Winner Update: The Wyakin Foundation

A little bit about how Impact Club has affected the Wyakin Foundation, we have two great challenges as an organization. One, obviously, is funding, and that’s always there. It’s pretty obvious how Impact Club and how you all impacted us in that way by providing that $20,000 in funding. That was huge for us and made a big difference.

But to understand how it made a difference, understand that the other risk factor we have is not being able to find enough veterans to help. It’s not that there aren’t a lot of veterans out there that need help. But as you may know, veterans sometimes can be rascals, and they don’t always come looking for help. They don’t always admit when they need help.

We really need to get out of the community and extend a helping hand and find those veteran students that are struggling in school, struggling with transition, struggling with the various challenges. We need to find and we need to let them know that we’ve got a program that can help them succeed.

What we’ve done with the funding from the Impact Club, we’ve been able to get more active, get out on campuses, get out in more community outreach, present at every organization that we’ve had a chance to present to. We’ve been at the Rotary’s, and the Grotto clubs, and all the different places we could get out and get in front of people. It’s amazing. We find volunteers there, and we find donors there.

But also a lot of times, someone will come up to us afterwards and say, “You know what? I know somebody who could use your help. He or she probably won’t call you, but here’s the number. Why don’t you call them?” We do, and so consequently, our goal when we started this year was to bring in 15 new veterans into our program, which would be the most that we’ve ever brought in. Prior to our experience at the Impact Club, it was lagging behind. It was a tough year.

Since coming to the Impact Club, that has changed dramatically. We now have 14 veterans in the pipeline ready to come into the program this year [crosstalk 00:01:52]. We believe with four months left in the year, we will not only meet but exceed our goal of 15.

We believe we’re going to bring in 17 or 18 new veterans in your program, which means not only 17 or 18 lives impacted, but all the lives that they touch. When we help them change, they take that change home. They take that change to the classroom, to the workplace, to places they meet with other veterans. It changes those people, and they take it beyond them, and it goes on, and on, and on. Every change we make, there’s no small change. Every change we make reveberates forever and ever, honestly. When we changes these veterans, it’s not just about changing veterans. It’s about changing the world. Thanks to you all, we’re going to be able to do that more than ever this year. Thank you very much.