Good Music, Good people and Getting Back To Doing Good Stuff For Our Veterans; Now With Dogs!

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

If you’ve been here for a while you’ll recall that the Coach spearheaded Songwriters For Veterans charity events in 2018 and 2019. He’s also hosted a few smoked pork butt cook off’s to raise proceeds for Veterans. These events are so much work, but he loves doing it and never complains. ALL proceeds go directly to vetted Veteran Charities. He does all of the work for free and the past few years we’ve had a handful of our employees that also do a good portion of the work on our dime. (website setups, ticket sales, merchandise ordering, etc)

In early 2020 The Coach decided to expand our Songwriters event to the East Coast where a lot of our friends live. Plans were in place, sponsors wrote checks….and then we all know what happened.

Finally, 2022, the event was going to happen. Can you believe that our amazing sponsors NEVER asked for their money back, they trusted that the event would happen eventually; talk about being gracious.

2022-I’m a VIP, it says so on my lanyard!

Songwriters For Vets

The Coach was able to secure five singer/songwriters for the event, and someone new to the lineup was our wonderful friend Clint who is a bonafide Cowboy and Poet. We’ve been friends for a long time and Fun Fact, we adopted Callie from Clint’s cattle ranch a hundred years ago and the dog is still kicking. It’s a magical ranch!

Anyhoo, Clint read one of his amazing poems before the songwriters took over and I have a video version of it.

Unless you’re a commie bastard, you’ll appreciate it. 😳

There was not a dry eye in the house.

ONTO THE MUSIC

Our songwriters talk/sing in the BlueBird Cafe style and it’s so interesting to hear the stories behind the songs. I’m not gonna go into detail about our songwriters, they are all accomplished and wonderful humans. Our lineup or this event was Kristian Bush (of Sugarland) Patrick Davis, Channing Wilson, Lauren Jenkins and Angie Aparo (my new favorite!)

I took one little clip of Kristian singing…he explained that this “love song” Isn’t really about love at all, it’s about being in a relationship with someone who makes you nuts and each time you try to leave, they do one little thing to bring you back in.

My husband could probably relate.

As you can see even though I’m a VIP, I didn’t have the best seat in the house. We saved those for our gracious sponsors.

AGAIN WITH DOGGIES

I almost forgot the ‘almost’ best part. My girl Kelly is good friends with the people at a dog rescue in Jupiter and they decided to do an adopt & donate TWO-FER. (This particular rescue has a dog training program that helps Veterans with PTSD and they also take in and care for dogs belonging to a service person who is going overseas.) This little rescue girl (from Ukraine) was auctioned off for three thousand dollars with the proceeds going to our charity. The rescue people of course vetted the humans before they let her go with them, but how awesome is that? She got a home and the money went to our Veterans.

The Coach would have doubled the donation for her if we had room for another pup.

​OLD OLD FRIENDS

Since the Coach and I were in our old stomping grounds (we were both raised on the East Coast of FL) we had a lot of our old friends in attendance.

The Coach and four of his childhood friends; they’ve been in each others lives for nearly fifty years.

It was such a fun, busy and proud weekend for all of us.

I hardly took any photos of the night as I was enjoying every minute. The night was a huge success; the event profited just under $40,000 for the night.

I KNOW!

Are you a live music fan? It’s always good time in our books.

How about long friendships? Do you have any that are that long?

XOXO

35 thoughts on “Good Music, Good people and Getting Back To Doing Good Stuff For Our Veterans; Now With Dogs!”

  1. This is SO Beautiful – – – not just because you and Coach are behind it all but because of the many who benefitted – – and the fun had by all – – – – – and that POEM! It is awesome! Love that man’s heart who wrote it.
    As always – – – THANK YOU for sharing!

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  2. What a great night and a great cause! Our veterans deserve every good thing we can throw at them! Oh I would have donated for that puppy too. So cute! I have two long term friends; One for 58 years and one for 54 years! They are treasures in my life for sure!

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      1. That IS amazing! I’ve organized events in the past (though not for years now…), and I know how much work, effort, and especially frustration goes into putting an event together. And for one as involved as what you guys have done, I can only imagine! KUDOS to you (and to the puppy 😀 )

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  3. What a fantastic event. I’m sure it took a great deal of planning and coordinating. Well done.

    That sweet little puppy opened a lot of wallets and broke a lot of hearts. A lot of Good Things happened that day!

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  6. This post has made my heart swell with love and appreciation for you and your wonderful spouse. Thank you for all your hard work on behalf of our veterans. But damn you for posting that poem video, now I’m all stuffed up from crying.
    ❤️

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  7. Bijoux

    Congratulations on such a successful and special event. Glad it finally got to happen. I’m impressed by that Fab 5 Friendship. Men seem to have a harder time maintaining those sorts of relationships.

    We do enjoy live music, though I have issues with how loud it can get. And yes, I’m still friends with a number of my childhood besties. One is like the sister I never had and this summer marks 54 years.

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    1. I always thought that men had a hard time keeping lasting friendships, but not so much with this group. Fifty-four years is a lonnnnggg time; bravo to you and yours!
      I too don’t love a loud concert any longer…my hearing is very sensitive.

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  8. I’m a live music fan, but haven’t been anywhere with it for years now. Covid, you know. Your music charity and the doggo auction look like perfect ways to raise funds. As for long-term friendships I’m in touch with a friend from middle school. She comments on the blog every so often which I find wonderfully modern of us!

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  10. Well done you and Coach and your amazing people. We just got to our resort for the weekend and I can’t get the videos to play. Not on their WIFI yet, I guess. I will have to check back . . . and will bring my tissue box.

    The puppy auction – what a fab addition. Note to self: keep Lad far away from that as Finn is enough for our non-dog house. Plus the boy needs to save to move out and he would spend on a puppy in a heartbeat.

    I am in touch with a few friends from long ago but not as tight as we once were. I am in awe of Coach’s many way-back friends.

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    1. You are on vacation. You can read my crap next week. 🙂
      The puppy auction was genius and was not my idea at all.

      I have friends that I’ve known since HS. We don’t see each other often enough though. And then there’s Kelly. We’ve been together since 1989 and she can’t get away from me now….

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  11. M

    I love it — love all that you and your husband do for our veterans! Wonderful job, Coach!

    I am a fan but have not really put much effort to do it more; I think we just kinda got lazy. 😦 Our preference, before my son was born, were community musical plays. I loved being able to sit up front/closer to the stage and soak in the talents coming off the stage! We didn’t go much for a long time after my son was born — busy with other activities, etc. but we started up again when we found more free time, a few years ago. We got season tickets a couple of years, then COVID hit. We did go to an outdoor concert late last year — so fun!

    That’s awesome that Coach still has several friends from childhood. My husband does, too. They didn’t keep in touch much during the busy-raising-children years but have been getting together again in the last 8yrs or so. Mine are friends from high school so not as long as childhood; we also lost touch during the busy-raising-children years but the 7 of us started to have at least a quarterly outing since 2014. It is so good for the soul.

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    1. Thank you for your sweet words. I am merely a helper, Coach is driving the bus and there are lots of hands/hearts helping out. We have another one coming up in August and we’re super excited about it.

      Musical plays, or theater in general sounds like an enjoyable time to me. Not sure if I could get the husband on board, but it’s great to watch talented and passionate people do what they love.

      Those child-raising years really do a number on us, don’t they? My bestie Kelly and I laugh about it….we really only saw each other maybe once a year because we were so busy with our kids. Also, she lives 2 and 1/2 hours away. But now, we see each other about 8-10 times a year. I hope our kids appreciate all we gave up for them. 😜

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  14. What a fun and wonderful way to support a great cause! That pup is so darn cute, too! And that poem?!!!! I got goosebumps listening. I hope a lot get a chance to hear it! Thanks so much for sharing…and thank you and your husband, the singers, the Cowboy poet, all who made this happen, for doing this for our vets and their pets! It means so much! Bless you all, Mona

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  15. M

    Hi, Suz. It’s me again. Is there a way to share Clint’s poem? Does he have a site for his work? I It’s so wonderful, and I think more people need to hear it.

    Will Coach expand Songwriters event to SD? 🙂

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    1. Right now all our events are in Florida. 😘
      I believe Clint has published a book of his poems, no website that I know of but let me see if I can find them link to the poem.

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      1. M

        Thank you! I’d love to be able to share the poem with others; it’s so beautiful, not just the words but also the way he recited it.

        Florida now but maybe various places around the country eventually? I think Coach can make it happen! 🙂

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