Magento Commerce

Earlier this year we surprised Jake Anderson and his wife with a full paid honeymoon. They were not able to take one when they got married. Jake was wounded on his first deployment and volunteered to go back for another one. When he returned from his second deployment , we were their to greet him with this surprise. Jake is an active duty Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune.

Check out this awesome video of Jake and his wife on their honeymoon. Being the kind people they are, they donated money to a local school while on their trip. God Bless our troops

Jordan McBride

     A friend of Brad McKee’s, Nick McDaniel, contacted him and said he and his dad, Dwayne McDaniel, wanted to provide a full-paid hunting trip for a wounded veteran. The DHP has established a relationship with Brooke Army Medical Center and asked if they had anyone who’s like to get away and go hunting. 

Jordan McBride, a wounded veteran from Houston, is in rehab in San Antonio, and joined McKee and Nick McDaniel for a four-day hunting trip in Sterling, Texas.

“He said being in the rehab center every day can get so depressing and monotonous, and there are guys screaming around him,” McKee said. “Hunting is something he likes, and he kept saying how exciting and relieving it was to get out for a few days.”

McKee and McDaniel had a bag about 3 feet long full of everything he could need to hunt, including all types of camouflage, boots, jackets, thermals, pants, socks, shirts and the rifle. 

“He had the biggest kill that weekend,” McKee said. “He shot a 10-point buck.” The DHP is having it mounted for him. “That’s what this is about,” McKee said. “Projects like these relieve so much stress for these veterans, even if it’s just for a short period of time.”

On my way to surprise a wounded vet- Part one

TJ’s CrossFit - Daniel Lister

On Dec. 10 Brad McKee traveled to San Francisco on behalf of the DHP. He, along with the owners of TJ’s CrossFit gym in San Francisco conducted a DHP Workout of the Day (WOD), which is an hour-long, grueling workout. “We do it that way so the people participating can dig down deep and think about a small fraction of what our wounded veterans go through,” McKee said. Everyone who participated in the WOD had to donate a minimum of $25 to the DHP. “You know what though,” McKee said. “Of the maybe 65 people who participated, there was not one check for $25. It was $50 here, $100 there, and we raised about $10,000.” To make the fundraiser more meaningful, and to show veterans people are grateful for their service, the DHP brought a wounded veteran to the event in California.“It was the first one we took a veteran to, so it was very unique,” McKee said.
            Daniel Lister, a veteran from Marietta, Ga., lost a leg, badly injured the other leg, lost both testicles and gallbladder, suffered from brain damage and had metal in his stomach and intestines serving our country. He has a wife and two kids, and his wife now takes on the duties of both parents. He and his wife accompanied McKee to San Francisco. “A friend of theirs contacted me and said they were having a hard time,” McKee said. “We wanted them to get out the house and see how we raise money. They had an excellent time.” McKee found out the family had furniture needs and were sharing beds and putting clothes on the floor because they had no dressers, so the DHP fully furnished their house.“They were amazed just by the WOD and said it was such a relief from everyday stressful life and that they couldn’t ask for more,” McKee said. “Then we told them about the furniture and they were both in tears. They broke down.”
    Their reactions had just as much impact on the people participating in the WOD, McKee said.“There wasn’t a dry eye in that building, especially when Daniel spoke about the struggles of everyday life,” McKee said. The final surprise for the Lister family is a fully paid seven-day cruise for the whole family. “They told us they filmed their kids’ reactions when they told them about the cruise Christmas morning, and they’re sending us the film,” McKee said. Following the San Francisco trip, McKee traveled to San Antonio to the Brooke Army Medical Center Dec. 14-18.

Copy Written by : Bridgette Bonner

Crucible - In honor of Matthew Wildes

Boston Harbor Cruise - Joseph and Samantha

(click “…more” for a big version)
In July of 2011 we took our second annual trip to Boston for The DH Project Harbor Cruise Fundraiser thrown by Neil White and Mike Pitts. These guys contacted us two years ago wanting to help us raise funds to aid our mission and they did just that. Neil and Mike have spearheaded this event the past two years and they’ve done an amazing job, hats off to them! The event is a three-hour cruise around the historic Boston Harbor in a ship built for entertaining.

     Outfitted with a band, hor dourves, some Harpoon sponsored brew, and great people gathering for a worthy cause, we made some wake in the harbor in the name of our brave soldiers. However, this was not the only event on our New England agenda. We were fortunate enough to be accompanied by two wounded soldiers, Joseph and Samantha, from the Brooke Ashley Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. These two soldiers thought they were simply along to help raise awareness at our fundraiser, however earlier that day we were able to surprise them with a private tour of Fenway Park! This had been a dream of Samantha’s as she has been a lifelong Red Sox fan. As we strolled through the hallowed grounds of the most historic baseball park in the world, and seeing the looks on Joseph and Samantha’s faces, we couldn’t help but feel truly lucky to be able to provide opportunities like this to those who truly deserve them.

      It’s those smiles that make all of our hard work worthwhile and will only drive us to bring more of them to the faces of our freedom fighters. 

Crossfit Native - In honor of Jack Martin