Speaker 1: This is a great pleasure to talk to Ellen Caprara.
Speaker 1: Ellen works with Warrior Foundation Freedom Station to coordinate support
Speaker 1: services with the Navy Wounded Warrior Program, UH specifically or
Speaker 1: at least in part of travel services like the home
Speaker 1: for the Holidays flights, which we absolutely love. Ellen, welcome.
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good? How about yourself? We're terrific things.
Speaker 1: Can can you help us understand why it's so powerful
Speaker 1: and important, um to either get the warriors home for
Speaker 1: the holidays or have family, uh, you know come to
Speaker 1: their side when necessary. Yeah, absolutely so. This program we especially,
Speaker 1: you know, love and support and are so happy when
Speaker 1: this time of the year comes around. You know, these
Speaker 1: sailors and service members they're going through some of the
Speaker 1: toughest times of their lives with what they're doing, and
Speaker 1: a lot of them can't afford to go home or
Speaker 1: you know, it's just the circumstances aren't right. And to
Speaker 1: be able to, you know, provide them with that opportunity
Speaker 1: to fly home for the holidays and to see their
Speaker 1: families and friends, it's so powerful and so meaningful, and
Speaker 1: it just you know, it means a lot to them
Speaker 1: to be able to have that experience and it's it's
Speaker 1: just again, we love this time of year because we
Speaker 1: can offer them this and it's just it's wonderful and
Speaker 1: we we we we love that the Wounded Warrior Foundation
Speaker 1: Freedom Station provides this for us. And just our sailors
Speaker 1: are you know, we we get them asking around this
Speaker 1: time when you know, when the when the when the
Speaker 1: program starts. So it's it's just it's very impactful and meaningful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've heard the stories over the years when you finally
Speaker 1: get to go up to you know, a man or
Speaker 1: a woman and say, hey, you're gonna wake up in
Speaker 1: your own bed on Christmas. That's pretty awesome. And and you,
Speaker 1: I know you you generally calculate how much it costs
Speaker 1: per person, what's like our average. I've always thought this
Speaker 1: is a good way for people who want to donate
Speaker 1: to kind of picture where their money is gonna go.
Speaker 1: How much do how much do I need to donate
Speaker 1: to make sure somebody can go home for the holidays?
Speaker 1: Do you? And look in between I mean the flight range,
Speaker 1: you know, because people fly as close to San you know,
Speaker 1: the quick flight to you know, from San Diego to
Speaker 1: San Francisco, but a lot of them have families on
Speaker 1: the East coast. So you're looking probably about two dred
Speaker 1: and fifties five D probably per ticket for a round
Speaker 1: trip ticket. Um, I'm thinking around there. Some might be less,
Speaker 1: some key a little bit more, but I think that
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good range. Well, and gosh, the returns
Speaker 1: are I mean invaluable, just you know, to to have
Speaker 1: the support of family and maybe old bodies around and
Speaker 1: or my god, when when some of these service members
Speaker 1: are going through multiple surgeries and rehabs in the rest
Speaker 1: of it, to have mom and dad come visit or whoever.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's gotta you can't put a price on that.
Speaker 1: You can't put a price on that. And again, they're
Speaker 1: going through some of the toughest times right now, and
Speaker 1: to be able to have to see their family over
Speaker 1: the holidays there, have their family come over the holidays
Speaker 1: is you know, words don't describe how how important that
Speaker 1: is to them, especially in their whole healing process as
Speaker 1: are going through their medical and everything. So it just
Speaker 1: it is, it is fantastic to be able to provide
Speaker 1: that opportunity to them. Well, Ellen, we're going to see
Speaker 1: how much money we can raise and how many tickets
Speaker 1: we can buy, and how many families we can put
Speaker 1: back together for the holidays are just when they're needed most.
Speaker 1: So thanks a million for what you do. Absolutely thank
Speaker 1: you for having me on Armstrong and Jetty