24
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Cash donations critical
for veteran charity
Veterans: Nonprofit
takes disabled into
field and stream
Continued from page 1
stepped up,” Miller told The
Nugget. “They’ve given basi-
cally a $3,000-a-year product
grant.”
That grant covered a
15-by-27-foot outfitter’s tent.
That’s important because
it “enables all the veterans
to be under one roof during
hunting season instead of
having to provide their own
tent,” Miller explained.
Local donors have also
stepped up.
H o y t ’s H a r d w a r e &
Building Supply is providing
the lumber to finish off the
tent setup, and Sisters Ace
Hardware donated cookware
and tent carpet. Robinson &
Owen Heavy Construction
offered up a Honda genera-
tor; Takoda’s will provide
pizza; Three Creeks Brewing
Co. will provide beverages
and Cork Cellars will provide
wine.
Hop n Brew donated cof-
fee and the Sisters Area
Chamber of Commerce and
Sisters’ Shell station donated
fuel cards.
Warfighter Outfitters is all
about veterans helping other
veterans. The organization
has an all-veteran board, and
Many outfits, from
national chains to Sisters
Country businesses, have
stepped up in a big way to
support Warfighter Outfitters
with in-kind donations.
Those donations have
help make a major elk-hunt-
ing trip for disabled veter-
ans happen this month (see
story, page 1).
But cash donations
remain critical to getting
veterans out on the water or
into the woods. And a little
bit goes a long way.
According to Warfighter
Outfitters president Brett
Miller, it costs about $150
per day to send a group of
four veterans down one
of the region’s rivers for a
fishing trip. So a relatively
modest donation can do a
lot.
Miller told The Nugget
that he’s got steelhead trips
booked in coming months
but doesn’t have the cash to
fund them, so donations are
needed.
S i n c e Wa r f i g h t e r
Outfitters is a completely
volunteer nonprofit, dona-
tions go directly to serving
the injured veterans.
“Every single cent of that
money goes to operations,”
Miller said.
There is a PayPal button
on the website at www.war
fighteroutfitters.org, or you
can make a donation at U.S.
Bank in Sisters.
For more information
email warfighteroutfitters@
gmail.com.
for Warfighter Outfitters’
Jeep, which will allow Miller
to take wheelchair-bound
veterans ice-fishing and out
for spring bear-hunting.
For an in-depth look
at the work of Warfighter
Outfitters, go to Youtube
and search for the 15-min-
ute documentary video
“Warfighter Outfitters —
Goin’ Down the Madison.”
For more information visit
www.warfighteroutfitters.
org and www.facebook.com/
warfighteroutfitters.
To inquire about donat-
ing or volunteering for camp
cooking duty email warfighter
outfitters@gmail.com.
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
photo by Jerry Baldock
Brett Miller was at the Sisters Harvest Faire to take donations for the
veterans charity he leads.
Miller himself is a wounded
Iraq War veteran. Veterans
who have suffered serious
injuries — some of them dis-
abling — and post-traumatic
stress benefit greatly from
getting out on the water to
fish and into the woods for
some hunting.
Warfighter Outfitters has
developed equipment and
protocols to mitigate disabili-
ties to get veterans out doing
what they love. The idea is to
get them to where they can
pursue their hunting on their
own.
“The guys just love being
outside, being in a hunting
camp,” Miller said. “It feels
like an operation to them.”
The camaraderie of a
hunting camp or a drift boat
trip is therapeutic. Veterans
feel comfortable among
others who have had simi-
lar experiences and faced
similar dangers and diffi-
culties — and they tend to
open up.
“Half that magic happens
around the poker table or the
campfire,” Miller says.
For that reason, Miller
seeks to keep the experience
“as all-veteran as possible.”
Miller also told The
Nugget that an anonymous
donor from the East Coast
paid for a set of truck tracks
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