Cold Call

One thing I perfected early on in the life of VAP was the "Cold Call".  It was actually a tactic I used extensively when I was in the Army planning missions as a singleton operator. I was often out in the middle of a city, all alone in a foreign country, and charged with successfully completing some of the most exposed and dangerous missions the US government asked of the military. I was given plenty of training but at the end of the day, it was me out there mustering up the courage, motivation, and resources to pick a part every piece of fabric to arrive at the intended goal.  This training and ultimate necessity proved a huge benefit in building VAP to what it is today.

Fall, 2009 - I was sitting in my hotel in Lakehurst, NJ as part of a Temporary Duty (TDY) trip for my company and wondering "what now".  I had been out of the military for about 9 months, seemingly living large with a good-paying defense contracting job, and all I could think about what was how do I get back to the creativity that had been a such a huge part of my life. The idea of VAP, or as the working title had it at the time - "Veterans Create" (that is a whole another story and best left to another blog post) was really only an idea and definitely not fully formed as an organization.  Up until then, I had spent most of my time researching what was out there in the "veteran artist" industry in order to see if I could fit into it somehow. The truth is there wasn't much at all and only a few individuals, some of who had small organizations associated with their craft, but nothing like it is now in America.

One of the groups promoting veterans in the arts is the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, sponsored by the VA, who hold competitions throughout the country at VA Hospitals who then send their most talented veterans, many of whom are still recovering from injuries, to perform in front of live audience at different locations each year. I found the number of the National Director, Elizabeth Mackey, and "cold-called" her with nothing more than a dream of what VAP could provide to the veteran community.  We talked for about 20 minutes and it affirmed my desire to move forward and the need for an organization like VAP to help bridge the gap between the military and artistic experiences. During the phone call, Elizabeth was extremely encouraging and said she had only heard of one other group that was hoping to accomplish the same goal and they were a writer's group out of Philadelphia.  She gave me a couple leads with names and emails and the rest is history.

The lesson I take away from those early days in VAP's life is don't assume that someone else is already doing what it is you want to accomplish.  The hardest thing to do in life is take a good idea and turn it into reality.  However, it only takes one phonecall, or one connection, to make that dream come true. The landscape of the veteran artist community has changed drastically in the last 2 years.  While I will never know everyone who was thinking the same thing as me during that same time, I will always be able to say I stepped up and did my part to make change, create good, and provide opportunity for others to succeed in individual goals and dreams.  I am so thrilled and humbled to see the dozens of organizations that exist today that are promoting the Veteran Artist.