The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 19 - Eric Peterson Talks About His Nonprofit Project Headspace And Timing. Promoting Positive Mental Health Practices To Our Veterans.

• Scott McLean • Episode 19

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What does it take to transition from serving in combat to serving your community? Join us for a profound conversation with Eric Peterson, founder and CEO of Project Headspace and Timing, as he recounts his compelling journey from his early days in Illinois to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. Eric opens up about the highs and lows of his military career, his struggle with PTSD, and the heartbreaking loss of a close friend to suicide, shedding light on the critical need for mental health support among veterans.

Eric also takes us behind the scenes of founding Project Headspace and Timing, a nonprofit inspired by the infantry's iconic Browning .50 Cal machine gun. Learn about the initial challenges and triumphs of establishing this organization, including the development of vital outreach programs like weekly support groups and one-on-one peer support. Eric highlights the significance of fostering community involvement and the profound impact of passion-driven advocacy in sustaining nonprofit efforts, making a tangible difference in the lives of veterans.

Closing the episode, we broaden the scope to discuss initiatives aimed at female veterans, efforts to combat homelessness, and self-improvement projects like financial education and equine-assisted services. Discover how local community support and events like Heroes, Hogs, and Hot Rods are crucial in funding and sustaining these initiatives. Finally, we touch on the collaborative "I'm Fine Podcast" and its role in addressing mental health through powerful personal stories. Listen in to understand how both veterans and civilians play essential roles in this ongoing mission.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McClain. My guest today is Eric Peterson. Eric is the founder and CEO of Project Headspace and Timing, located in Manteno, illinois. I got that right, eric. Perfect, there you go.

Eric Peterson:

How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well, scott. Thank you so much for having me on man.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, my pleasure, man, my pleasure. It's good to finally talk to you. Yes, we were introduced through a mutual friend.

Eric Peterson:

Scott.

Scott McLean:

Detheridge. I was stationed with him in the Philippines and when I first started this podcast he jumped right on it with you. He's like you got to talk to my buddy and so I literally have you on my list and interviews start flowing in and so you're always on the list. So we never, really I never got to it. But then you sent me a text last week.

Eric Peterson:

you're like yo, let's do this yeah, shout out to scott man, amazing guy. Really appreciate scott connecting us man, so yeah, yeah, he's a good dude he's a good dude, all right, so tell us a little about yourself.

Scott McLean:

You know where you grew up, when you went in the military, when you got out.

Eric Peterson:

Yeah. So, born and raised in Illinois, I joined the military between my junior and senior year of high school. I was getting in a little bit of trouble. I needed to redirect that energy, you know what I mean. So I went to Fort Benning, home of the infantry, between my junior and senior year, finished up. After my senior year, everybody else was getting ready to go to college. I was getting ready to go back to Fort Benning for AIT, advanced Individual Training, where I got my skills to become an infantryman. Shortly after that my first tour was with the Illinois Army National Guard.

Eric Peterson:

So I did one tour combat tour in Afghanistan, in eastern Afghanistan, came home, became a paramedic in the civilian world. I wanted to do something different. Eventually my plan was to become a firefighter and so I became a paramedic, started working as a paramedic but I realized I was having some issues just being in the civilian world, like I just didn't feel like I belonged. The job itself, you know, as far as what the pay was is. You know if you know any first responders out there, they definitely don't make what they should be making, I think. And so then I got linked up with the State Department and I became a private military contractor. So I worked for a company called Triple Canopy. They took over for a company called Blackwater that most people are familiar with, and so I worked for Triple Canopy in Baghdad, did two rotations in Iraq as a, as a medic, on a PSD team so security teams essentially and then I hopped over to the department of defense and I did another three rotations in Afghanistan with a company called global doing the same thing. So all in all six rotations between Iraq and Afghanistan.

Eric Peterson:

And this entire time my wife, who'd been with me this entire time since my first deployment. She was asking me to come home and she wanted to start a family. I wanted to start a family but I couldn't stop going over Like I wanted to keep going overseas. My uncle Vietnam veteran combat was an officer in Vietnam, stops me at Christmas. I was like three deployments in and he's like hey, man, you need to come home, you need to stop doing this. And I was like, out of everybody, you're the one that should understand why I'm doing this. I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me, man, you know, but in time I started to get it. He knew that I was leaving more and more of me over there and less of me back here. So I sort of obliged my wife. I got a job doing executive protection, so I came home, but I was in New York. I still wasn't home. So my wife is like, what are you doing? Come home. I quit that job, became a private investigator, did that for three years. I was traveling all over the country, still not home, and my wife was at the point where she couldn't do it anymore. I was about to lose everything that I had with her.

Eric Peterson:

And then, on February 22nd of 2017, a man that I was a medic to his name was John Kemper. I was his medic in Baghdad with the state department. He made a post on Facebook. It was one of those posts you've seen before. It was like PTSD got your six. If you're struggling, reach out for help. Nobody deserves to suffer in silence. It's one of those types of things.

Eric Peterson:

The next day, february 23rd, he killed himself, and I was in Detroit when I got that message. I found out the worst way possible through a GoFundMe. I saw his picture. I'm like yo, what's Kemper doing on a GoFundMe? Is he sick? Possible through a GoFundMe. I saw his picture. I'm like yo, what's Kemper doing on a GoFundMe Is he sick? I read into it. I find out that he killed himself. He was literally I know everybody says this he was the most positive dude that I'd ever known. So the fact that he could do that put me in an even worse spot. I already told you I wasn't in a great spot already, but the fact that he could do that made me question everything. And I remember I found out that he died I was going to go to the gym to get my stress out.

Eric Peterson:

My turn comes up. I just kept driving straight, miss my turn. I'm white, knuckling the steering wheel. Tears are running down my face. I have no idea what's going on. Like I was just blown away and I connected with some of my old teammates. We're all trying to talk to each other, figure out what happened.

Eric Peterson:

And in that process I got recommended a book referred to book rather, I guess it's called Tribe by Sebastian Younger. Phenomenal book, all about the issues that veterans have transitioning in the civilian world. And so I read that book. The book gave me an idea to do a town hall where we could have veterans share their emotional perspectives of war with the public. Come home to my town in Manteno. I give them that idea. They're like absolutely whatever you need, let's do it, we do it. It goes amazing and I knew I was onto something, and that's when something clicked and I was like, hey, I got to keep going with this. I got to take this feeling and I got to keep this going because this is helping me and it's helping others too. So that's kind of that's kind of the elevator pitch on how I got started with everything.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, that's a rough way to get started. Yeah, yeah definitely yes, yeah. So what led you to start the nonprofit and the name of the? Now the name of the nonprofit. It's very unique, so I want to ask you that How'd you come up with that name?

Eric Peterson:

for us before we get into the. So thank you. I love answering this question because, again, first tour infantry. So on my deployment I was I was a driver a lot. Sometimes I was a gunner in a dismount. Most of the time I was a driver. How old were you? 21. Ripe old age 21 years old, yeah, and in the infantry, the end all be all weapon, the Browning 50 Cal machine gun, right, the Mod Deuce that is. That is the mecca of infantry, grunt weaponry right Now, as a big what a lot of people don't understand as big and powerful of a weapon as the .50 cal is, it required this little piece to make sure that it was operational before you rolled out the

Eric Peterson:

wire. It's called a headspace and timing gauge, two pieces of metal connected by a chain, and you would take that gauge and you would make sure that your weapon was functioning. Otherwise the round could explode in the chamber. It might not fire at all, and so when I was thinking of a name for my nonprofit, I wanted to call it something that a grunt would hear and he would immediately know. These guys know what's up. Like these guys, they're speaking my language and to this day, whenever I get an opportunity to speak. Nothing fills me with joy quite as much as like when there's like an older Vietnam or a Korean war veteran in the back and they hear the name of the nonprofit and they just look up and they go nice and I'm like thank you, that's why I called it that. You know what I mean. So that's where the name came from.

Scott McLean:

I love that I was a dog handler. I didn't know anything about 50 cows.

Eric Peterson:

Oh man.

Scott McLean:

I had the land shock at the end of the six foot leash. Yeah, that was my project headspace. So what led you to starting the nonprofit?

Eric Peterson:

So after I did that town hall, I still didn't necessarily want to start a nonprofit. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew that I felt good being around other veterans. I knew that I felt good having that sense of worth and feeling like I was doing something productive. So what I started doing was I have a veteran's home there's the Illinois veteran's home in Manteno, which is in my town and I started volunteering there and I use the term volunteering loosely, because I would show up with beer and just hang out and they didn't tell me I couldn't do that.

Eric Peterson:

So I just kept doing it every weekend, like I would come over. I would always ask the veteran can you have a beer? And they would be like yep, and I'd be like good enough for me, man, and we would just hang out, listen to the ball games, share stories, and it felt really good. But then it got to the point where I was doing events for them and I was spending my own money and my wife was like, listen, like we had our. My first, my first daughter was on the way and she was just like we need to save money. You can't be spending all your money for this.

Scott McLean:

They are not part of our budget, nah.

Eric Peterson:

And so I realized at that point, with the direction that a lot of my energy was heading towards, it made sense to start a nonprofit organization because others were already getting involved in what we were doing. So all I had a conversation with my best friend because, again, I didn't know if this was something I wanted to do, and he reaffirmed my confidence because he knew my passion for everything, because he'd been my best friend since like fifth grade. And then from there, from there, we started the nonprofit.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, and as I told you before the show, I'm starting mine and I'm one step away, and you have to have a passion for this.

Eric Peterson:

Yes, 100% it's a huge commitment. Especially if you're working with veterans.

Scott McLean:

If you're working with veterans.

Eric Peterson:

You have to have a passion for it. You know what I mean. Otherwise you're going to get burned out.

Scott McLean:

Did you go through that little second guess yourself Like am I going to be able to pull this one off?

Eric Peterson:

Every day.

Scott McLean:

What if no one comes to my party Like yeah you always have that, though, right you?

Eric Peterson:

I think, in my opinion, if you have a healthy mindset, you're always going to be running those what if? Scenarios to a degree like you can't do it to death, but like you got to keep yourself in check, right? So you're like, okay, well, what happens if this doesn't work out? But to be able to overcome that. That gives you a confidence, I think, not an arrogance, but like a confidence that other people can understand and pick up and it helps you do what you're going to continue to do, because you know that you can overcome those fears and that's absolutely man.

Scott McLean:

So what does Project Headspace and Timing offer for the veterans?

Eric Peterson:

Yeah. So Project Headspace and Timing has like four main pillars that everything else kind of falls under right. So the first one I'll talk about is our veteran advocacy. So our veteran advocacy, or we call it Spartan Shield, is our peer support program for veterans. So we have in Kankakee County three peer support groups every single week for veterans on Monday nights, wednesday nights we have a non-denominational 12-step group and then Fridays at noon that I just left before I came to record this episode we also have a spousal support group that meets once a month and then we have one-on-one peer support.

Eric Peterson:

So our one-on-one peer support program works with hospitals and police departments.

Eric Peterson:

So if they get a veteran that identifies as a veteran and is in any sort of crisis, they'll call our hotline and we'll provide a veteran that's been trained in mental health and first aid, not to provide like any service, but just to let them know that they're not alone, to be there to talk to them, to let them know it's okay, like hey, I was into, I get it, I understand, I've been where you've been.

Eric Peterson:

It's there is a light at the end of the tunnel and those veteran advocates that we send out are trained in many of the resources that are available so we can help connect them to whatever it is that they need. So that all falls under our advocacy program right. Our second pillar is our outreach. So from an outreach perspective we have two main groups. We have troops on trails where we take veterans and we go hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, archery, golfing whatever we can do to get veterans together to do something productive and constructive, preferably outside, because I just feel better outside, I love being outside right, we also started Veiled Valor under our outreach group, so Veiled Valors are all female veteran outreach initiative. A couple of years into the nonprofit I had female veterans starting to come to our organization, thankfully, because they felt safe and then they started to tell me about their experiences and unfortunately different experiences.

Eric Peterson:

Absolutely. Individual experience may vary. Right, I was in the infantry. There were no female veterans, like there was none in my platoon. There were female veterans on our fob, on our base, which I understood treated with respect, no issues there. But until a retired Marine gunny came to my organization and told me about her experience in the service, I had no idea what they'd been through and some of them had been through and what hurts is just like. That wasn't my, my experience. When I think about my time in service, I think about my brothers. I think about the, the unconditional love and support that I had from people that would literally fight, kill and die for me. You know what I mean. The fact that that's not what you had, that hurts me on a different level because you didn't get to have that and you took the same oath I did.

Eric Peterson:

So we created Veiled Valor all female veteran outreach group so they can have their safe space and do whatever they want. I made the mistake of like giving them advice one time, never again. In the very beginning I was like hey, I learned that I was like maybe we go do a yoga thing and we'll have a childcare on the premises and blah, blah, blah. And they were like listen, can we just go to a rage room? And I said you know what? I'm going to shut up and you guys do whatever you want. I'm just going to hang out in the back, I'm sorry. So they're amazing. They get out every month to do things with female veterans. So that's our outreach group, and then we have our homelessness. So veteran homelessness.

Eric Peterson:

So when I first started this, really what I wanted to tackle first was homelessness, because I, as a private investigator, I travel all around the country. Everywhere I'd go I'd see homeless veterans. I would talk to them about their time in service, right, and I didn't. It didn't make sense to me. It just didn't make sense to me. People talk about offensive language all the time. To me, when you talk about a starving child, a homeless veteran or nuclear war, those words should be way more offensive than most other swear words, right? And so I wanted to do something for the homeless veteran community.

Eric Peterson:

I started working on building a transitional tiny home lodging facility. I visited a few in the country, started taking note of which ones I thought were the most effective. We started looking at land, had blueprints developed and then COVID happened. And when COVID happened, we started getting way more crisis calls and we realized that, okay, we got to dedicate more energy to figuring out the mental health supportive side of things before we do the housing. There's other housing projects which are great. We'll support those, but we had to kind of pull back on that so we could work on these other things, because there's so many hours in the day.

Scott McLean:

Yes, exactly.

Eric Peterson:

We had to pivot, like every other company and organization in COVID right. So we're still very much focused on the veteran homelessness side. We work with a lot of other organizations to get veterans placed, if we get homeless veterans in our area, but our long-term goal is a transitional tiny home lodging facility. And then our fourth and final pillar is veteran self-improvement. So through all those other programs and this fourth pillar is our newest one, because through all those other programs I've been thankful enough to have gotten veterans sent to treatment programs both with the VA and private, all over the country.

Eric Peterson:

I've worked with veterans in six other states outside of my own and it's been amazing to give veterans the tools that they need to get over what they're dealing with when it comes to mental health issues, substance use issues and more.

Eric Peterson:

But I found that we weren't doing enough on the self-improvement side, because I feel like when you take everything away from a veteran, when they come home and they don't have that team to serve, they don't have that purpose, they don't have that mission. That's when I've seen vets start to spin out, myself included. So with our self-improvement program we are partnering with a local financial education firm, piggish Financial, who is partnering with Dave Ramsey and his SmartDollar program and we're offering the SmartDollar program, which is an amazing, amazing piece of financial education software, to our veterans so they can work on the financial side of things to get themselves out of whatever financial hole they may be in. We have deals with local gyms so we can get veterans back into the gym again. We have a deal with a local farm that has horses, as you may know, which I think you do.

Scott McLean:

Yes, Equine assistance services changed my life man.

Eric Peterson:

Absolutely. Yeah, so amazing, who would have guessed right? And so that's kind of on our self-improvement side. So those are, those are the four main pillars of what everything we do as an organization, I think, falls under Is there a time frame for the veteran village, or is it just always a project in motion?

Eric Peterson:

in motion trying to. It's always a project in motion. We've looked at a lot of different properties and then run into miscellaneous issues with like zoning code, whatever the case may be. Right now we are in early, early, early stage talks with a prospective uh property that's owned by um, a church that has a lot of property, and they would like to see us do something with that. So it's possible. But I it's so early on, like we have all the supportive services lined up. Once the walls are up and the vets are there, I feel very comfortable as far as what we will have available to help them transition back into the civilian world. But as far as, like, the development is concerned, we don't have a date at this time.

Scott McLean:

No, yeah, that's an admirable but a huge undertaking.

Eric Peterson:

You have to.

Scott McLean:

That was a true evocation of emotion that I just got out of you, like you have. That was a you have no idea response. It's a worthy cause.

Eric Peterson:

It's a worthy cause. I'm very thankful to get to do it every day, but, good Lord, it's exhausting for sure.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, god bless you, my friend. God bless you. Before we get into the podcast, is there anything else you want to touch on with the nonprofit?

Eric Peterson:

No, I mean, the one beautiful thing about all this and then I hope is the biggest message is that, like it would take me hours, if not days, to really go through how many people in my community, how many businesses, how many nonprofits, how many people came together to give my organization the support to become what it is today. Become what it is today, which is obviously we have plenty of room for growth and a long road ahead of us, but we've been very successful because of how our community has supported us. Many of these people are not veterans, and that's the message that I hope veterans understand. It's like your support is out there.

Eric Peterson:

You might not realize it because you don't see them, but if you can have the courage to reach out and ask, you have no idea how many hands will be reaching down to get you. You know what I mean and it's just something I'm so thankful to see and that's what re-energizes me. Every day when I deal with the crisis calls. I'm there with some veterans at their worst moments and it is mentally draining the fact that I know that I have so many people that support my organization. That gives me the confidence to continue on doing what I'm doing and I'm forever grateful for that.

Scott McLean:

And, of course, I did my homework and it looks like you have a very solid board of directors and a really good amount of committee members that are there to help you guys out. Because you were telling me about all these things that you're doing, you're telling us and that all of a sudden clicked. I'm like. I guarantee every single one of them is doing something.

Eric Peterson:

So many passionate people and veterans and civilians alike. That's important. Oh, it's so important. You need that. And the civilians that are involved they always come to me and they're like, you know, I never served, but they say that in a negative way and I'm like, if you didn't serve, you're the reason why somebody else did. We're all a part of the same thing here. We're all apart. We're all pieces to this puzzle, and if every one of these people didn't have the passion that they did, I would not be here, for you know for sure. So very thankful for that too. So, like the spouses, everything that spouses go through and families go through and there's so many organizations that are there for the veterans, but not many that were there for the spouses and their kids they need support too. Like it's everybody, we are all pieces to the same puzzle and we have to make sure that we're always cognizant of that. You know, it's so important.

Scott McLean:

Yeah Well, you're doing some important stuff out there. I can tell you that. Let me ask you this Is this just and I only ask because there are some very few that do is this just for the local area, like the? Do you have contact with veterans from other states that come in, or is there any any kind of connection like that?

Eric Peterson:

a great question. So a majority of our programs are offered within kankakee county and surrounding county, which is known. Yeah, we work with the illinois department of veteran affairs. So there are some plans to potentially branch some of our stuff out throughout the state of illinois. But you know quality over quantity type of guy, so we have to make sure we take our time because we're talking about mental branch some of our stuff out throughout the state of Illinois. But you know quality over quantity type of guy, so we have to make sure we take our time because we're talking about mental health and veterans, right, so we got to make sure we got all of our stuff together here.

Eric Peterson:

But in the process, as I mentioned earlier, you know, I did six deployments with the military state department, dod. Thankfully for that. I have brothers and sisters all over this country and a lot of them ask me can we start something here, can we do something there? And again I tell them it's not time yet. We will maybe eventually. And that's why we've worked with veterans in six other States because, as I think we mentioned you mentioned before we started recording it's a close-knit community. It's a small community of veterans. You know what I mean. And so when somebody finds out, oh, I remember him, I know he does something to help veterans with mental health. I got a buddy that's struggling. Hey, eric, can you help me out with this guy? I'm not going to say no, I'm going to try to find you a resource in your area that I can direct you to, because I think that's more productive for you. But I'm going to do whatever I can to get you the help you need. You know, but at this time we're keeping it as local as possible, for sure.

Scott McLean:

So this is a good transition because we're both podcasters, we're both passionate about podcasting. I know this. Yes, eric went above and beyond before the podcast to make sure you had the proper microphone to do this podcast.

Eric Peterson:

Had do it that's a true podcaster and I appreciate that you appreciate oh, buddy, I was a happy man.

Scott McLean:

When I heard you were using your microphone, I was a happy man yeah, man.

Eric Peterson:

So my, the podcast that I do. It's called the I'm fine podcast and that stands for freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional as a podcast between myself and another veteran. He's a marine, but I don't hold it against him. He's blind, he. He became blind after service.

Scott McLean:

Um due to the guy watched on on the episode about insomnia that he yeah, he's wearing the glasses.

Eric Peterson:

Yeah, brad yeah, he's my no idea.

Eric Peterson:

Wow he's. So he came to my organization a few years ago and he was struggling because there was a surgery that went wrong and left him blind overnight. So he had a really hard time talking about it. He didn't understand, like, what his platform was to talk about it and he was, he was just struggling, he was really struggling. And so him and I started talking and he said he wanted to do a podcast and I was like, okay, and that that started our podcast, cause I always wanted to do one because I love talking about all of the different facets of mental health, because I find them interesting and and I find that the veteran population is the most diverse group of people arguably under one label.

Eric Peterson:

So when you're talking about mental health and you look at the veteran community, in my opinion that gives you a pretty good read on what the rest of the population may also be inevitably dealing with one day. Right, and so we started the I'm fine podcast two years ago actually, three days will be two years from from now and that's where we get to talk about everything mental health related and it's just been. It's been a trip and how you mentioned earlier about the importance of veterans being able to just kind of share their stories and talk, yeah, point blank, like that's exactly what this was. That's why ours started. So the importance is just it's. It's immeasurable, it's huge.

Scott McLean:

And part of the elevator speech that I give people about my nonprofit. It's every time a veteran tells a story, or tells a story even about a moment in time when they were in a little weight gets lifted off them. You know PTSD and the question I have is the weight never goes away with PTSD, as you know. But would you rather carry 500 pounds or 50 pounds? You just feel like you're sharing the burden, yeah.

Eric Peterson:

And that's everything.

Scott McLean:

So the less weight you're always going to have a little weight on you, because PTSD is not that like take some Excedrin and you're done, right, you know. But the more weight that you lift in this, the whole science behind storytelling and what it does for people.

Eric Peterson:

How much do you, I mean? I don't know how you feel about this, but I wish so badly. My grandfather passed away years ago. He was a world war two veteran, flew unarmed aircraft behind enemy lines to drop off supplies. My uncle's a Vietnam vet who was in significant combat. I would go out to the veteran's home and talk to these guys who had stories that would rival anything you see in the movies, like not even a question, and I wish nothing more than like that. We would have gotten a chance to record an episode or a story of some of these veterans and their incredible stories. So I could not agree more with what you're saying, man.

Scott McLean:

I just interviewed a gentleman last month who served during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War.

Eric Peterson:

Yeah, Like he just just, I mean, that's small very very small percentage.

Scott McLean:

It's all timing. It's all timing and then longevity staying in and I just got his whole life story. I got a few stories from the military but his life story the whole like it was amazing. It's a piece of history. These guys, they're walking history.

Eric Peterson:

Oh, my god, the things that they have seen and done, like there will never be somebody that did, those that experienced all of those things ever again.

Scott McLean:

Exactly, you know, like you said, they're walking history so where can uh listeners find the I'm fine podcast?

Eric Peterson:

uh, so the I'm fine podcast. It has a youtube channel, the I'm fine podcast, and then you can also find it wherever you listen to podcasts Google Podcasts, spotify, all that stuff. It's on all of them and there is also a Facebook page. I'm Fine Podcast and if you go to my website, projectheadspaceandtimingorg, under the media tab, there's a link to our podcast there as well.

Scott McLean:

And it's I'm then FINE.

Eric Peterson:

Yes, so people know that's what you're looking for, correct? Thank you, yes.

Scott McLean:

So again, tell us the website for your nonprofit.

Eric Peterson:

Yes, the website wwwprojectheadspaceandtimingorg all spelled out.

Scott McLean:

All right. And fundraisers, fundraisers. What do you do for fundraisers? I always say money, do you? You have a donate button on your yes, so give them money give, if you like what eric was talking about and you think this is something that you could get into. Give him money give, I'll give the foundation money.

Eric Peterson:

Thank you. Yes, there is a donate button right when you go to our page. We also have merchandise that we sell on there. Uh, we do from a fundraising perspective.

Eric Peterson:

Most of them are obviously local to our county and surrounding counties they could be listening, so but we do one large one every year called heroes, hogs and hot rods, which is just a family-friendly festival with a mental health and veteran resource tent and all sorts of other cool stuff, just to go out with the family and have a really fun day. That's our biggest one. And then, other than that, yes, please make sure you check out our website. That's where you can find any other information on how to donate.

Scott McLean:

Especially that donate button. Yeah, give him money, they're doing great work.

Eric Peterson:

Thank you great.

Scott McLean:

I appreciate that all right, well, I'm gonna do this outro and then, uh, hang in there and we'll talk when, when I'm off. Yeah good, all right. Well, we built another bridge today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I certainly did. Uh, if you like it, share it, subscribe to it, give it as many stars as you think it deserves, tell a friend, repost it, do all the right things, okay, and please listen to the end of the podcast. I have a public service announcement that I put at the end of the outro. That's very important and it's informative, and it's only like 32 seconds long.

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