01:23 – 01:40
Kim Monson: D-Day landings and returned stateside realizing that we need to know these stories, we need to record them and broadcast them and archive them, so hence America’s veteran stories. Very pleased to have on the line with me Joe Lewis with Angels of America’s Fallen. Joe welcome to the show.
01:41 – 01:43
Joe Lewis: Thank you it’s an honor to be here.
01:43 – 02:19
Kim Monson: And it’s It’s great to have you. You and I met at the Center for American Values. We have met a couple of times down there in Pueblo, Colorado. And the Center is a very special place. They have great educational programs for kids K through 12, as well as on-value speaker series, and of course the portraits of Valor of the Medal of Honor recipients, over 166 portraits of our Medal of Honor recipients as well as their great Medal of Honor quote book. And so the Center for American Values is a very special place, Joe.
02:20 – 02:25
Joe Lewis: It is, absolutely. It’s a pleasure going down there every time, learn something new every time as well.
02:26 – 02:38
Kim Monson: And people can get more information about the Center by going to AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. So Joe Lewis, tell us about Angels of America’s Fallen.
02:38 – 02:45
Joe Lewis: Angels is a 501C3, so we’re a national nonprofit supporting children of our fallen military and first responders.
02:47 – 03:06
Kim Monson: Well, and this is very timely. We’ve pre-recorded this, but we’ll be broadcasting this right before the Sunday before 9-11. And it really is a time to stop and reflect and think about our first responders. It’s just almost unbelievable what happened on 9-11.
03:07 – 03:16
Joe Lewis: Absolutely. It changed our world and set forth the in-motion actions that have resulted in thousands of children losing their parents in service to our country and our communities.
03:18 – 03:30
Kim Monson: So let’s talk first a little bit about you, your journey, how you ended up here. So tell us about where you grew up, your military service, and just how that all started.
03:31 – 04:01
Joe Lewis: It actually started with my father who was a Marine infantry in Vietnam. And if he had not come home, I never would have existed. And so as a child growing up, it really just made me think about the impact when our guys don’t come home and how far those ripples go forward. And my father got out of the Marine Corps and we moved to Alabama where I went from third grade through through high school and then joined the Army National Guard and turned 18 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was awesome. I was driving a 26-ton tract
04:01 – 04:35
Joe Lewis: howitzer and firing artillery shells. I thought that was awesome. And then did that through college, then the Marine Corps. And I had wanted to fly since before I can remember. And in the Marine Corps, things worked out very well for me. And I got my first choice of aircraft, F-18s, and was flying those until my back was broken during some training and I was unable to continue to fly ejection seat aircraft. So I transitioned out and went to the airlines and flew for American Airlines just a few months and then 9-11 occurred. And I went back
04:35 – 05:12
Joe Lewis: on active duty with the Air Force, active Air Force with the Air National Guard supporting counter-narcotics and counter-narco terrorism missions with law enforcement primarily. And throughout that process I had also done carrier operations with the Navy and some support, counter-narcotics with the Coast Guard, and lost friends in every branch. And it was always a great guy with little kids. 2 of my friends in the Marine Corps had babies on the way they never even got to meet. And so the thought of those kids growing up through their most crucial formative years without the guidance and support
05:12 – 05:37
Joe Lewis: of their fathers and generally, you know, that was the breadwinner of the family as well. It really impacted me and seeing then our first responders risks right here at home made me have a calling really to start angels and do that to make sure that these kids are engaged in positive activities with the coach or instructor so they aren’t becoming withdrawn and depressed or running with the wrong crowd.
05:39 – 06:23
Kim Monson: That is really important. I think that we take so much for granted here in America at this particular point in time And there are those that have given their lives so that we can have liberty. And we don’t think sometimes about the cost of what that is. As you mentioned, these children that are growing up without their parent because their parent died in the service to our country. And I think it’s important that we continue to keep these stories alive. I want to talk a little bit about your service and tell me about breaking your back
06:23 – 06:26
Kim Monson: had to be, what happened when that occurred?
06:27 – 06:54
Joe Lewis: I was at Sears School, so that’s survival, evasion, resistance, and escape, basically POW training and it’s very realistic training and it’s actually it was very enjoyable. I thought it was great. It was definitely training you would rather have than not if you ended up in a situation where you needed it. But during that process I had a compression fracture of my T-7 vertebrae, and it was just something that prohibited me from continuing to fly into ejection seat aircraft.
06:55 – 06:59
Kim Monson: Okay. And did that happen when you were trying to eject an aircraft or what?
06:59 – 07:16
Joe Lewis: No, it was actually during the SEER school training. Some of the treatment that you get there can be violent. And so that was, yeah, just some repeated impact against the wall kind of a thing. My back flexed forward and just crushed the top, inside top of the T7.
07:18 – 07:43
Kim Monson: Gosh, Joe, having something like that happen during training like that, it could be an event that could change people’s lives where they could start to think of themselves as a victim? And you didn’t obviously, but I hadn’t really thought about what a challenge that some of this training is.
07:44 – 08:12
Joe Lewis: Well, you know, It’s 1 of those kinds of things. Things happen, right? And really it made me think about, you know, it did change me and it made me think in different ways, but it’s 1 of those kind of things where you never want to waste the pain and you want to see what positives and possibilities and things can come out of that. So that along with, when I was in the air force, I had Lyme disease for 3 and a half years. And it was a late stage Lyme disease. It was really debilitating and 18
08:12 – 08:46
Joe Lewis: different doctors had missed the diagnosis. And it left me with lesions on my brain. And the interesting thing with that is that prior to that, I was really type A and I couldn’t understand people with anxiety or depression. I just really thought they should suck it up. And The result of the rewiring of my brain is that I have anxiety and depression. And when I realized that’s what it was, it was really kind of a shock to me, but it enabled me to have empathy for the families that we support that I otherwise wouldn’t have been
08:46 – 09:09
Joe Lewis: able to have. Many of the families that we support lost their loved 1 to suicide. And you hear the 22 a day veteran suicide number. I think that is an underestimation. I think that’s just the ones that are clearly suicide. But understanding a little more about the difficulties the families face, I think, has empowered me to be better at doing my job.
09:11 – 09:21
Kim Monson: Joe Lewis, how is it that we are losing so many of our service members or retired service members to suicide?
09:23 – 09:56
Joe Lewis: Well, you know, it’s a difficult thing because it’s not all just people that had gone through combat trauma. It seems to be pervasive throughout the military and the first responder community as well. And, I’m not really sure, but I do know that the impact that has on their families is, is really terrible. And it is, it’s a sad thing. And I think that some of these guys think they are doing their family a favor. Some of them think that they just can’t go any further. And some of them are very, very reactionary, without much thought, I
09:56 – 10:26
Joe Lewis: think, going into it. Some of the families we know had situations where, for example, the husband wakes up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and grabs the pistol off the nightstand and shoots himself before. He really knows probably what’s going on. We had 1 that jumped out of, out of the car on the interstate while the vehicle was moving and the mom was driving with the daughter in the backseat and she was pregnant with the young son. And so when it’s so deep or dark that they want it to end that quickly, you
10:26 – 10:39
Joe Lewis: know, it’s hard to understand. But I do know that the children and the spouses had no say in that and so as a nation we should you know come together and stand by them after that lost.
10:39 – 10:48
Kim Monson: Most definitely. And so hence Angels of America has fallen And this is going to be your 10th year anniversary, yes?
10:49 – 11:03
Joe Lewis: Actually, yes, our 10th year of being an organization. And so we have our 10th anniversary for our Angel Gala coming up this next spring. So we’ll be in our 11th, ending our 11th year of DIN.
11:04 – 11:11
Kim Monson: Okay. So tell us, Joe, about some of the stories of these families that you’ve become involved with.
11:12 – 11:47
Joe Lewis: Wow. There are a lot of stories. So the first thing is just generally, you have a young widow who hasn’t fully dealt with her own loss and grief yet because she goes into survival mode to take care of her kids. And we do have some fathers in our program, but Many of these stories are very difficult and sometimes the system fails them, so there’s a lot to unwrap with this. But I’ll give an example. There’s an Army lieutenant colonel that had a lot of exposure to the toxic burn pits And his wife was an Army nurse
11:47 – 12:25
Joe Lewis: as well and they had 2 little boys and he was diagnosed with ALS. And normally there’s about a two-year life expectancy from diagnosis. And in his case, he passed away in just like 4 and a half months. I mean, it was very, very rapid. And his 2 sons, you know, then were left without their father. And the family is currently appealing with the VA and the Army over benefits because he passed away at midnight on the night of his medical retirement. And so they basically said he wasn’t, he wasn’t active duty and he wasn’t fully medically
12:25 – 13:00
Joe Lewis: retired. He was kind of in no man’s land. And currently for the past several years, the family has qualified for no benefits. So there are hard stories like that. There are other ones where 1 of the families in Colorado Springs, the father was Army Master Sergeant who had retired and had some PTSD issues, although it wasn’t really documented in his records. And, you know, a lot of people don’t want that documented in their records. There’s a lot of reasons why guys don’t do that. But after retirement, on the mother’s birthday, he shot and killed her and
13:00 – 13:32
Joe Lewis: then shot himself in front of the four-year-old son and the 18-month-old daughter. And again, they don’t qualify for any benefits because the VA didn’t see a service connection in his records. But it’s very clear to us that that was the cause of this. It was because of the service, and so therefore the children qualify for our support. And you know I’m talking about the loss now. We honor the loss but we focus on positives and possibilities for the children. So going back to the first family, the 2 boys whose father had ALS, We’ve been supporting them
13:32 – 14:02
Joe Lewis: in hockey, ice hockey, for many years now. And they are flourishing with it. They’re doing fantastic. They performed at our Angel Gala event and did an ice hockey demo on rollerblades. And they’re both patriotic young boys. They have an interest in serving in the military and back to your point earlier, you know, they could be bitter and have many reasons to be bitter at the world and possibly the military, but that’s not the way they’re doing this. They’re not going with the victim mentality and we’re seeing them grow stronger. You know, there’s post-traumatic stress and there’s
14:02 – 14:40
Joe Lewis: also post-traumatic growth and I love to see that in the families we support where in spite of their loss they’re writing their own story of success and then the other family with the young boy and the his younger daughter or younger sister. They were raised by the grandparents and the grandparents weren’t in good health and really weren’t prepared financially for raising 2 children. And we helped them both in karate and the girl really had an interest in hula dancing. She’s not from Hawaii, she lives in Colorado, but that was her thing, that was her passion. And
14:40 – 15:14
Joe Lewis: she was ranked fifth in the nation in hula dancing and did a great job with it. She has now graduated high school and is off in college and she’s doing really well and has an interest in becoming an event planner and is going to college for that right now and she was inspired by our Angel Gala event and the widow that first started it for us. So we see tremendous healing through the activities. And although we’re laser focused on the kids, we realized when we started doing this, how often we’re interacting with that parent or guardian.
15:15 – 15:39
Joe Lewis: And you know, when you help the child, you help the parent. And when you help the parent, you help the child. So what we began to do was case management and getting to know the family really well, because we follow up with the children and check on them and want to know how they’re doing through the year. And if they’ve done something seasonal, we want to engage them in something. You know, if soccer is their thing, then after soccer season, we want to know, well, what do you want to do next? And get them engaged in
15:39 – 16:06
Joe Lewis: something. So we started doing case referral, case management, I’m sorry. And we would refer the families to other things they might qualify for. And through our getting to know the families, then it just organically grew that we were doing peer support and connecting families together through our events. Or specifically, if we hear of 1 family struggling in a certain area and we know another family that’s further along in that journey that might be the right fit, we make introductions.
16:07 – 16:12
Kim Monson: Okay. Well, how can people get more information about Angels of America’s Fallen?
16:13 – 16:43
Joe Lewis: Our website AOAFallen.org has information about the organization. It has stories of our families that tell their, again, their story of loss and their story of growth and healing. And we’ve got our financials on there. Our full audited statement is on there as well as our IRS 990 form and we’ve got videos, photos, and then opportunities for people to get engaged by volunteering, signing up for our newsletter, or making donations as well.
16:44 – 16:57
Kim Monson: And again, that website is, it’s America’s, Angels of America’s Fallen, and it is AOAFallen.org. Joe Lewis, this is just fascinating. Thank you so much.
16:58 – 17:01
Joe Lewis: Oh, it’s an honor to be doing this and Thank you for the opportunity to speak about it.
17:02 – 17:04
Kim Monson: Absolutely, and we’ll be right back.
17:05 – 17:42
Speaker 5: RE-MAX Realtor, Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Munson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That’s 303-877-7516.
17:46 – 18:03
Speaker 6: All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of the Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s
18:05 – 18:15
Speaker 2: kimmunson.com. Kimmunson.com. That’s kimmunson.com.
18:17 – 18:59
Kim Monson: And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories. Be sure and check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. And I’m talking with the founder of Angels of America’s Fallen, Joe Lewis. And Joe, the work that you’re doing with the children of our first responders and our military and their children that are surviving children is so, so important. And be sure and join me at Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week. It begins on September 16th, goes through the 22nd. I will be emceeing the main event with Dr. Ron Paul as the keynote speaker on September 21st. Be sure and join
18:59 – 19:11
Kim Monson: us. More information, go to GrandLakeUSConstitutionWeek.com. So tell us, what does it take for a child to qualify to become a participant in the Angels program?
19:12 – 19:39
Joe Lewis: Yeah, all it takes is for mom or dad to have served and made the ultimate sacrifice. And that can come through, you know, for the military, that can be combat fatality, training accident, it could be illness from service, you know, service-connected loss, and the same for our first responders as well. Because when we look at this, you know, to the child, it’s 100% loss of mom or dad regardless of the cause of death. And if that cause was related to their service to our country or communities, then the child qualifies.
19:40 – 19:53
Kim Monson: Well, and as I look at your website, you really have amazing broad support for what you’re doing, which I think is just great. And you’re based in Colorado Springs, but you help children all over the country?
19:54 – 20:23
Joe Lewis: That’s right. We have kids nationwide. And in fact, you know, many of these families move a few times trying to find a place that feels like home, particularly if they were military. You know, if they lived on the base, then after the parent passes, they’ve got to move out of base housing. And, you know, if the child went to school there, basically the kids lose their parent, their home, their school, and then likely move back to where the other parent is from. But frequently they find that it doesn’t feel right when they get there. The community
20:23 – 20:51
Joe Lewis: doesn’t understand them and they might move back to a favorite duty station. But when they get there it doesn’t feel the same because they’re not a part of the unit anymore and so on. So no matter where they are, in fact we’ve currently got 1 in Spain and a child in Canada. We had some that went from Aurora, Colorado to South Africa where the father had family and they wanted to get to know that side. So we’re going to support them wherever they are and engage them in something that’s in their community right where they are.
20:52 – 20:55
Kim Monson: And what does that support look like exactly, Joe Lewis?
20:56 – 21:26
Joe Lewis: Yeah, so our main focus is getting the kids engaged in healthy activities like sports, music, or arts where there’s a coach or an instructor. So they’re getting a mentoring component and they’re getting some kind of activity or some extracurricular activity that keeps them engaged and out in their own community where when They may feel down and they don’t want to go to school or they don’t want to do some other things, but they really love soccer or they really like piano or whatever their passion might be. Then if that is enough motivation to get them out
21:26 – 21:46
Joe Lewis: and get them moving, that’s a benefit for them. We have supported kids in a wide variety of things. So we’ve had baking lessons and scuba lessons and welding and all kinds of things. Whatever it is that turns out to be a healthy passion and investment of their time, we’re going to say yes to it.
21:47 – 21:53
Kim Monson: And what is the need that you are finding out there?
21:53 – 22:26
Joe Lewis: Wow. Yeah, the need is, I would say, extreme. I was able to get numbers from the Department of Defense right before I retired. And at the time, there were over 16, 000 children of fallen military alone that were under 18 years old. And since then I haven’t been able to get updated numbers but I can say that even though we have less military troops deployed the numbers aren’t getting smaller. We’re still paying the price for 20 years of combat in multiple theaters and we have, you know, of course the veteran 22 a day suicide thing as
22:26 – 23:00
Joe Lewis: well as a lot of illness coming about from toxic exposure to burn pits. And then we, of course we still have training accidents. We still have people in harm’s way. And of course our first responders in harm’s way right here in our local communities. So our waiting list, we had gotten it down last year when we, we grew by, increased the number of supported kids by 100. And so currently we have 550 kids enrolled nationwide and we ended up having our waiting list get down to 300 kids. And then from there till now, we’re already back
23:00 – 23:26
Joe Lewis: up to 720 kids on our waiting list and there are thousands of kids out there. Those are just the ones that have completed the registration portion on our website. So unfortunately this problem is not something that’s going to go away. It’s a dangerous business being in the military or as a first responder. And so when those lives are lost and serviced to our country and communities, we really want to make sure that we are standing by their children.
23:27 – 24:18
Kim Monson: Well, and taking care and supporting our children is so important for a society and particularly when they have lost their parents who serviced our country. I think, Joe, that we civilians, because during World War II, everybody knew somebody that was in the military. But that’s different now with the new technologies and the percentage of people in America that are in the military is significantly lower. And so since we don’t rub shoulders, I would say, on a regular basis, I think that that civilians have really taken for granted our freedom and our military, and we need to
24:18 – 24:22
Kim Monson: be educating people just about what this is exactly.
24:24 – 24:57
Joe Lewis: Absolutely, yes. You know that’s 1 of the things is for these children why after the traumatic loss of their parent these kids are technically at risk youth. They are at higher risk of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, dropping out of school, and unfortunately suicide as well. And part of that is that there aren’t many others that understand what they’re going through as well. And military kids in particular face kind of unique circumstances, but you know, moving around and not being close to the rest of their family and so on, that it’s a challenge for them in the
24:57 – 25:16
Joe Lewis: first place and with less people serving, and less people understanding. And the way our societal changes have gone. Some troubling things in my opinion, but nonetheless these are at-risk youth and we want to do everything we can to support them and help them navigate the most crucial years that they’ve got to face without the guidance and support of that parent.
25:17 – 25:32
Kim Monson: So how do you interact with these kids to make sure that they are going to practice? How do they know that you are supporting them once they get into the program?
25:32 – 26:03
Joe Lewis: Yeah, well it starts off with a letter that goes directly to each child and kind of targets their age group and and lets them know that we honor their parents sacrifice and that we we care about them and that there are people that are donating to support them that don’t even know them but care about them. And you know, if a parent is lost, particularly if it’s a combat thing or if it’s a first responder that’s killed by a bad guy, you know, It’s really easy to filter the world through that and think that the world’s
26:03 – 26:36
Joe Lewis: full of bad guys. And we wanted to make sure that they understand that there are a lot of good people here and a lot of people that care. So that’s a piece of it. But then it’s the case managers following up and interacting with the families over and over throughout the year. And in fact, what we have, our case managers interact with our families through, through the registration, of course, at the beginning, but then also through phone calls and then through newsletters and other outreach kind of things. And last year we actually did 28, 000 outreach
26:36 – 27:07
Joe Lewis: interactions with the families that we support nationwide. So it is wanting to know how they’re doing, following up. You know, a good story or a good example of kind of the follow through and follow up. 1 of our case managers had a newly enrolled family and the child hadn’t picked their activity yet so they were calling. It’s like, what do they want to do? Let’s get them engaged. And The mom kind of broke down and said, because he was a teenager, and you know, it’s challenging enough having a teenager and you know, when they don’t want
27:07 – 27:35
Joe Lewis: to hear what mom’s got to say, or dad’s got to say or whatever at that age in the first place. But in this 1 in particular, the child had really shut down and the mom said, you know, he hates me and he won’t talk to me. And the case manager said, well, try to put him on the phone and she could hear the son yelling at the mom when she went to the door to try to get him on the phone. And then the case manager started talking to him and at first no interest in this
27:35 – 28:06
Joe Lewis: or that or that and then when she said photography then it sparked an interest and he said yeah I’d like to give that a shot and so they enrolled him in that And then after she had off the phone with him and she was talking back with the mom, the case manager and the mom both broke down crying and the mom was saying, looks like a miracle trying to get him into something. And so from that, he got engaged in something. And then we do want to let them know, I do let them know how strong
28:06 – 28:25
Joe Lewis: their parents, remaining parent is. It’s not all moms, sometimes it’s dads, and how they have sacrificed so much for them. So it’s an interesting thing that it’s more than just paying for the activities, it’s more than just doing the referrals, it’s trying to get to know the families and trying to really connect with them and see them focus on positives and possibilities.
28:27 – 29:09
Kim Monson: And I’m just thinking about this mom and this teenage son. It’s a difficult time under the best of circumstances I think back when I was that age and gosh it was a much simpler world and the education system was focused on reading, writing, and arithmetic and learning the things that would help you be a success in life. And there’s so much coming at our kids these days and you add in a situation like that and I can see how it could put these kids at risk and so this is maybe in a way a lifeline to
29:09 – 29:10
Kim Monson: many of these kids, yes?
29:11 – 29:48
Joe Lewis: Well yes and you know it’s hard to know what didn’t happen because of your intervention, right? Because these kids are, like I mentioned, at risk. But in particular, 1 story stands out to me where there was a family and during COVID, which was another layer on top of this, right? And the isolation that came with that. And 1 of the young girls who had lost her Air Force father was severely anorexic and actually was in the ICU, severely anorexic and had no interest in things. And Our case manager was speaking with her mother and we offered
29:49 – 30:23
Joe Lewis: equine therapy and it was something that the girl just flourished with. And so the interacting with the horse and taking care of something and all those kinds of things led to her really improving and she is now a personal chef for a family that has some unique dietary restrictions even though she’s still a teen she’s doing that and she’s interested in becoming a dietitian or a chef and so in her case the mom said it really you know it saved her daughter’s life is the way she phrased it to me. I don’t know that we have
30:23 – 30:54
Joe Lewis: that impact with every family, but it is impactful to them. It’s impactful to the roommate, to the parent as well. You know, We so frequently hear them saying that they’re very thankful that we’re helping them do something they otherwise financially, in most cases, can’t afford to do. And it’s an area that they’re getting some help in because they have to make every decision alone as a single parent and they have to handle every issue. But when it comes to some things, at least getting their kids engaged in extracurricular stuff and making sure that can happen, that
30:54 – 30:56
Joe Lewis: we’ve kind of got that part for them.
30:56 – 31:04
Kim Monson: Well, and to that point, I hear it is extremely expensive to get kids into extracurricular activities these days.
31:04 – 31:36
Joe Lewis: Yes, it is. Definitely so. It’s not like, you know, the old version of just the local league or the high school thing and there wasn’t a cost of or not much cost associated with it. Everything is expensive these days. And so it is beyond the reach for many of these families. And in fact, if the system works, for the military families, they get dependency and indemnity compensation. And it’s just really a little above the poverty level. And unfortunately, though, what I see so often is families falling through the cracks in the system and not qualifying for
31:36 – 32:12
Joe Lewis: benefits. And, you know, examples of that would be like the suicide that I mentioned before where PTSD wasn’t, you know, really well documented in the records. But it was clearly the factor that military service and what they went through was clearly the factor that led to this. And the families in the meantime don’t qualify for anything. So that is very problematic. And I’ve actually seen that there’s much more of that than I would have expected. Many families falling through the cracks. And then with first responders, the same kind of thing, if the person dies by suicide,
32:13 – 32:44
Joe Lewis: let’s say, for example, if there’s a line of duty shooting and a police officer is shot and killed. The community rallies around. There’s GoFundMe’s and all kinds of things like that that happen. But when it’s a suicide, it’s quiet and the families can be can really be left behind. And in most cases people don’t think about the families. Certainly they don’t think about the kids too often. And so what we’ve seen is, you know, in between the initial grief counseling that the kids get and then scholarship opportunities when they become young adults, there’s not a whole
32:44 – 33:14
Joe Lewis: lot in that long period in the middle. And so for us, when we enroll a child, we’re looking at 2 things. 1, that they’ve got their whole childhood to go through. And then 2, that if we help them get engaged in a passion, and you know, if they get started in sports, if they become a dancer or whatever their thing is, that becomes an identity level piece of them. And so what we couldn’t do is say, well, good luck, reapply next year, maybe you can keep doing it. So when we enroll a child, we’re making a
33:14 – 33:42
Joe Lewis: commitment to them that we’re going to be with them all the way till their 19th birthday to get them all the way out of high school. And as a nonprofit, that’s a very difficult model. For most nonprofits, if you have a slack year, well, you just provide a little less, but it’s not a failure, you just did a little less. But for us, we’ve got to honor this commitment to these kids and if we fail to keep them in their activity then that’s a loss for that child and we would we would do that as a
33:42 – 33:48
Joe Lewis: significant failure. So we work very hard to be sustainable and make sure that we are keepers of that promise.
33:49 – 33:53
Kim Monson: And how can people donate? What’s the best way to do that?
33:53 – 34:22
Joe Lewis: Yeah, they can donate right through our website. You know, 1 of the things, even small amounts, people might not think it’s that impactful, but it really is. You know, Small monthly donations help smooth out the flow of revenue through the year and helps us predict more when we can be in a safe position to bring more kids off the waiting list. And so They can do that. They can also, you know, if somebody has a business and they wanted to select a charity for their end of year giving or an event if they put on the
34:22 – 34:52
Joe Lewis: golf tournament or whatever kind of thing, if they’re looking for a charity to be the beneficiary, they can choose us. But every, you know, all that information is available on our website and they can also support us by volunteering or starting a chapter. That’s 1 of the new things that we’ve got. We’ve got a chapter in Atlanta and 1 that just started in Dallas this year and we’re targeting San Diego for this fall. And the idea being that it’s an outreach and fundraising chapter that’s raising awareness and resources to help support these kids because they are
34:52 – 34:53
Joe Lewis: all across our nation.
34:54 – 35:02
Kim Monson: Okay. Well, Joe Lewis, let’s continue the discussion and that website is AOAFallen.org and we’ll be right back.
35:03 – 35:45
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35:46 – 35:47
Speaker 7: on this time in our history.
35:49 – 35:58
Speaker 2: God bless America, land that I love.
36:00 – 36:41
Kim Monson: And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. And be sure and join me at Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week. It begins on September 16th, goes through the 22nd. I will be emceeing the main event with Dr. Ron Paul as the keynote speaker on September 21st. Be sure and join us. More information go to GrandLakeUSConstitutionWeek.com. And I’m talking with Joe Lewis. He is the founder of Angels of America’s Fallen. And it is a program where they assist the children of first responders or our military who’ve
36:41 – 37:12
Kim Monson: lost their parent in that service and helping them with activities, extracurricular activities, which can be really key in helping set a child up for success, having something to do. And so Joe Lewis, you get these kids into these different programs, how do you track and make sure that they’re being successful, that they’re enjoying the program, and if they got into something that they wanted to make a change, can they do that?
37:13 – 37:40
Joe Lewis: Yes, yeah, absolutely. That’s a huge thing. We want the kids to be engaged in what’s the right fit for them at their current stage of development. So, you know, a little girl might start off in gymnastics and then go to dance and then go to cheerleading and whatever. So whatever they feel is the right fit for them, we want to support them in that. And if they haven’t found their fit we want to keep trying until they find it. So you know a good example of that we had a young girl that started in piano first
37:40 – 38:12
Joe Lewis: I believe and then she did violin and she did a couple other things and then she tried baking lessons and that was really something she thoroughly enjoyed and she started her own cookie company and sold these amazing cookies and really flourished doing that and now she’s off at college at Embry Riddle and she’s doing very well. We in addition to the follow-up, we’re wanting to know how they’re doing and do they like what they’re doing? Is this the right fit for them? Well, we’re also tracking how many times that we’re engaging them in their activity. So
38:12 – 38:47
Joe Lewis: if we’re paying for piano lessons, we know how many lessons we’re covering for them and so on. And last year in 2023 we engaged kids in 41, 800 activity sessions across the country. And to put that number into perspective, if you were to start a timer and or let’s say if if each of those activity sessions was 30 minutes long, that means we engaged kids in 21, 000 hours of activities last year. And if you started a clock and you ran it for that amount of time, then it would take almost 2 years to run through
38:47 – 38:53
Joe Lewis: that many hours. So it is about engagement and activity. That is what we want to see the kids out there doing.
38:54 – 38:58
Kim Monson: Do you do any screening of the activities at all, Joe Lewis?
38:58 – 39:27
Joe Lewis: No, actually, so the parents choose, you know, so we encourage the parent and the child to talk about what the child might like to do. And in some cases, they haven’t even had that conversation because they haven’t had the means or because, you know, the parent is just in the fog of loss. But after they pick that, then the parent vets where they can get back and forth to in town for that service and who they feel comfortable sending their child to. So they do all the vetting and then let us know who it is and
39:27 – 39:46
Joe Lewis: then we contact that activity provider and make the payment directly to them and let them know a little bit of some do’s and don’ts that was put together by some of our widows and a counselor, just giving them a little bit of guidance on them to know a little bit about where the child is. And then it’s follow through and follow up after that.
39:47 – 39:54
Kim Monson: Okay. And what about kids that are on the waiting list? And it sounds like you’ve got a pretty big list
39:55 – 40:23
Joe Lewis: there. We do have a big list. And you know, the sooner you can engage these kids in activities after the loss, the better off they’re going to be. So there is some priority on wanting to move the children off the waiting list, but we’ve got to honor the commitment to those that are currently enrolled first. You know, we can’t just not be able to make the payments for those who we’ve made this commitment to. So what do we do for those children that are on the waiting list and their parent as well? Well, we send out
40:23 – 40:54
Joe Lewis: newsletters, and they’re included in that. And if we get an opportunity for something, let’s say that in a certain area, A drum instructor says that they would give free drumming lessons. Well, then we’ll put that out to the waiting list and see if there’s a fit and make that connection. But also a really sad story that happened early on. The very first 3 children that we supported when we started the organization were the 3 sons of the first chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam and they were so 1 of them the youngest 1 was so
40:54 – 41:26
Joe Lewis: little we did mommy and the swim class for him so after then anytime we had really young kids would say let’s get him in mommy and me swim classes get him doing something And we had an Air Force Master Sergeant who was a he was a attack P so he had done multiple combat missions and then was killed in a training accident and he had 6 children and those kids went on the waiting list and then after a Little while this was kind of early on and at our beginning We made the phone call to say
41:26 – 41:55
Joe Lewis: hey we can enroll your 6 kids and you know That’s always a positive phone call and in this case the mom said I only have 5 now my two-year-old Lila just drowned and it absolutely crushed us it it really hit me hard because had we moved her off the waiting list sooner we would have recommended swimming lessons it could that have made a difference And I couldn’t go back and I couldn’t fix this. So I called the mom and I said, I don’t have the budget for this, but I’m just going to try to convince swim
41:55 – 42:26
Joe Lewis: centers to be a basic life safety, life safety swimming lessons to all the kids on the waiting list. And I’d like to name this initiative after your daughter. And the mom was really moved and she helped me come up with a name. So it’s Lessons from Lila. And from then on, any of the kids on our waiting list, it’s actually part of their registration process. We ask if they are swimmers and if not, we get them in swimming lessons. And this lessons from Lila has really grown. So that’s something that we offer to all of them.
42:26 – 43:01
Joe Lewis: And going back to the story, you know, these are long-term stories with these families where it’s a long-term commitment. And another reason for the long-term commitment is because the children don’t just have the dust subtle and they get a new normal and everything’s good. They continue to revisit the loss as they mature and it impacts them at different levels. There are also things like birthdays and anniversaries and trigger events and things. So we see that the need is there throughout their whole childhood. In this particular case, the mom, Alyssa, had not only lost her husband and
43:01 – 43:33
Joe Lewis: then about 18 months, I think it was less than 18 months later, her two-year-old daughter had drowned. 1 of her brothers was murdered and another 1 died by suicide. And that mother with 5 kids had all that grief And she completed a doctorate in clinical psychology and is now a grief expert helping others heal. And she came and was the keynote speaker at 1 of our Angel Galas a few years ago. And that’s the kind of growth that we love to see. So now I’m just kind of pausing there on that 1. That 1, that story
43:33 – 43:35
Joe Lewis: always really gets me.
43:35 – 44:09
Kim Monson: Yeah, yes. Guys, to be able to turn all that tragedy into a success, that’s the, We have to take a lot of heart from that, Joe Lewis, because we just need to hear those stories where it sounds like this woman didn’t give up when guys probably would have been tempting to not continue to persevere to get her doctorate in clinical psychology. That’s a pretty amazing story. Tell me another story. These are so important.
44:11 – 44:39
Joe Lewis: Yeah, we’ve got 1. It’s a little boy in Mobile, Alabama. His father was a police officer. And, you know, when we lose a military member or first responder, it’s, you know, they weren’t just doing their job. They were also a member of our community. And in this case, Trey’s dad was a football coach for Pee Wee football. And Trey was 6 years old at the time and we, the first thing we did, we enrolled him and paid for his football and he was on the same team that his dad used to coach. And Trey was, he
44:39 – 45:12
Joe Lewis: was the MVP in the Pee Wee football game that year. And we’ve continued to support him and we support him in strength training in the off season when it’s not football. And I wish I could show you a picture through the, through the radio here with this, but so 7 years after we first started supporting Trey, I went and saw him play middle school football and Trey at that time at 13 years old, 6, 1, 310 pounds. And Yeah, when we talk about growth, there’s like real growth and literal growth, right? We had to buy him
45:12 – 45:42
Joe Lewis: a helmet because the high school didn’t even have 1 that would fit him. And so he’s a really, really big kid and a really good, good kid as well. But yeah, he was an offensive lineman and the other kids didn’t even try to go his way, right? You know, so he was a huge deterrent and, and, and he’s doing really well. And a couple of high school coaches were there at that middle school game looking to try to recruit him and football is his thing and it continues to be and so he’s doing great and when
45:42 – 46:10
Joe Lewis: he was younger his dad had been an Auburn fan and in Alabama it’s all about football and you’re either Auburn or you’re Alabama pretty much and it’s like you got to commit and I contacted Auburn and told them about Trey’s story and asked if there was something special we could do for him and they let me take him to 1 of the games and on the field before and meet the coach and the players and be there when the War Eagle flies around and everything in the stadium and it was a really really cool thing. So
46:10 – 46:43
Joe Lewis: it’s more than just the activities, it’s like again it’s about relationships and long-term getting to know these kids and see them grow. And in fact, the first 3 boys that I mentioned, 2 of them have graduated out of our program and have now graduated from college as well. So 1 of them came back and interned with us when he was in between summer while he was in college. We have another 1 who soccer was his thing and he ended up with a soccer scholarship to Southern Northwestern University and went and has graduated from college, is married
46:43 – 47:19
Joe Lewis: now and has a child. So it’s really really a powerful thing to see the kids grow and graduate out of our program, but it’s a long-term commitment. And the first, well, the youngest child that we had go on our waiting list was just 2 weeks old. So in that case, when we enrolled her, we were really making a very long commitment. And another story there, her mom was a firefighter and her father was Army and he had gotten out of the Army and that family did a fundraiser for us and mom was pregnant with the with
47:19 – 47:47
Joe Lewis: a daughter at the time when they did the fundraiser and Unfortunately, the father had had some issues and PTSD and some pain and he had been medicated opioids through to the a and he had gotten addicted to those and unfortunately he missed the birth of their daughter. He was over-medicated at the time and 2 weeks after she was born he died by suicide and the family just helped us then went on our waiting list.
47:47 – 48:24
Kim Monson: Wow. Heartbreaking, really heartbreaking. But positive things coming out of this Joe Lewis and just such serious things. And I so appreciate our sponsors and 1 of those is Hooters restaurants and how I got to know them. It’s a really important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism and government overreach, I would say. And so I got to know them and they’ve been sponsors for a long time of both the shows. And you can find that story at my website, that’s at kimmunson.com. But they have 5 locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. So
48:24 – 48:27
Kim Monson: be sure and check that out. And we’ll be right back with Joe Lewis.
48:30 – 49:07
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49:11 – 49:27
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49:28 – 49:35
Speaker 2: From the mountains to the prairies to the ocean’s light.
49:35 – 50:14
Kim Monson: And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure to check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. I’m talking with Joe Lewis. He is the founder of Angels of America’s Fallen. And they help kids get involved in extracurricular activities which can be really a game-changer for a kid to be able to have something to do that they love is so important this website is AOAFallen.org and before we get back into the conversation with Joe Lewis I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation. It’s a nonprofit that I dearly love and they are raising
50:14 – 50:47
Kim Monson: money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial out at Sixth and Colfax and it is a very worthy cause. And so you can go to USMCmemorialfoundation.org to get more information and to make a contribution or to buy a brick to honor your military service or your loved one’s military service. And be sure and join me at Grand Lake US Constitution Week. It begins on September 16th, goes through the 22nd. I will be emceeing the main event with Dr. Ron Paul as the keynote speaker on September 21st. Be sure and join us. More information, go to GrandLakeUSConstitutionWeek.com.
50:49 – 50:58
Kim Monson: So, Joe Lewis, founder of Angels of America’s Fallen, why is the work that Angels does so important?
50:59 – 51:25
Joe Lewis: Joe Lewis Well, I think first honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and communities is very important and then paying it forward to the children of those who you know no longer have that parent here because of their sacrifice and because of course the children are going to be our future leaders they’re going to be the ones that are taking care of us when we get old and everything. And, you know, we never want to lose a child because their parent made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and community. So we want
51:25 – 51:31
Joe Lewis: to make sure they’re engaged in something positive instead of something negative and that we don’t lose them to the risks that they face.
51:32 – 51:41
Kim Monson: Well, and such important work. And so why, why would, or why, how’s the best way for people to support you?
51:42 – 52:11
Joe Lewis: Wow, raising awareness and raising resources, right? I mean, the only limit to us engaging more kids currently is having the budget to do so. So helping us raise awareness that people think about the kids and and want to get behind them and support them and help donate so that we can get them in their activities. Because you know there’s really a fit here for everybody. Whether you have a military background or first responder background or not. You know, maybe you had a coach or an instructor or an activity that made a difference when you were a
52:11 – 52:30
Joe Lewis: teen, or maybe you didn’t and you really wish you had. And you know then the impact that these kinds of things can have for kids. And again these are kids who lost their parent and generally the breadwinner of the family and don’t have the means to do these things. Everything is expensive and you can really have a positive impact in a very deserving child’s life.
52:30 – 53:06
Kim Monson: Well and these families are squeezed anyway and with what’s going on as far as inflation and taxes and fees, and so it would be a shame for these kids to not get to do something really productive, something that they really enjoy. And so I know a little or a lot helps if they go to AOAFallen.org, that is the website. And I think people really do want to help, And this is such a worthy cause. And I just think it’s really important that people consider this.
53:07 – 53:29
Joe Lewis: Yes, you know, the benefits of these things, there are multiple studies that show engagement in sports have a direct benefit on children’s attendance and their grades and helping them not fall prey to substance abuse as well as the arts and the impact that a coach or instructor has in their lives. It is very impactful to them and anybody that would like to join us we would love to have your support.
53:30 – 53:40
Kim Monson: Okay definitely And we’ve got just a few minutes left, so share with us another success story that you’ve seen.
53:41 – 54:07
Joe Lewis: So we’ve got a lot of them. Right now we’ve got a child, well he’s a teenager, and he is, CrossFit is his thing. And he actually was in the top 10 in the world CrossFit games. Not that that’s, you know, the measure of success doesn’t mean that they’ve got to go and achieve at that level. It could just be that, you know, they have a good time, that they figure out who they are, that they don’t get in trouble. All those things are our successes really. But we have had kids go on and get scholarships. Right
54:07 – 54:38
Joe Lewis: now we’ve got a girl in Florida and trap shooting is her thing and she is ranked nationally and there’s potential for her with the Olympics. We’ve got a little 10-year-old girl here. No, she’s 7 years old in Colorado Springs and ice skating is her thing and she does it all the time. It’s very expensive actually but she loves it. I was just talking to her and asking her how many hours a day would she skate if she could and she said all of them and said but if I was really tired, you know, maybe just 6
54:38 – 55:11
Joe Lewis: or 7 and Her commitment is she wants to go and win a gold in the Olympics and she’s got 10 more years to work towards that but she’s driven and you know, it’s it’s amazing to see that kind of interest and being able to support that kind of interest is just really cool. So you know we have had kids do all kinds of different activities and you know just going out and playing soccer or maybe winning a local gymnastics meet and fishing and just all kinds of things. And then we’ve also seen a lot of impact
55:11 – 55:41
Joe Lewis: on the parent, the remaining parent. And that’s an area that I didn’t know to expect when starting this, but it’s turned out to be really impactful that when we get the families together, you know, the kids just click and it’s just great. They don’t really talk about the loss. They just click and they get it and they play. But the parents are kind of sharing stories and laughing. You know, laughter is such a great healing tool. And so we are so focused on the positives and possibilities and just love seeing it when our families get together
55:41 – 55:52
Joe Lewis: and seeing them support each other and just, you know, commiserate but in positive and, you know, again we’re focused, we’re honoring the loss but we’re focused on positives and possibilities.
55:53 – 56:10
Kim Monson: I really do love that, Joe Lewis, and I think we all can take heart from that. And so again, the website is AOAFallen.org. That’s A-O-L-A-O-A-Fallen.org. Your final thought that you’d like to leave with our listeners.
56:11 – 56:11
Speaker 1: Oh,
56:11 – 56:44
Joe Lewis: wow. It’s an honor to support these families, and They are so deserving. You know, when you look at other things that maybe our country is supporting or sending dollars to, we’re not doing what we should in supporting those who have really made the sacrifices right here at home. And these families’ sacrifice continues, you know. They’re continuing to sacrifice. So there’s a whole lot of goodness wrapped up in this, but there’s so much need. If you would, you know, join us if you’ve got an interest or questions whatsoever, you know, contact us through the website and we
56:44 – 56:49
Joe Lewis: would love to have your interest, your questions answered, and your support.
56:49 – 56:57
Kim Monson: Well, absolutely. And again, that is AOAFallen.org. Joe Lewis, thank you for all the great work that you’re doing. I really appreciate it.
56:58 – 57:01
Joe Lewis: Thank you, Kim. It’s an honor and thank you for this opportunity to speak about
57:02 – 57:09
Kim Monson: it. And indeed. And my friends, we do stand on the shoulders of giants. So God bless you and God bless America.
