CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – When a neighbor loses a loved one, the community rallies around them, bringing dinners, lunches and support to ease the pain. But what about the losses you can’t see? The instability, stress and weakened relationships that accompany deployment and military life?
Join SAFE: Soldiers and Families Embraced, community leaders and your neighbors to share a meal at the organization’s annual fundraising breakfast, “Healing the Heroes Next Door,” where you’ll hear how the Clarksville community can rally around its military neighbors to ease that silent suffering.
The breakfast, now in its fourth year, is SAFE’s largest fundraiser each year and is set for 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the William O. Beach Civic Hall, in Veterans Plaza. The event now welcomes more than 150 guests who enjoy a meal together and learn about the struggles facing our military and their families and how the community can help.
“SAFE is a homegrown outreach program that now offers more than 300 sessions of counseling a month to active duty military, veterans and families at no cost to the clients,” said Executive Director Jodi McCullah. “We rely solely upon private and corporate grants and donations to offer this service to our heroes next door.”
The 2015 Breakfast features an address by Sen. Mark Green. Having served in the Army himself, Green understands the importance of a strong support system and a community rallying around its military.
The 2015 Breakfast will also honor longtime supporter Phil Harpel with the Community Hero Award. For years, Harpel, Senior Community Banking office for US Bank, has demonstrated exceptional support to the military and veteran communities in the Clarksville/Ft. Campbell area, never missing, for example, a returning flight for deployed Soldiers. Both publicly and personally, Harpel has worked tirelessly, simply he says, “to repay our military for at least some of what they give up for us.” Previous recipients of the award include Carol Clark, Executive Assistant to the President at Austin Peay State University, and Col. Ted Crozier, US Army (Ret) and former Clarksville mayor.
Tickets for the event are $100 and can be purchased by calling 931-591-3241 or emailing briana@safetn.org. The nonprofit is also recruiting corporate table sponsors and food sponsors as well as table captains who pledge to fill a table. To donate online, go to soldiersandfamiliesembraced.org.
About SAFE: SAFE is a 501.c.3 based in Clarksville, Tennessee, which offers free, confidential, professional counseling to active duty military, veterans and their families. The organization’s mission is to serve as a resource for the community to ease the readjustment and reintegration of military members returning from the current wars and their families, as well as veterans from previous eras.