Friday Formation – My Journey Through Texas Helping After Hurricane Harvey

A little late in sharing this story, but I’m happy I got to tell it.  I got to serve next to amazing Americans who all on their own volition drove and flew down to Texas to help in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.  I’m truly honored that I got to join the teams from Mountain Primal Meat Co. and Merging Vets with Players in bringing aid to the Beaumont, TX area.

Deavon runs the interview on this one, and we cover:

  • What led up to my decision to drive down to Texas with no idea where I was going, and how I got somewhere I could be effective.
  • The efforts and victories of the Mountain Primal crew and the team from Merging Vets with Players.
  • The turnout of “regular” Americans coming out of the woodwork to help their neighbors.
  • What I’d do differently if something like this happened again and I wanted to help.

Nate Boyer & Denver Morris – Merging Vets with Players

In this episode I’m joined by two veterans:  1) Nate Boyer, a US Army veteran and Special Forces soldier followed a path through football, playing for the Texas Longhorns and then a single pre-season game with the Seattle Seahawks, and 2) Denver Morris, a fellow Marine infantry veteran from 2/7 and Program Coordinator for the Los Angeles branch of Merging Vets with Players (MVP).

Nate, along with his co-founder Jay Glazer, started MVP with a mission “designed to address challenges that many combat veterans and professional athletes face when transitioning their service/professional life towards a new mission in their civilian life.”  They do this by challenging its members with group fitness classes and fostering peer-to-peer support among the team.   Denver, MVP’s first success story, joined them very early on and was their first employee.

In the interview we discuss:

  • The loss of identity when leaving the service and getting past it
  • Nate’s belief that anything is possible.
  • Denver’s brush with suicide and journey through homelessness
  • How Denver met Nate and joined the MVP team
  • The successes they’ve both had as well as their favorite success stories coming out of their program