The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 21 - Front Doors and New Beginnings: Adam Nelson, President Of Willow & Palm Construction, Talks About Being A Donor To Veterans Nonprofits

• Scott McLean

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What makes a front door more than just an entryway? Join us as Adam Nelson, president of Willow and Palm Construction, shares his deeply personal journey and his company’s heartfelt dedication to supporting veterans. Inspired by his father's incredible story from Norway to the U.S. and his service during the Vietnam era, Adam explores how family support and personal sacrifice create a foundation for meaningful contributions to those who have served.

We delve into the profound impact of personal touches in veterans' housing projects, focusing on the symbolic importance of the front door as a beacon of peace and homecoming. Through a compelling case study of the HERD Foundation, Adam illustrates how time and financial contributions come together to create lasting change. Discover how collaborative efforts within nonprofits foster powerful outcomes, with Adam providing insider insights on the significant benefits of mutual support and investment.

Thinking about getting involved with veteran causes? Adam shares his valuable experiences and unique challenges faced along the way, from attending board meetings to successfully securing 150 football game tickets for veterans to attend  the Florida Atlantic University vs. Army game for free. Learn why it’s crucial to align ideologically with a nonprofit's mission and how thorough preparation can lead to successful outcomes. Don't miss this engaging conversation that shines a light on the importance of dedicated support for our heroes. Tune in for a journey that highlights the significance of volunteerism and collective effort in making a genuine difference.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Adam Nelson. Adam is the president of Willow and Palm Construction, located in Delray Beach, florida. Willow and Palm are very active in the veteran community down here in South Florida, so I thought that it would be a little change of pace to get the point of view of somebody that chose to get involved in the veteran space down here in South Florida and get their perspective on why they do it, how they do it. You know all the stuff that goes with that. So, with that said, good morning Adam, good morning. How are you, my friend?

Adam Nelson:

I'm doing well, welcome to the kitchen studio. It's amazing. Right, the Hulk is just looming over there in the corner. It's amazing.

Scott McLean:

And you will get your picture taken with them. Everybody does. It comes to the kitchen studio. You and I met about a year ago. You are the for-profit partner with Herd Foundation in Delray Beach, yep, and you know we crossed paths at the beginning and then we got to know each other and I thought, you know what. We have a good relationship now and you'd be the perfect person for me to talk to, to see why donors do what they do. And I'm always interviewing nonprofits and they're already established, and recently I interviewed a young man who's coming up and putting his together, as I just did. But now I think it'd be good to get the point of view from someone on the other side that helps us become established. So what inspired you to get into the veteran space?

Adam Nelson:

Oh, so we kind of gone through a litany of different options when we were starting to figure out how we were going to add in the philanthropy version of Will and Palm Construction. And the one that stuck out to Mike and I the most was the veteran space. It's widely talked about and typically poorly funded. Everybody wants that hero story in their life but they don't know how to go about helping the heroes that actually have gone and done that hero story for us. So that was kind of the catalyst that pushed us into the veteran space.

Adam Nelson:

I personally have had some experience with my father and he kind of instilled a different version of what a veteran is to me and everybody's story is very different how you got there, why you served. My father was born in Norway, came over, met my mother, also born in Norway Happy coincidence, norwegian pride all the way over here and before I was even born my dad made a decision that America was where we were going to live and we were going to succeed and where we were going to develop as a family, and he renounced his citizenship as opposed to being drafted, which was his Norwegian citizenship, yep.

Adam Nelson:

And enlisted. I think everybody, including the people that were enlisting him, thought he was crazy. What year was this? I'm going to not know the dates on when and why 60s yeah, it was going to be towards the the middle part to the end, when the drafting was kind of at, like this, its highest point. There was already stuff that was going on. But my dad basically walked in and said I'm enlisting. And I think everybody was like why, why are you doing this?

Adam Nelson:

and he was like vietnam yeah, and he was like I can drive tanks. They're the same as the piston bullies that you drive in norway, the same as you would drive at ski resorts here in the united states today. And I think from from his standpoint of of telling the story, it was always they were like no, people just don't know how to drive tanks. And he was like, no, seriously, I'm going to drive this tank and fast forward. They were like, yes, you drive tanks now. So he got stationed over in Germany kind of German Austria border conflict that was also going on and so he drove the tanks on that border for years.

Adam Nelson:

And that's kind of how I developed into this appreciation for the veterans. There's a guy, conrad Ogletree he's from down here in South Florida. He told me something the other day that really stuck with me and it it was everybody serves, even if your family member has served, because you are now the head of household, if you're a son and your father is away, you're serving in a different kind of capacity because you're allowing that person to know that home is safe so that they can go and carry out what they're doing. And that kind of almost gave me chills where I was like people don't really look at it from that standpoint. So that was really kind of an eye-opening thought process.

Scott McLean:

The mother plays the father and the mother or vice versa. Yep, you know the father plays the mother and the father. Absolutely Like when I would go TDY temporary duty assignment. My wife was taking care of the kids and so she had to pick up all that slack. So, absolutely, families definitely serve too. So how did you first get involved with veteran nonprofits? Like, what was the first step? Did you pinpoint somebody? How did that happen?

Adam Nelson:

The HERD Foundation was the first one for us as a company. I'd been involved with some other ones personally before, but as a company we got involved with the herd foundation almost by happy accident. Lynn from the Delray Beach Chamber called us and was like hey, I think you guys are really going to be able to help the herd foundation grow in a capacity that they aren't even anticipating being a possibility. And so we started with Fallen Friday down at the farm and I walked in.

Scott McLean:

So Fallen Friday for the people that are listening is Herd Foundation's aftercare program. Once you go through the Freedom Patch courses, which is 16 weeks to eight week periods, then you can come to the farm every Friday from 11 to 1230. It's open every Friday, holiday or not, and it's the aftercare that never stops. So all the veterans that went in and worked with the horses and loved it like I did, they get to keep coming back. There's no like okay, here's a brochure, you know, here's a phone number. It's like just keep coming back.

Scott McLean:

And Fall and Friday we still work with the horses. Sometimes the veterans get together and it might be hard to get us into the arena because we're all you know, we're shooting the shit, but they get us in and we continue to do groundwork with the horses and we continue to practice what Herd Foundation taught us as far as connection and belonging and all the beautiful stuff that goes with working with horses in the equine assisted services realm. So that's where we first met, I believe Yep, you were there on a fallen Friday and they introduced us.

Adam Nelson:

There was a gentleman there and I'm going to forget his name, but he was an older, older gentleman, and I thanked him for his service and the typical stuff that we would always do. Was it Joel? It could be, yes. The Korean War veteran.

Scott McLean:

Yes, yes, yes. What a beautiful man he is 90 years old.

Adam Nelson:

And he said thanks for acknowledging that. And I was like so tell me a little bit about why you're here, like, how has this benefited you? And he was like, well, I used to go sit at the VA and hope to talk to veterans that were there for a reason. And I was like, well, sitting at a hospital doesn't sound enjoyable at all. And he was like that was really what I thought my choice was. If I needed my brotherhood back in my life to help me with what I was going through, that was the easiest route.

Adam Nelson:

And yes, sitting in a hospital is depressing. And I was like that sounds counterintuitive for kind of what you're going through. So when he said that and then he transitioned immediately into this gave me my first real outlet where somebody wasn't telling me that I had to talk to them, because most of the times they weren't listening to what I was actually talking about. They were trying to give me advice as how to not feel that way, and that wasn't a real thing. The horses don't talk back. And I laughed and he went yep, sounds about right.

Scott McLean:

And he's right. So can you tell us about a project or initiative that you funded or had significant impact on with Veterans Lives? As a donor, as a giver.

Adam Nelson:

Yeah, so we're bidding a project in Atlanta. We didn't end up winning this project in Atlanta due to certain circumstances that were just out of control of everybody involved, and it's for Tunnel to Towers and they bought a hotel and they're turning the hotel into living facilities for homeless veterans and we immediately were like, okay, that's out of our area, but this is our mission. Like, this is what we do. We want to be involved. So we went down the process of we went to Atlanta We've been to the place a bunch of times and I called up and I was like, hey, I'm going to bring a couple of the local veterans who are on your guys' list of people that are potentially going to move in here when the project is done. And he says, why? Well, I was asking them kind of in a collective, like, hey, what would you guys want this to be for you?

Adam Nelson:

And almost in unison they wanted to know if they could change the front door. It took me probably two days to actually think about that one and run through my head what your front door actually means to you as a person, and I'll never know what it means to you as somebody that served, because I didn't serve, but the way that they phrased it, that really kind of piqued me back to like okay, this is something that we need to put into this, whether we're doing it or not doing it. This is something that Tunnels to Towers needs to actually implement into their designs for future. For this one. And they said your front door is something that you remembered when you were overseas. You remembered faces of families, but your front door is something that doesn't change very often and is a symbol of peace when you walk through that threshold.

Adam Nelson:

And so they wanted to know if they could change out the front door. They didn't care what it looked like on the inside, they didn't care if they were sleeping on a cardboard box or if it was a beautiful bed or they. That was none of the concerns that they had. They wanted a front door that they could customize so that they felt like they were walking into their home, like, yeah, okay, we're in the right space here. And how do we make sure that this gets implemented? Even if we don't do this project, because that was a very powerful moment in my life, I'll never forget that moment the front door.

Scott McLean:

Wow, they were right. Yeah, because, as you were telling me that, I pictured my front door of my mom's house, isn't that? It's amazing? Yeah, that's a great way to put it. So how do you measure the success and impact of the organizations you support? And, by the way, donating is not just money, it's also time, and time and money are equal. This I know. In the donor world, I've learned a lot about how nonprofits work. I've talked to some donors and I think a lot of people think donors are just money, but time investment into a nonprofit is just as valuable. So again, how do you measure success and impact of the organizations you support?

Adam Nelson:

I take it on a very case-by-case basis. We'll just stick with the Herd Foundation because we're both intimately familiar with the Herd. If you guys are calling me and telling me that I'm applying pressure and you're trying to get something moving in the right direction, I take that as a success for Will and Paul. We've sparked something in you, whether it's through financial or whether it's through knowledge or whether it's through you know, the simple version of our Rolodex is very different than your Rolodex, and making other introductions is also equally beneficial to nonprofit organizations, especially small nonprofit organizations. You need to rapidly grow people that may be interested in your mission, and the only wrong answer is not. You can tell everybody under the sun what herd does, but you have to tell them, otherwise they don't know it exists, and there's tons of people that we've brought to the farm that have been lifers in Delray that had no idea that there was a farm basically downtown, an eight acre horse farm.

Scott McLean:

It's mind blowing. It is. You couldn't have convinced me that there was a farm, basically downtown An eight acre horse farm.

Adam Nelson:

It's mind blowing it is. You couldn't have convinced me that that was a real thing in its location when I first got here. No way, there's no way that this exists, but there it is.

Scott McLean:

And also you guys have done a lot of showing up for us. Also, the 32 tables that Home Depot donated to us, that they built right in front of myself and Rhonda, the executive director and co-founder, and when they were done they said here's your 32 picnic tables, here's your 17 benches. Now you got to move them. And you guys showed up and well, long story short, willow and Palm paid to have them delivered because those were some heavy picnic tables. We moved about 12 and it was like, okay, that's it. And Willow and Palm stepped up.

Adam Nelson:

You guys stepped up for us and paid to have those picnic tables delivered to the farm Scott's very much over-exaggerating how awesome we were that day because we moved probably four and we went, no more.

Scott McLean:

Okay, I'm trying to help you out here, but okay, yeah, it was four. It was four, each one weighing about 200 pounds, and then loading them into an awkward box truck. Yeah, willow and Palm stepped up and said we're just going to pay to have these delivered. Now, all joking aside, you could have easily, easily have said this is something that we just, we just can't do.

Scott McLean:

This yeah so, from our perspective, to show that you guys were stepping up like that took it like in my eyes, that was like a whole another level, like these guys are actually 100% invested in us. You know, and that meant a lot to us to watch this just happen. That was really my first experience in seeing how you guys like really stepped up.

Adam Nelson:

Yeah. So I'll go back to the story of the first time we met. I sat down with Rhonda right after Fall on Friday, the first time, and I said this is a hundred percent something that we want to do. But you have to understand I'm not doing this for one event. I am a part of the herd foundation and we will always be there for the herd foundation, or I don't want to do it, and we appreciate that.

Scott McLean:

We appreciate that greatly. But I think you know how much we appreciate you and Willow and Palm and the people that work for Willow and Pom. Now it isn't just Adam or Mike or Jeff, it's the whole office shows up, yeah.

Adam Nelson:

You guys have a real way of showing me how appreciated we are. I got a framed photo of Cinnamon's butt in my office.

Scott McLean:

Cinnamon isn't a girl people. Cinnamon is a miniature horse who adam has has uh become very fond of in his relationship. That's my girl what do you think are some of the biggest challenges veteran non-profits face, since you've been with us for over a year now going on two years now, I think. What do you think they?

Adam Nelson:

are. There is a lot of veteran non nonprofits that can't get out of their own way. They're trying to do the right thing. They don't know how to do the right thing. They also don't know where the money comes from. I think a lot of the startup veteran nonprofits kind of look at this like oh, I'm going to get these grants from the government and this is how we're going to make it work. That's great, that can be some of it, but it can't be all of it.

Adam Nelson:

Everybody that I've met in the veteran space has been coming from a place of love and respect and wanting to grow the right way. It's just a slippery slope. One way or another. You have to find somebody that has done it or been a part of it and find out their shortcomings and their limitations of when they were starting it and really suck that in and absorb that so that you're not just duplicating things that you didn't have to duplicate, that were mistakes that somebody else made.

Adam Nelson:

And it's kind of weird how most of the veteran programs all start from the same spot.

Adam Nelson:

Watching them start is almost like watching a tree grow, plant that seed, which, in the scenario that I'm describing, is like that want to help the veterans. And then you watch it kind of sprout and it's doing the same thing everybody was doing, like how do I start finding money, how do I start finding donors, how do I start finding donors, how do I start finding people to help? And then it kind of branches off over here. And then it branches off over here and those are your programs. And then you're trying to get to the flower and sometimes you didn't plant the right tree. So you gotta figure out okay, great, my tree's probably not gonna flower into this huge organization. How do I dial it back and trim it so that it becomes this entity that exists, that is going to help as many people as I can, which is my original plan. So you go full circle back down to that seed moment where you go okay, I thought it was going to do this and it didn't do this at all, but I've helped so many people along the way.

Scott McLean:

I get what you're saying. You can have these giant organizations or you can have these little organizations. It's kind of like a just know your limits, know your growth potential, and if you hit the end of your growth potential, then there you go. You're right there where you should be, instead of distorting it and wanting to get bigger and bigger.

Adam Nelson:

I told you guys something the other day. That might've been the first time that I've ever said it, and it was. You can't create programs out of necessity and expect them to help as many people as they would if you were creating programs because you knew this was needed. Oh, I need, I want this grant money to come in. I have to create this program that's out of mission a little bit.

Scott McLean:

Oh, I get you Right.

Adam Nelson:

Okay, that gets you under this branch. That may not be that sturdy. I really nailed these tree analogies today you're doing well, you're doing good uh but but you, you kind of go down this, this road, where you. You didn't ever intend on going there, but it was the low-hanging fruit money, so you took the money because you wanted them.

Scott McLean:

you saw the money and then like, okay, now we have to create this program because we have to justify this money, yep.

Adam Nelson:

I've seen that a lot. I've been in nonprofits for 20-plus years now.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, that's another thing. Adam is not only involved with Willow and Palm Adam, they're not only involved with veterans but they are very active in the community down here in Palm Beach County, very active with other nonprofits. So that just goes to show this isn't a one-trick pony.

Adam Nelson:

They are very active to repeat myself no, we live this life, If you want to use that modern terminology of it. We're about this life.

Scott McLean:

Can you share an instance where you helped a nonprofit overcome a major obstacle?

Adam Nelson:

Yeah, I helped. I helped the herd foundation overcome every obstacle.

Scott McLean:

No no.

Adam Nelson:

I'm just kidding. Uh, did we not just talk about the picnic tables?

Scott McLean:

I mean, that was a massive, beautiful that you know what, that the question is answered. That's exactly what. That was a major obstacle. I will not push any further than that. Uh, what are the long-term goals for your involvement with veteran nonprofits?

Adam Nelson:

Well there's. There's limits to all of the stuff in nonprofit for for an organization like us, to all of the stuff in nonprofit for an organization like us. There's a certain threshold of financial. There's a threshold for the time that you can give. There are certain thresholds that you just can't overcome. I don't think we're there yet as an organization. I think there's more that we can do. I think the affordable housing for veterans is a space that we're very actively striving to get into. How do we figure out how to partner with some nonprofits that maybe have some land or maybe have some ability to acquire land through the cities or the municipalities where they're from, and figure out how we can build some houses that are affordable for veterans? Especially down here in South Florida, the price of living has just absolutely skyrocketed, post-pandemic, and it's very difficult to live down here, even if you're making a very healthy living. It's very difficult to find a house that fits your lifestyle and your, I guess I just really want to give veterans the opportunity to have their own door.

Scott McLean:

Beautifully put. Beautifully put. I spoke to a woman yesterday who I'll be interviewing next week and she is very active in the homeless veteran space. So you know it might be an episode you want to listen to and see what maybe they might need, and they're all about feeding the homeless, amongst other things.

Adam Nelson:

So it is a big problem. I feel like this is why you started this podcast right Now. My story and where I'm trying to go aligns with one of the future guests and there may be some synergy there where we make that actually a reality and that's why I did start this podcast to build bridges, to start connecting.

Scott McLean:

And if you go to the website vetsconnectpodcastcom, the resource page is just growing and growing and they will eventually start to connect the dots. And so exactly why I started this podcast and hopefully that works out. What advice would you give to someone or people who want to start supporting veteran causes, veteran nonprofits? Get your feet wet first.

Adam Nelson:

In what way? Volunteer time. It's very easy to cut a check for whatever you can afford. It's very easy to do that, Whether it be $5 or $5 million.

Scott McLean:

that's all personal thing you got $5 million, I don't know.

Adam Nelson:

Okay, just thought I'd ask no, we're not. We're not doing all that. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask. You'd have gone against everything that I've told you you need to do Exactly. Okay, go on. So I think you know getting your feet wet is hard to do. To invest the time. It's very easy to cut the check because you know, what your threshold is for financial giving.

Adam Nelson:

But it's very difficult to give your time, even if it's a nonprofit that you adamantly support, if the people that are on the board and the leadership don't have the same agenda on where they think that it can go. It may not be the right fit, even though you believe very highly in their projects and their community and what they're doing. It might not personally fit for you. So get your feet wet. Go to a couple of the board meetings, if they'll allow you to. Most nonprofits are open door, like if you say, hey, I want to check out and see what you guys talk about behind the scenes. On, like the growth potential for your nonprofit, they're almost always there. Yes, especially on the smaller side. They're looking at that as a oh, this person might be a potential for a board member later on. Maybe they can help us financially, maybe they can help us with time.

Adam Nelson:

So they usually say yes, but get your feet wet. Make sure that you are aligning with them ideologically so that you're not doing something that you thought was this and then you're getting this, even though both are great. Have you run into that? Yes, a hundred percent, it's. It's almost like a relationship. You do a lot of dating before you find the one that you want to marry, and it's the same with nonprofits Sometimes that the matchmaker is the person that you need to rely on, and in our case it was Lynn from the chamber. Love her, she nailed this she is.

Scott McLean:

She is very good at what she does, absolutely.

Adam Nelson:

It was the when she said there's a farm and I went, eh, and she was like they do veteran stuff and I was like a little less and okay, great. And then I got introduced to the concept of the Fallen Friday, like we've talked about earlier, and the rest is now history.

Scott McLean:

So how has your involvement with and I won't just say veterans, I'll say basically all around around nonprofits influenced you personally?

Adam Nelson:

So, personally for me, I love America, I love the way that I feel when I'm being patriotic, and that was the gift back for me on joining a lot of the veteran based how do I show them that I appreciate them? And then that response was what I was looking for in return the thank you for acknowledging that, or thank you for helping us, or thank you for donating this, or thank you for that. I didn't need the thank you, I needed the. I needed the veterans to know that we were there to help them, no matter what it was.

Scott McLean:

So at Herd Foundation I had a spring fundraiser and you introduced me to two gentlemen that work for or at Florida Atlantic University, I believe one of them went to West Point.

Adam Nelson:

He was the athletic director at West Point.

Scott McLean:

Yes, what's his name?

Scott McLean:

brian white, brian white, and by the end of the fundraiser, adam approached me and said I got heard foundation 100 tickets to the fau army football game. I was blown away. To just give it to veterans, give, give these tickets to veterans. That was huge. Well, things change and Adam called me the other day and said oh, about that hundred tickets? Now it's 150. So you better give these away. You better get rid of every one of these tickets. He applied pressure. That's FAU's Veteran Appreciation Day and it's going to be a big success. But the fact that you came up and said, hey, this is what we're going to do, and that that was a big deal to me, I that was probably one of the highlights of that night for me.

Adam Nelson:

I think it was probably a highlight of the night for me as well, Mostly because there was zero pushback from FAU. Brian went yes. And I went wait what? So I thought I was going to have to bargain or give something to get something.

Scott McLean:

Okay, this is interesting. I don't mean to interrupt you, but we just went to a meeting the other day and it's about asking right, and so the nonprofits. One of our biggest problems and I'm going through this now with my own nonprofit is we don't know how to ask, or we're uncomfortable asking or we're, you know we kind of hem and har about asking, and you were one of the people said just ask right To a donor, just ask them. So now this kind of flipped, now you, the donor, you had to ask, ask fau, and you had that same trepidation, that same kind of. Is there gonna be like a, a little pushback, like you said? Are they gonna say, well, but you did it and you got it right?

Adam Nelson:

so, to touch on your point, I'm never afraid to ask. But I look at my research, which we've talked about also is knowing who you're asking. I do my research a little bit differently because I'm very seasoned at asking. I've been doing this for a very long time. I know kind of the route that I'm suspecting most people are going to take. I already have my rebuttal planned and ready to go as a donor.

Adam Nelson:

As a donor, okay, I know when I ask another potential donor for money for, say, it's the herd foundation, right, I usually kind of know they're giving ability. I usually kind of know what pushback they're going to have and I usually know which trigger points are going to tug on their heartstrings. I was very prepared to explain to brian that I'm getting 100 tickets, okay, and when there was no pushback it kind of changed my perception of brian white and his staff. Also, I didn't know it was going to go that quickly and that deep for him, where he was like, yes, I went okay. So there's another underlying story here I don't know about. And so now it gives you an opportunity to talk to them and invite them to other things, because you know they're now vested. It's not an FAU thing for Brian. It's a Brian thing for Brian.

Adam Nelson:

He is vested in helping veterans Right for brian. He is vested in helping veterans right. He gets to utilize his ability at fau to help facilitate some of that, and they do that as a school anyways. They have a veteran's affair the veteran owls yeah yeah, so they have that built into the school, so it's not an outlier for them. They they are very down that road already, but it gave you a quick instance of okay. Brian also has a personal attachment to helping the veterans and that's great to see.

Scott McLean:

So it's kind of a joint effort between FAU, willow and Palm Herd Foundation and Mission United that are doing this and so and that's a whole nother thing. It's all because you are involved in the veteran space and, as a veteran, I've said this to you before and I'll say it to you now and I'll say it to you in the future. I appreciate you, I appreciate what you do. It never goes unnoticed by anybody. Trust me, anybody on Herd Foundation or me personally. So again I want to say thank you. Let's kind of wrap this up with. Do you have any type of memorable story or something that that kind of pops up when, when it came to working with the veterans or the veteran space or the veteran, is there like one moment you're like that was kind of cool?

Adam Nelson:

I get that moment almost every time. Great answer You've never seen a happier group of people volunteering their time than veterans you never will, that's true, you never have.

Adam Nelson:

They are so excited to feel like they're a part of something that's helping somebody, no matter what. It is. Like the Habitat builds, we're doing one for a veteran right now. We had to basically beg people to stop showing up to offer to help, and they were all veterans. They knew it was a veteran's house that we were working on and I was like, like, logistically, I would love to tell you, yes, but we're dropping the roof inside of the house Currently. I can't have you in there. This is. I love your passion.

Scott McLean:

There's an insurance issue here. There's a lot of things.

Adam Nelson:

If my insurance company is listening. We did not let them in. I want to make this abundantly clear Do not drop my insurance. But it's almost infectious like they show up and the the guy next door is retired air force. All right, 27 years, I think. He said uh, he's got tickets. I gave him tickets. He'll be joining us for the army game. He said that he was going to be cheering for the owls very loudly as an air force guy, I, I, I'm conflicted, I'm conflicted.

Scott McLean:

You know, I love fau and I love what they I live right up the street from fau love what they do, but I'm an air force guy. Why would I root for the army? I don't know. So I'll make up my mind that day.

Adam Nelson:

Yeah that's he.

Scott McLean:

He already made up his mind um well, I'm kind of involved in giving up the tickets. I have to please both sides, you better stay in switzerland or norway.

Adam Nelson:

Yeah, there you go every day when we're over there working on the veteran house that's next door to his own. He brings over water. He has. He has a water cooler, if he's not home, set outside of his garage that is full of stuff for the guys that are working on the house.

Scott McLean:

Well, adam, I want to thank you for your time. I do know that you are a busy guy between being the president of Willow and Palm Construction, located in Delray Beach, florida, the premier builders in Southeast Florida. I'll throw that in there, it's wonderful.

Scott McLean:

I love the way it sounds. Yes, yes, but I know you're busy doing that and, with all the volunteering and involvement with nonprofits, I do appreciate your time coming in and giving a donor's perspective. Basically, it boils down to just ask. That's what I'm learning, but it's easier said than done in my case. So with that, we built another bridge today. If you like what you heard, give us a rating on whatever platform you're listening on and listen to the end, if you would please. There's a public service announcement that has some good information for veterans and, as always, you'll hear me and a new episode next Monday.

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