A third of all homeless people in the United States are veterans. This stark fact was one reason Rod Wittmier's Self-Expression and Leadership program involved bringing old and new veterans together in a mentoring program. The program, called VetsMeetVets, had its first meeting of veterans in early January, with the next planned for this spring. The Seattle-Tacoma News covered the story.

Older vets try to help a new generation.

Skip Irving of Bonney Lake served in the Army from 1969 to 1972 and said his time was much easier than others’: He worked with electronics in Europe and North Africa while others went off to fight in Vietnam.

One of Irving’s friends didn’t have it as easy. The two shared a house in the mid-’70s, after each was out of the service. Irving learned to be careful when waking his friend, who slept with a knife under his pillow.

“It took him so long to get better,” said Irving, now 61. “It was tough for people to know what he was going through.”

He hopes a new mentorship program, called VetsMeetVets, will provide stability for today’s veterans struggling to return to civilian life from places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. And he feels a duty to help the country’s service members.

“It’s payback, quite simply,” said Irving, a manager at Schucks Auto Parts in Enumclaw. “I have a good life, have been reasonably successful. My kids have grown up and are successful. It’s time to pay back.”

The program is the brainchild of Rod Wittmier, who has launched an ambitious plan based on a simple idea: A challenge can be easier when someone who has already gone through it gives advice.

The Buckley resident has launched VetsMeetVets, a series of events to link younger veterans with older ones. That can mean anything from questions about filling out health insurance forms to spending a day fishing, Wittmier said.

The first event is Saturday at the National Guard Armory in Buckley.

“It can be tough when you first get out,” said Wittmier, a 53-year-old veteran who taught other soldiers how to fix electronics. “But if someone is there to say, ‘Hey, I can help you with this,’ then it becomes a whole lot easier.”

He was motivated while listening to sermons stressing service. His business experience provided the know-how.

“I’m a businessman,” said Wittmier, who owns a Web site consulting firm. “And as a businessman, if I ever wanted to do something new, I would create a mentor relationship. I would find a CEO who had already done what I wanted to do. I’d pick their brain, run questions by them.”

So, he figured, why not transfer that idea to help returning vets?

Wittmier emphasizes it’s a totally different approach to most veterans programs, which he describes as “reactionary.”

“They wait until someone is homeless or is fighting an addiction. I thought, ‘Why don’t we start serving and honoring and loving our recent veterans immediately after they return?”

Wittmier is thinking big. He invited every mayor in the area and expects several to attend. So will representatives from county, state and federal veterans agencies, and a staffer from the office of U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn.

Wittmier admits he has no idea how many veterans will take him up on his offer. The older ones are easier to recruit – he conservatively expects 30 to 40 to show up Saturday – but the younger ones are more elusive.

“I would hope that we have people standing and struggling to get into the door,” he said. “But really, I have no clue how many people will come.”

He hopes the event can be a model for others across the country. But he doesn’t quite consider himself a world-changer.

“If I can connect 25 younger vets with 25 seasoned vets, then I’m happy,” he said. “I will have made a difference.”

Check out: www.vetsmeetvets.org

Vanessa Pazzi’s project in Landmark’s SELP program created Canada’s largest indoor Yoga class as an event to raise money for The Cancer Assistance Program, an organization that assists cancer patients with seeing to certain needs. Pazzi, a Toronto resident, was influcenced by the death of a close friend who died of cancer at age 23 and who had been helped by the program.

Over a hundred people attended the class and thousands of dollars were raised for the Cancer  Assistance Program.  The event was featured by the Hamilton Spectator.

Yoga mania…with a mission

‘Canada’s largest indoor class’ raises money for Cancer Assistance Program

by Elisabeth Johns

As Maureen Ona Corcoran bent her left leg at the knee, balanced on one foot and raised her palms to the sky, more than 100 people followed suit.

It was the largest number of people Corcoran had ever instructed at one time to assume the tree position.

Corcoran, a well-known city yoga teacher for the past 10 years, led the mass yoga class Saturday morning as part of a fundraiser for the Cancer Assistance Program.

"This is the first time I’ve instructed so many people and it’s the first time I’ve instructed them from a stage," said Corcoran, who runs Yoga With Ona.

In what organizers billed as "Canada’s largest indoor yoga class," the dozens of participants stretched out on their mats in a huge room on the third floor of the Hamilton Convention Centre.

To soothing music and Corcoran’s calming voice, they struck the dog, warrior and corpse poses in unison.

Corcoran, who started doing yoga five years before she began teaching it, believes the de-stressing and relaxing benefits of yoga are a symbiotic match to the non-profit program they raised money to assist.

The Cancer Assistance Program helps cancer patients by seeing that certain needs of theirs are met so they don’t have to stress about it.

It provides this through emotional support groups; transportation to and from medical appointments; friendly visits; loaning equipment like wheelchairs and walkers; and providing wigs, scarves and turbans.

Event organizer Vanessa Pazzi wanted to raise money for the program in memory of her friend, Zvezda Kariz, who died of cancer at the age of 23.

Kariz had been helped by the volunteer-run program, Pazzi said.

Participant Barbara Maccaroni has been doing yoga for six years.

"I started doing yoga because I wanted to increase my flexibility and I enjoy it for the relaxing and calming aspects," Maccaroni said.

She took part in the event because she loves yoga and wanted to support the Cancer Assistance Program.

The Cancer Assistance Program helped 2,500 people across Hamilton and Burlington last year, said Sharon Easton, executive director of the organization.

Saturday’s event raised an estimated $2,000, Pazzi said.

The entire article is available via the Hamilton Spectator.

Three Laws of Performance, a new book about transformational education and its impact on businesses and individuals, written by Landmark Forum leader Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan of the Marshall School of Business, has reached multiple best seller lists in the United States, including that of the Wall Street Journal. For more information about the book, visit the Three Laws of Performance website.

Les Ward has used the Self-Expression and leadership program to create an innovative photography exhibit showcasing community leaders pioneering Detroit's economy. The exhibit, titled "My Town Miracles", is appearing at the North American International Auto Show, and was the subject of a feature article in the Detroit News. Part of that story appear here.

Images capture area's big 'miracle makers'

by Maureen McDonald

In a season where nearly all the automotive photography work Les Ward supported his studio with for 20 years has vaporized, he is using the North American International Auto Show as a backdrop for new business possibilities.

In six short months, Ward created a display called "My Town Miracles," to highlight individuals Ward regards as some of the most influential people creating jobs, celebrations, gathering places for a broader community. At least 22 of his pictures will hang in a special exhibit in the concourse of Cobo Center during the auto show.

"I found people with the can-do spirit, people bigger than the situations they came across, people who are leading Detroit's recovery," said Ward, one of 125 estimated Metro area photographers working the advertising and commercial trade. He hopes to catch a tail wind and expose the potential 800,000 auto show visitors to his versatility as a portrait artist and business photographer.

Among the subjects featured in the display are Bill Ford Jr. chairman of Ford Motor Co.; the Hon. Damon Keith, Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th District; Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the Greening of Detroit; Denise Ilitch, publisher of Ambassador Magazine in Birmingham; Bert Dearing Jr., Detroit jazz impresario; Roger Penske, chairman of Penske Racing South; and Cynthia Pasky, president and chairman of Strategic Staffing Solutions of Detroit. Ward didn't know any of these civic leaders, but he used his tenacity to book appointments.

Ward said he never listened to thoughts that resembled "no," "what makes you qualified" or "impossible." Instead he kept asking for appointments, and people came through, even the busiest executives in the region.

The task represents and innovative comeback for Ward. He came close to hitting bottom in his life in 2007. In March that year, his wife and business manager, Denise Ward, died of pancreatic cancer. Shortly after that, economic conditions in the commercial photo industry and loss of his manager forced him to close his 7,500 square foot studio and move into a home office.

As he healed from the first round of upsets, he weathered two rounds of surgeries at the University of Michigan for removal of melanomas. He helped focus his thoughts by coaching a seminar called "Self-Expression and Leadership Program, offered by Landmark Education in Livonia. He invested over $10,000 to develop his class project. As it progressed he found it helped him market his services among powerful leaders.

"Les is one of the finest photographers I've had the opportunity to work with," said Gary D. Lichtman, director of media relations at the University of Detroit Mercy, who helped coordinate a photograph of UDM President Gerald Stockhausen SJ for his portfolio of leaders. "Les has a way of searching for that 'perfect' image, capturing people in their everyday environment with a unique kind of look and feel."

What's next? Ward said he wants to produce a book of unstoppable civic leaders adding another 25 or 30 subjects to his mix. "I'm committed to finding new sources of photographic work but I'm not attached to outcome."

Landmark Education graduate Josh Tickell’s award-winning documentary "Fuel" has opened in the Los Angeles area in a limited February engagment, and will be appearing elsewhere in the United States in February and March. The documentary, which Tickell recently spoke about with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, focuses on the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and clean alternatives such as biofuels, and features interviews with celebrities such as Jimmy Carter, Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow and Larry Hagman.

The movie appeared at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 under the title "Fields of Fuel" and won the audience award for best documentary. It captured numerous other awards at the AFI Dallas Film Festival, the Sedona Film Festical, the Santa Cruz Film Festival and the Gaia Film Festival. For its theatrical release, Tickell added 45 minutes of new material.

For more information on the movie and where it is playing visit the Fuel website, and watch the movie trailer below.

For his project in Landmark Education's SELP program, Jeremy Deweese of St. Louis lead a group of photographers in creating "24 Hour Cure", a project which created photo exhibits to raise funds for the American Diabetes Association. All the proceeds went to directly to the association, which focuses on diabetes prevention, finding cures, and advocacy.

The exhibit featured photos of different photographers taken around the St. Louis area of anything that inspired them. Photos were exhibited, sold and delivered as gifts for the holidays.

Visit the 24 Hour Cure website to view the photographs. Deweese, a photographer, and Christie Derbin, from the American Diabetes Association, were interviewed on channel 5 television by Jennifer Blome to discuss the exhibit party which took place at the Lure nightclub on Washington Avenue. Visit the Channel Five website to watch the interview.

The project created by Okashi Robles when she took her Landmark SELP program brought a variety of sports to West Seattle middle schoolers through a unique after school program. The Seattle Times wrote a story about Robles’ project.

Middle-School students get their sport on at the southwest community center

Get Your Sport On is a first-of-its-kind, after-school program at the Southwest Community Center, adjacent to Denny Middle School in West Seattle. The volunteer-run program exposes kids to a different activity each week: golf, aerobics, weight training, yoga, basketball, even a "boot camp" that puts the students through a series of exercise courses.

by Nicole Brodeur

The kid’s a natural. Smooth stroke, eyes steady, nice follow-through.

No one would have known of Zach Cullers’ gift for golf, had it not been for Okashi Robles.

Robles, a fitness instructor and Nordstrom sales associate, is the force behind Get Your Sport On, a first-of-its-kind, after-school program at the Southwest Community Center, adjacent to Denny Middle School in West Seattle.

The program exposes kids to a different activity each week: golf, aerobics, weight training, yoga, basketball, even a "boot camp" that puts the students through a series of exercise courses.

Robles organized the class as a community project for a leadership program called Landmark Education. She recruited 25 co-workers to volunteer as coaches and promote the program, and she got donations from vendors.

The program was made possible by the city’s Families in Education Levy. Officials asked middle schools with the highest percentage of low-performing kids (Denny, Madison, Aki Kurose and Mercer) to write a plan for how to improve academic achievement.

Most opted to add a seventh period to the day for academic or other programs that would "improve their [students'] affiliation to their school," said Holly Miller, head of the Department of Neighborhoods’ office of education.

Robles, 41, envisions bringing the Denny program to other schools. It is run by volunteers, costs parents nothing, keeps the kids fit and engaged, and gets them involved in sports they otherwise might not get to play.

"Middle school is the time when you experiment with stuff and you figure out what you’re good at," Miller said, adding that Robles’ program is "a great concept because some kids are going to be dismal at soccer and great at rowing."

Physical education in school usually means taking a 50-minute class for one half of the school year. Beyond that, students’ fitness depends on after-school team sports like coed ultimate Frisbee, girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, and coed track.

"But some of these kids," Robles said, "wouldn’t make the team."

The variety is what students like, said Will King, Denny Middle’s after-school-program coordinator.

"Some of the sports, the kids didn’t think they would like it," King said. "The boys weren’t too happy about yoga, but it wasn’t as bad as they thought."

Every week, Robles, who is in shoe sales at Nordstrom, puts together gift bags for the kids with items donated by suppliers and other merchants she hits up for help.

"As soon as they hear the program is about kids, everybody wants to give," she said.

For a recent session on golf, Robles brought a bunch of golf clubs she had bought for $3 each at Goodwill, and 100 red plastic balls. The kids stood on mats, facing a mishmash of targets like upturned gym mats and garbage cans.

Four volunteer coaches taught them where to put their feet, how to swing and set a bunch of balls in front of them. Before long, the room was raining red.

"You’re taking your life in your hands with some of these kids swinging for the ball," said John Yumel, a volunteer coach who works with Robles in the shoe department at Nordstrom.

"G-man! You ever golfed before?" he asked Gianni Thomas, 11.

"No!" Thomas said. "Just pinball. Or mini-golf."

Brianna Ford always thought golf was boring, so she never tried it before.

"But once you understand the concept and learn that you have to be in position and hit the ball … it’s fun today."

Sixth-grader Pamela Sanchez, 13, thought she had found a new sport.

"Other sports are kinda crazy," she said. "You rush around and get tired. But golf is relaxed."

Classmate Kara Broxey, also 13, would sign up again for Get Your Sport On.

"The fact that it’s fun and not a lot of torture is really, really great," she said. "Like the yoga. I never thought I would be that flexible."

The kids carry their excitement home. Suzanne Cullers had no idea that her Zach could swing a club until he took the golf course.

But not long after the golf session at Get Your Sport On, Cullers spotted Zach hitting golf balls with a neighbor girl’s club. She wasn’t using them and decided to give him her whole set.

Zach the Natural has been swinging ever since — save for the snow.

"He may turn into a golfer after all," Suzanne Cullers said. "Who knew?"

"At first, it was for the kids, and giving them the opportunity that adults have, plus two hours of extra attention," Robles said. "But after the first class, all the instructors were on cloud nine.

"And for me, it is an amazing feeling. I come out and feel like they have given me everything."

To see the story in its original format, visit the Seattle Times website.

The Kposowa Foundation, co-founded by Landmark Education graduate Sarah Culberson out of her commitment to people of the town of Bumpe and the country of Sierra Leone has launched its own blog, giving updates on the progress of the work being done there to rebuild the town and introducing visitors to the people of Bumpe.

When Culberson did the Landmark Forum, she summoned the courage to go find and speak to her long lost birth father, and in so doing discovered that she was in fact a princess of a tribe in Sierra Leone centered in Bumpe. The town had been devastated by civil war, so Culberson helped form the Foundation to help rebuild the town (See Landmark Education News’ previous stories about Culberson here and here). This video on the Kposowa blog shows the difference the reconstruction of the Bumpe High School has made in the lives of the people who attend. More information about Culberson and the work of the foundation can also be found at the Bumpenya website.