Where did you serve and what did you do?

Fort Hood 2009-2013 / Engineer 21R

How are you Still Serving?

I clean up trash around my neighborhood

Why do you do it?

I have been disabled since my deployment in 2009. In the almost 15 years of my injury getting worse and worse to the point where I was pretty housebound, my mental state was suffering severely. I was finally able to get my pain under control, and while my injury still limits me, I have much more freedom being able to not only get around my house and take care of my family better, but I have been able even take my dog on walks. And that’s when I started noticing all the trash around. Trash that may have fallen out of a bin, or a paper towel caught by the wind. Candy trash, cigarette butt’s, I’ve even found someone’s picnic dinner once with a half a plate of beans. So what use to be the dreaded police call has become something much bigger for me. I know how much of an impact I am having on the environment around my neighborhood, and in return I have seen such an improvement with my mental health.