know, just the ambiance that just reeks of history, and it's just a wonderful club to begin with. But when you get in there and you see all these tables that have got purple cloths on them, and there's always, you know, a headpiece to each table.

And I mean, you guys decorate it phenomenal.

And there's all kinds of raff items wrapping around the room, and then there's a live auction component and you're raffling off firearms and all kinds of cool stuff from the community. And it's a wonderful evening. And I'm just blown away every year by that, by what your community is able to do and what you've accomplished.

And our promise to your community is that 100% of the resource that's generated that evening goes to direct, directly support our mission set. And that's putting combat wounded Purple Heart recipients in the wood line or in the waterway on one of our missions.

And several of our missions are underfunded. There are missions that we love dearly, but they don't have a funding stream or a funding component to them or very little funding.

And we just say, we got your back and we couldn't do that. There's no way we could have done that throughout these years without that support.

So, you know, I want to personally thank you, your family, of course, your bride Debbie, and that amazing community of support because it has helped, you know, change a lot of lives and maybe some cases saved lives. But that, that resource is very, very valuable to us because this is an expensive business. I mean, you go on a lot of guided hunts.

You know, if you were to say, hey, you're going to take four guys or five gu.

Five different locations across the country, bring them together to one location to do a three day hunting or fishing excursion, you know, depending on what you decided to do, you know, I mean, I guarantee you, you would have a very, very hard time doing that for under 20,000 bucks.

Oh, sure, right.

I mean, you do it all the time.

Yeah.

You know, but it depends on what you want to go do.

Yeah. I mean, conservatively, you're going to drop $5,000 a person. Easy, easy, easy. That's just for the hunt.

That's not.

That's not getting there.

Right? That's, That' plane ticket. And so we're able to do this because a lot of wonderful people are.

The lodging is taken care of, the food is taken care of, or we reimburse for the food. So it's expensive business. We've done a really good job. I think the foundation of leveraging a lot of in kind support that makes this happen.

But there's a lot of things that it takes the almighty dollar to actually purchase. And we're just very grateful. Grateful for what you guys have accomplished. It's nothing, it's nothing short of, you know, spectacular.

And your whole family's working in this thing.

Yeah, yeah. My stepdaughter, Jessica, she's, she's deeply involved.

She's sweetheart.

Yeah, she's, she's a go getter. She, she never. There's no grass growing under her.

No. That girl is getting it from day one and all in.

Yeah.

Your whole family is all in on this.

As we creep closer to the event, you know, it's, it's many hours leading up the week prior to the event. There's hardly any sleep. It's just gathering everything together, making sure, you know, we have everything set.

And then the setup, we, we have volunteers during the event.

Yeah.

And we do have volunteers during the setup. But throughout the year, it's just mainly the three of us.

Yeah.

My wife, Debbie, Jessica and myself. And then that weekend, the Friday before the event, we have, you know, maybe a half a dozen people come in to help us.

And then that night, and there's 220 guests seated at this thing.

Yeah.

And before we leave the Elks Lodge at night, it's all torn down, cleaned up and we go home.

That's right.

And it's like it never even happened.

Exactly right.

You know, so it's, that's where a lot of the work is, is when it's go time.

Taking the gourds off the table and, and cleaning up after people.

After 220 something people.

I know.

And there's a lot of brown water that goes around.

There's, there's some of the brown waters. Yeah, yeah, it's flowing. Yeah, it's, it's, it's incredible.

You know, so I wanted to, you know, I wanted to share with everybody a couple of things because you and I have, you know, been around the block a few times and you know, we actually went up to British Columbia and hunted. Links will, you know, get back to that in a minute.

I'd like to save that link story maybe to, to close with, because we were up there in British Columbia with Doug McMahon and his bride Julie, chasing links all over British Columbia. That was. I know you've got a story or two to tell there, but, you know, here you just. You and your. You and Debbie just retired from your lay.

Would you work. You worked at Unicorn for what?

I was there for a total of 40 years.

40 years.

Debbie was there 30.

Yeah. So you guys have both retired now, and you moved out of Bennington.

You relocated down in Tennessee, but you've got roots and family back there in Vermont, and you're not giving up on Vermont. That banquet's got what we would refer to as irreversible momentum.

You're going back multiple times to help facilitate all the things that have to happen.

Getting the products and the firearms and the raffle things straight, pumping it up so folks have it in the forefront of their mind that you're not giving up on Vermont. If anything, it's getting stronger.

But you physically relocated to Tennessee, and you and I, you're down here today, and you were down here yesterday. And we've been talking about, you know, what we're. How we're going to leverage now some of this extra. I say, extra time that you might have.

Right.

As, you know, supporting the foundation. And we think we've got. We think we're hitting on a few things that are going to be great.

So we are really excited to welcome you further into the team and help us explore some space in a region that we don't have a lot of activity right now. You're not too far from Nashville, not too far from Fort Campbell, and we've got some ideas, and that's.

What we've been doing, is kicking around a few ideas and, and how we can, you know, continue to. To, you know, expand and grow and strengthen the Vermont effort and maybe a few other things.

Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to it. Nashville is a huge market. Yeah. It's an animal. I mean, it's going to take some time to navigate that animal.

Bennington, Vermont, is not going to change. I mean, that's, that's. And that's my heart and soul. That's where it all started.

I don't want anybody to ever think because we moved to Tennessee that that's going to diminish, because it won't. We're just leaning on more people, boots on the ground where we're not doing everything anymore.

Yeah.

Still going to be facilitated by my wife and I, but I have full faith in the. In the family members that are left Back up there to carry the torch while we're not there. But I don't think anybody will see the difference.

Yeah, but I'm looking forward to expanding what we do and get into the, you know, the Tennessee area or, you know, working up at Fort Campbell. I think there's a lot of opportunity.

Yep.

And now that I have the time to. To put into it, I think that we can, we can do good things.

Yeah, well, you're a sportsman yourself, so, you know, you're part of the attracted attraction, I'm sure, was the fact that, you know, you were a sportsman. I think your house looks like. Looks like a Fred Bear museum inside of it. You know, you got a.

Some might say that.

Yeah, a lot. A lot of. A lot of stuffed mounts and I.

Don't know if I rank up there with Fred Bear.

Okay, you've got some stuff.

I have some stuff.

That's correct. You're. You're a firearm aficionado. Would you say that?

Yeah, I can.

You ate up from the ground up with firearms. Love it.

True.

Yeah.

Some say it's an addiction.

Yeah. And so, you know, I gotta, I gotta ask you on the, on the topic.

You know, you've done a lot of hunts, you know, you know, everything from alligator, you know, in the swamps down here, to the lynx, you know, and big cats up in British Columbia. But would you share with us a little bit your, you know, our adventures up there in British Columbia?

I, I will. So for my 50th birthday.

Yeah.

My wife decided to. To purchase this hunt in British Columbia to hunt a lynx.

And she reached out to you and between the two of you, as you set this whole thing up and you decided you wanted to tag along for a few days.

Yeah.

So that we could. Because we never really have time to.

Yeah.

Just do what friends do, you know, it's always business when we're together. So we met up. I think we met each other in Seattle.

Yeah.

And then we linked together there and we, we traversed into the lodge, which. That was an adventure all on its own. Remember, there was weather and we couldn't.

And weather getting out too.

That's right. So when we finally made it to the lodge, we settled in and got geared up for the hunt. What I didn't realize is the terrain.

It's tough.

You know, the elevation was one thing. That was one thing.

The terrain is something else.

You know, the black spruce blowdowns and.

The, you know, you're gonna earn it up there.

It was a little more of a workout than I anticipated. Yeah, I had a great time.

I still cherish the picture of you and I on the side of one of these mountains, halfway up it, you know, pulling our socks out of our mouth as we're climbing this.

Yeah. I remember stopping and just taking a little bit of a break and. God, I gotta capture this on. I gotta. I need a selfie here.

Yeah, it's. It was one of my more memorable hunts for sure.

Yeah.

I did harvest a good mature lynx.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Which was I, I was very thankful to get it done.

Yeah.

Because it was probably without a doubt one of the hardest hunts I've ever done.

Yeah.

For one of the smallest animals I've ever hunted.

Right.

Quite honestly. But the memories that I, I said this to you over dinner last night.

You know, I sit there and I look at these trophies and it's like I'm back to every one of them. Adventures, you know, it's, it's, you know, my memory isn't as good as it used to be, but when I look at the taxidermy.

Yeah.

And that's what it's all about. You relive the whole, the whole hunt.

Yeah.

You know. Yeah, it was a, it was a fun time for sure.

Yeah. And Dog and Julie up there, Skinner Creek. Just wonderful, wonderful guides and hosts and, you know, just making memories every day.

And we certainly shared one.

And I remember thinking to myself, you know, well, of course, you know, I've got that, you know, we're all very busy people, but your birthday gift from your wife, Debbie. And I just thought to myself, well, sometimes the best memories occur when you have that one on one experience with a guide.

And I just know how that is. I respect so much that only you and he are going to have that memory.

And I kind of felt like maybe I was a third wheel and I just didn't want to impact in any way negatively that experience. I like to solo hunt myself personally, but I also have been with a few guides in my day too. And I just know how special that is.

You're going to have that memory with only one other person and you're going to share that with many people from there forward.

And I was so happy when you sent me that picture, picture of your, your links ultimately that, you know, it just, it just warmed my heart and I was, I was very proud and happy to help Debbie Planet. And. Yeah, that, that's no small effort.

No. You know, and you, as you know, we spent two days, you and I spent two days chasing these things around oh, yeah. And never even got a visual.

Never. No. Lots of good signs.

Yeah.

You know, but that, that country, you.

Know, it's very unforgiving country.

It is. The sign ought to say, you know, as soon as you enter British Columbia, it ought know, not for the weak nor faint of heart.

And they're serious about it. Yeah, that's high country up there. But yeah. So it's pretty neat.

And then you and I fished together and had lots of fun on our adventures here in Florida. And, you know, our relationship just keeps getting stronger and better and, you know, it's great to have you on the program.

I did want to ask you something. Hey, business is about the successful, repeatable process, right?

So once you got a process that's working, that's profitable in business or working in this case, we are a business that's just not for profit. And we help our clients who happen to be combat wounded Purple Heart recipients.

But it's run like a business because it has to be your business there in Bennington. I mean, if you had to put your finger. I'm putting you on the spot here, buddy. We didn't rehearse any of this.

But if you had to put your finger on one thing that has led to your success, a piece of advice that you might give to. We have 42 hosts out there, all of whom are. Most. All of whom are doing some sort of fundraising activity which enables these missions to happen.

And serving over 200 combat wounded annually in 42 missions across 30 some states.

You know, it's expensive business, but what would you, if you had to put your finger on one thing that has helped you be or made you successful in your enterprise there in Vermont, in Bennington, with your fundraising activity for that, that banquet, what is it?

One thing.

Yeah.

I would have to say that the sponsorship program that funds our event, showing the appreciation back to the sponsors in a way where they feel special, not as a group, but individually. You know, by putting a sign up in the room.

A lot of my sponsors will come to me and say, you know, I can't believe the amount of phone calls I got for jobs that need to be done. It could be a plumber, a carpenter, because somebody saw my sign in your room.

As a result of the bank, as.

A result of the banquet, we had I think 38 or 39 sponsors at our last event. And, you know, we. There's some that can't sponsor every year. There's some that come back. There's new ones every year.

And I believe the success is because You've been there for every one of them. There are people that come year after year. I fill probably two thirds of the room with the same people.

Now, after 13 years, there's a lot to be said there. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, it's. We're there fundraising, so it's not like people are just coming. They're sitting on their hands, right? So that. To.

To have people that want to come every year for the past 13 years, they have to feel pretty warm inside for doing it.

There has to be some value there, too. You know, value on. On a lot of levels. Like, okay, you're supporting a worthy cause. They wouldn't be there if that wasn't the case.

But you go above and beyond. And.

And, you know, we here, when I talk about entering into a relationship with another business or entity, you know, because we do get approached on things, and sometimes it's a no, thank you. And may. I don't want to say, a lot of the times it's a no, thank you. But we're very careful with whom we do business.

And when we say do business, what are we doing? And so I developed this idea of the triple win several years ago, and I said, okay.

So in order for me to say yes to entering into a relationship with another enterprise or entity, three things have to happen. One, the heroes that we serve have to win. And I could talk about that for days, but that's one leg of that stool.

The other is that the foundation has to win.

And I could talk about that leg of the stool, but the third leg, and I put it on the table every time, is that I say you, that you, the contributing supporter, have to win. And I want you to win. And we're going to be good partners, I promise you. But I know that you're in this.

I know you're doing it for philanthropic reasons, and I acknowledge that, and thank you. But also, you're a business, and we're going to make sure that you get recognized. Now you're doing that.

You take that idea of the triple win, and you're the one that's actuating that at the community level, and you're making sure that these people are winning. And by taking care of them, by acknowledging their business, by treating them special, they're your sponsors, and that's really phenomenal.

You guys do better at that than anybody I've ever seen. It's amazing what you do. The value you create for your sponsors and anybody who attends that is a high quality, wonderful event. Every day. There's A.

Or every year, there's a line snaking out that door. I know I'm, you know, I'm there watching it, you know, chatting with people, but they're. They're all, you know, dying to get in that door and get.

And get at it, you know, it's amazing.

It is amazing. It's in, you know, it's.

I talk to the people that work at the Elks Lodge, and they just, they look forward to it every year because it's like the largest event.

Yeah.

You know, they. They hold weddings up there, receptions, and there's a lot of people. But not for. For a nonprofit fundraising effort.

Right.

To see the line of cars parked on the street because the parking lot's full and the people are a block line trying to get in.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

And it's. And it's. It shows no signs of slowing.

No.

I mean, we've. It's just crazy to me, the. The support after 13 years. And it's. It hasn't. It hasn't diminished at all.

Now Bennington has also recently been named a Purple Heart. Town or city?

Town.

Yes, town. Purple Heart town.

Purple Heart town.

Yeah. So when I. When I was. I fly in usually to Rochester and drive the rest of the way. I think it's Rochester.

Albany.

I take it back. Albany. Thank you. I fly into Albany and then I drive. But I remember this last year, 24. On that drive. I saw the, you know, Purple Heart sign. It just.

It warm, you know, it warmed my heart. But yeah, that's. And I've made a lot of friends. You, you know, your network is open to me and, you know, and that's an amazing thing.

I've made a lot of friends and really enjoyed all the couples that we've met and spent time with and, you know, broken bread and cut fish and, you know, when they come down here. And of course, I see them when I go back to the banquet every year. And, you know, there's. There's just a lot of value there. And.

And I think that's the best way that it could be described. You know, I mean, you. But it starts with this. Okay, that's the other thing. You go.

I started this conversation by saying, you know, businesses mostly about the successful, repeatable process. Well, it assumes, of course, that statement that you've got, that you've found success.

Right.

You got a formula that works. You're cranking out a widget that's functional, that people want. Everybody demonstrated demand for that widget. And then you just Got to repeat that.

And you got to sell your widget where you can make profit. That's what business is about. Or you can't be in business or won't be in business long if you're not making a profit.

So, you know, this is a nonprofit. You know, we're not talking about profiting here, but we're talking about defining the successful, you know, process. What is it?

And I've given this thought for years about, you know, I'm like, how in the world could I replicate in other parts of the country what Mike and Debbie are doing? And I have given that a lot of thought, and finally I settled on it.

I'm like, listen, it certainly could be done, but what it starts with is high quality people like you and your family that are connected to a community and people. I say this at guide school, and I say it a lot. People do business with people that they know like, and trust.

There is no way in the world you could pull off what you're pulling off there if people didn't like you, if people didn't know you and people didn't trust you. That's your hometown.

You're right. Right. That's absolutely right.

And they know Mike. They know everything about Mike.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

And, and, and they trust you.

Well, you know, the majority of the sponsors are close friends.

Exactly.

They're business owners. And you're right. I mean, there's, there's a huge amount of trust there.

Yeah.

And we try to be as transparent as humanly possible with everything. It's. And again, when, when you come up for the event every year, that also helps solidify. You know, this is why we're doing it.

Here's the man himself. You know, but again, I, I'll say it again. Every year, I mean, you see the same faces.

It's just incredible to me that we can continually bring the same sponsors back year on year. I mean, obviously we. We lose a couple every now and again for whatever reason, but then we might get them back.

But it's, you know, I, I told you last night over dinner that, that, you know, there was a lot of concern about us moving to Tennessee. The community was, you know, all of these sponsors are coming to me and, like, you know, what's going to happen?

It's like, oh, nothing's going to happen. We're.

We're.

We're still going to have the event. It's going to be like any other year. It's just we're going to move to a little warmer climate.

Right? Right.

So, you know, that that makes me feel good, that that's what people are thinking about, you know, is the function. Is the function still going to have it?

You know, I just got a smile on my face because flashing through the years and, you know, sitting at the, you know, one of your beautiful tables there, watching this whole thing unfold. I love the live auction, you know, I mean, you know, that's just so much fun to be. I look forward to that more than anything.

And I usually try to bring a cool item or two that I've personally secured somehow.

I mean, it's a box call and I'm not going to say much more than that, but that's one of them. And the other one is we got a relationship building with peach hour cues. And these are some of the finest pool cues made in the planet.

And they're made out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. And we ordered. They're doing a special series. I think they made 50 of them.

And we got a couple of them that, you know, and they're all numbered and they're made with purple heartwood and they just will blow you away. And so, you know, I'm bringing one of those with me. So there's always something super cool.

And of course, you know, all your sponsors are bringing their wares. I mean, it's everything from, you know, chairs to fine fire arms to, you know, model, you know, kit airplanes. I mean, you name it.

There's just, it's there, you know, and you know, we try to always bring new things to this banquet so people have, you know, an experience and get exposed to something they otherwise never would would be. And all in name, in the name of a good cause and you know, in charity that, you know, in case, in this case, the wounded warriors in action, it's.

It's really an amazing thing that, that you and your team and community have done. And I just can't thank you enough, Mike.

I appreciate that, John.

Thank you. It really is amazing what people can do when they put their hearts and minds into something. So it's really great.

Well, listen, I always like to give the last shot, the last whack at the pinata to my guest. And you are certain certainly a super Host, is there anything, Mike, that you'd like to share with us or talk about before we close the program?

No, John, I think we pretty much touched on everything again. I just want the folks back in the community of Bennington to be reassured that things are as normal as they'll ever be. Maybe even, maybe even better.

Maybe even better.

Who knows?

Yeah.

You know, this is a whole new adventure for me down in the mid, mid part of the country and maybe we can bring something new up to Bennington.

Yeah. How hard is it going to be for you to take your foot off the gas pedal? That's going to be the hard part.

Who said I'd take my foot off again?

That's right. Exactly.

Well, I don't think we discussed that.

No, we didn't, we didn't. But Mike, I think Debbie ought to step in there and help you out with that a little bit.

But she might have something other to say about that.

You're one motivated individual and you are a results oriented man and I can appreciate and respect that a great deal. I mean, you do not need any motivation.

You're the kind of guy that doesn't need much guidance, just a little bit of intent and purpose and you're just off and running. I mean, you're one of those guys that, you know, that you just gotta, you gotta give a lot of, a lot of lead and a lot of open terrain.

Just give them the football, you know, and you've done phenomenal for us and you know, the countless numbers of heroes that, you know, you guys have, whose lives you've affected and, you know, it's great because it takes a lot of pressure off from some of these events that don't have any funding streams and, you know, it's just remarkable. And I want to, you know, publicly thank you again.

Thank you, Jen.

All right.

Appreciate it.

All right, everybody, we, we hope you have a great day and thanks for tuning into the podcast.

Thank you for listening to the WWIA podcast.

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