On Saturday, March 21st, we launched the IN THEIR BOOTS On the Road National Tour. The kickoff was the world premiere screening of our latest film, Broken Promise, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, California.We had a crowd of more than 100 people and many leaders from the veteran's community in Northern California were in attendance including Amy Fairweather the Director of Swords to Plowshares, LTC David Rabb, who is an officer who coordinates outreach to recently separated service members to help ensure they are connected with services, Joseph Babrow, Director of the Coming Home Project, Kerri Childress, with the Palo Alto VA's public affairs office, Rebecca Dominy, also with the VA, and of course, Fred Gusman, the Founder and Director of The Pathway Home.
On the plane on the way there, I read a Rand Corporation study on PTSD, Depression and Traumatic Brain Injury which contained the following sats: 1.64 million men and women have deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan since the beginning of the wars in those countries. An estimated 300,000 service members struggle with PTSD, many of them still deployed. 320,000 likely have a TBI. I wrote another blog for the Huffington Post on these disturbing numbers.
The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the challenges service members and their families face as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. The Daughters of the American Revolution turned out for the event and are going to help us spread the word about the issues raised in Broken Promise by making the event the topic of a special broadcast of a show they produce.
A French documentary film crew was also on the scene, and for a while, there were three cameras rolling in front of the Roxie before the film. This picture shows ITB Executive Producer Rick Perez mid interview, as Fred Gusman fields questions in the background.
Broken Promise contains criticism of the VA from veterans in Mr. Gusman's program so we invited representatives from the VA to speak to the crowd about what the VA is doing and has done to address some of the criticisms in film. They are doing a lot. ITB is going to be filming a supplemental clip from the VA so that everyone can learn about their efforts. One thing I want to mention now however, is that the VA has appointed an OEF/OIF (Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom) program manager in each of its hospitals. Now veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a point person who can assist them directly and make sure that they are receiving the quality care they have earned.
So, with San Francisco behind us, we set our sights on Houston where we are working with Project Victory and the Memorial Herman Hospital to build our second tour stop event, the world premiere of our new film on the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Traumatic Brain Injury.
The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the challenges service members and their families face as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. The Daughters of the American Revolution turned out for the event and are going to help us spread the word about the issues raised in Broken Promise by making the event the topic of a special broadcast of a show they produce.A French documentary film crew was also on the scene, and for a while, there were three cameras rolling in front of the Roxie before the film. This picture shows ITB Executive Producer Rick Perez mid interview, as Fred Gusman fields questions in the background.
Broken Promise contains criticism of the VA from veterans in Mr. Gusman's program so we invited representatives from the VA to speak to the crowd about what the VA is doing and has done to address some of the criticisms in film. They are doing a lot. ITB is going to be filming a supplemental clip from the VA so that everyone can learn about their efforts. One thing I want to mention now however, is that the VA has appointed an OEF/OIF (Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom) program manager in each of its hospitals. Now veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a point person who can assist them directly and make sure that they are receiving the quality care they have earned.
So, with San Francisco behind us, we set our sights on Houston where we are working with Project Victory and the Memorial Herman Hospital to build our second tour stop event, the world premiere of our new film on the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Traumatic Brain Injury.
