Dear Editor,
My name is Jesse Webber. I am the New England Assistant Team Leader for The Fallen Outdoors. The Fallen Outdoors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the sole focus of getting veterans and service members into the great outdoors. We do this through coordinating and facilitating hunting, fishing, canoeing, hiking, and camping trips with local guides, charters, outdoorsmen, volunteers, and our organization’s own prostaff members.
The goal is to provide these veterans with an outlet to step away from their life stressors. On these trips, veterans are able to build upon their existing support network to better equip themselves for what lies ahead of them. Our staff consists of active and former military service members who are all volunteers. Since our inception in July of 2019, Team New England has facilitated over 200 veteran and service member participation in trips and events across the Northeast.
Team New England has specific goals that we would like to accomplish over the next year. First, we would like to facilitate 15-20 major fishing trips ranging from lake, river, and ocean fishing excursions. Second, we anticipate hosting 12-18 hunting trips targeting rabbits, turkey, deer, bear, and waterfowl. Lastly, we aim to provide three snowshoe hikes, five overnight hikes, eight canoe trips and three family-oriented barbeques. The focus is not necessarily what these veterans are doing but rather that they are doing it together and creating memories that they can lean on during tough times.
How to support The Fallen Outdoors mission to prevent veteran suicide: join our ranks as a prostaff member; donate your time or host a trip for a veteran; allow access to your land for one of our prostaff members to bring a veteran hunting or fishing; donate used or new equipment; or donate money so that we can continue our mission.
Donations can be made through PayPal to NewEngland.Lead@TheFallenOutdoors.com; checks payable to The Fallen Outdoors, 320 Lake Drive, North Bennington, VT 05257; Venmo “TFO New England”; and items and equipment can be picked up by any one of our prostaffer members located in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Current news on our activity can be found by viewing The Fallen Outdoors on Facebook at “The Fallen Outdoors East Coast All Veteran” community page or on our website at www.TheFallenOutdoors.com.
Sincerely,
Jesse Webber
Assistant Team Lead – New England
The Fallen Outdoors