About Us
To meet our broad mission statement, it was important to involve as many members of the community as possible. The more the initiative was publicized, the more members of the community wanted to be involved.
Purple Heart Veteran Carl Schnock was elected President and a management team was selected. Carl offered that the Outreach name needed to be changed and suggested that the organization change its name to WAVE (Welcome All Veterans Everywhere). The Board of Directors and members who attended the meeting agreed that the new name was explanatory of the organization’s mission.
Helping Veterans
By January of 2014, the Committee had filed its incorporation papers and was researching the process for becoming a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501c3. At the same time, board member Debbie Posnien (Executive Director of the Douglas County Suicide Prevention Network) and Cheryl Bricker (Executive Director of the Partnership of Community Resources) offered their organizations and headquarters as a place for WAVE to meet.
With a stable meeting place, the organization focused on getting into action. The Committee started listening to testimonials from Veterans of Vietnam and Desert Storm. It became obvious that the same Veterans issues that were being seen across the nation existed in Douglas County as well. Veterans were being denied care based on their disabilities incurred while in the service, discharged with mental health issues, and those with PTSD were largely ignored.