Over the past year, several strong storms caused damage and power outages across Ohio. Every time, lineworkers and other employees of Ohio’s 24 electric cooperatives mobilized to restore power in their communities. If help was needed, they put out a call for mutual assistance, and crews from neighboring co-ops left their own homes and families to help get the lights on, safely and quickly.
Air Force veteran Bill Frost established what he originally called the Pickaway County Disabled Veterans Hunt in 2010 with just an idea, some public land, a handful of volunteers, and 10 hunters.
Frost says he founded the event because he wanted to give veterans with disabilities an opportunity to take part in one of his favorite activities, hunting, that they likely wouldn’t have otherwise. And he encourages veterans with all levels of disability to take part.
“They suffer daily with mental or physical things they have wrong with them because they served our country,” Frost says. “If you have any doubts about thinking you can’t go hunting because of your disability, whatever it is, I really want you to please reach out.”
Jason White still works every day to manage the symptoms and struggles that came home with him from Operation Desert Storm in 1993. Difficult as it can be, though, he knows that the love of his family makes him one of the lucky ones.
White has long done what he could to help fellow vets — for years, he donated modest proceeds from his YouTube channel to veteran-related causes.
In 2022, he told his wife, Angela, “I want to do something big for veterans.” Nearly four years later (their efforts were delayed temporarily when Jason had a heart attack shortly after his inspiration), the couple is an organizing powerhouse as the full-time volunteer operators of Riding 22 in 22 VSA, a 501(c)(3) organization that marries their desire to help veterans with their love of motorcycle road-tripping.
On Veterans Day, many people take time to thank those who served in the military. But for many veterans, the real thanks goes the other way — they are grateful they had the opportunity to serve their country, to be part of something meaningful, to grow as people, and to contribute to protecting the freedoms we all enjoy.
It was the pandemic that moved him to action. “I was just sitting around, getting outside, kind of bored,” he says. “We have a lot of space out here, and I started thinking I ought to put in a memorial for my buddies who didn’t make it back.”
And so, he did. With the help of landscapers, stonemasons, contractors, and monument-makers, Snyder funded and built an impressive military memorial right in his backyard.
