When a veteran has no one to rely on, taking care of their animal is very important.
The Business Coalition for Veterans is a nonprofit outreach of Destiny Church that has sought to help veterans in the community for nearly eight years. Founder Anthony Brando said that his mindset in creating BCV was so that veterans were treated well, and not how they were when he was growing up in the ’60s and ’70s.
“You might not believe this, but veterans were turned down jobs, they were refused housing, they were ridiculed and signs, you know, bad signs, cursing veterans out, spitting on them,” Brando said. “It’s hard to believe the way we have come around full circle today, to think that that existed 60 years ago in America, but it did. And so I’ve taken on the mantle to never, ever — anything that I could do, to never let that happen again, to our country and to our veterans serving, I would do whatever I could.”
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Anthony Brando, center, holds up a check for $500 dollars he received from Tiffany Square for the Business Coalition of Veterans.
Some of what the BCV offers is to pay for food, clothing, bills and any other needs that veterans could have. According to Brando, this help extends past the veteran and to their families as well.
The outreach even tries to help out the animal companion for veterans. Brando has a relationship with Voice for Companion Animals and Parks Veterinary that allows him to help veterans with any pet bills.
“I could just call Parks Veterinary and say a vet’s coming in with an animal that needs shots or needs a checkup, or any need there is for the animal, and they’ll … say no problem,” Brando said. “They have an account set up for me, and they just take my debit card on their account and they’ll just bill me. And to have that kind of trust factor makes my job so much easier.”
It’s not just veterinary bills, though. Recently, BCV put together a foster care program to help out a veteran and his service dog, Ody.
Ody the service dog.
The veteran currently lives in the VA transitional housing program and was not allowed to leave Ody unsupervised. However, the veteran also wasn’t allowed to bring Ody to work, which put him in a tough situation.
According to Brando, the veteran was in contact with a family the outreach had previously helped, and they told him, “Hey, call chef [Brando], I’m sure he’s going to help you.”
Brando, himself a Navy veteran and owner of three cats, understands the importance of having a loving companion.
From Brando’s experience, a lot of veterans, whether from PTSD, their upbringing, or bad relations, end up having nobody in their life. This loneliness leads to them having a difficult time opening up about their problem.
“It’s always easier to close up and just walk away, to try and get through your problems. I know that for a fact, it’s harder to work through a problem for a lot of people, so they just forget it and just pretend it’s not there and it’s ‘I’ve been this way alone for many years, I’m comfortable,’” Brando said. “But once they get that animal and they start feeling unconditional love from the animal — which really we should, we should unconditionally love each other more as humans, but we don’t — so to get that unconditional love from an animal, it’s just like a whole new world opened up for a veteran who thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to be alone, I’m going to die alone.’”
Knowing the importance that unconditional love can bring to veterans, Brando wants to make sure that their animals are cared for.
“When a veteran has nobody, and they’re just hunkered down and locked up in their apartment and they’re not going out,” Brando said, “taking care of their animals is really important.”
So, Brando helped look for a good foster home for Ody, reaching out through social media. It didn’t take long for people to offer and to find a good temporary home for Ody.
“It just so happened that this veteran family that I’ve known for a long time, they are now foster caring for his service dog,’” Brando said. “On his days off, he gets to have the dog, and then when he goes back to work, five days, they take care of the dog during the week.”
According to Brando, the veteran was blown away by the support he received and telling him, “I can’t believe this has happened this fast.”
Anthony Brando (center) receives a cookie cake during one of the Business Coalition for Veterans’ fall bonfire hangouts.
Brando feels very blessed to help out veterans through BCV, whether it’s their animals or their bills. As a Christian, Brando believes in making the most of his time on Earth and taking care of his fellows in the hopes they can spread kindness to others.
“People who know me personally say, ‘I don’t know how you do it, chef, I mean I would have walked away a long time ago,’ but that’s not the answer,” Brando said. “Walking away is not the answer to helping a person who’s struggling emotionally, mentally, PTSD-wise, financially.”