We spent March 20-22 working to remove trash and coastal litter from the environment at Gateway National Park.

There is plastic everywhere in trees and wrapped around shrub limbs.

What used to be someone’s boat.

Up and off the beach

This sofa was soaked and heavy – especially when it came to getting it over the side of the dumpster.

A close up look at how the wind wrapped the plastic on the trees and shrubs – looks tied on.

In the sand right above high tide.

We did not use much finesse on this dock – it was hung up and

we used the truck and a chain to rip it apart.

Pulling apart the second half of the dock

Before final disassembly

The remaining pieces of the dock being removed from the beach and taken to the dumpster we had there

Washed up fishing line deposit station -was saved for reuse.

A boat that will never be used again.

These two docks remain on the beach – the park utility pick up truck did not have 4 wheel drive.

Picking up the small stuff is just as important as removing the

washed up structures and large items

This is a small stretch of clean beach created through the hard work of the volunteers and park rangers.

A full trash dumpster – we also left a large debris pile on the road that will be picked up by NY Sanitation.

Charleston based Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is heading up to the Superstorm Sandy impact area to assist in cleanup and beach restoration efforts. Rudy Socha, CEO of Wounded Nature – Working Veteran is recruiting veterans and volunteers from around the country to work in Gateway National Park from March 20-22, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Gateway National Park was hard hit by the storm and much of the park has remained closed since. “We need to recruit a hardy group who can work in any type of weather” states Rudy Socha “Veterans have experience working in adverse conditions and will show up regardless of weather. While we hope for three days of sunshine, it is entirely possible we could encounter 3 days of rain or even a late snow”.

“We welcome any and all non-veterans who have a love for nature and the environment to join us in this vital restoration work. If someone cannot make it to assist on this project, they can support us by donating to help cover our ongoing expenses”.

“We will be working each day from 8 am until 2 pm trying to get as much of the coastline cleaned up and restored as possible. This will allow everyone to spend the afternoons and evenings exploring and enjoying New York City. The more volunteers we have, the more we will be able to accomplish. Funding for rural coastal cleanups and restorations is extremely limited at the local, state and federal level, and in many cases it is non-existent.”

“Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is happy to be able to assist in this phase of assisting the Sandy impact area return to normalcy. Until we can locate sponsors for boats we are limited to being able to tackle about 10% of the coastal areas needing our assistance. Currently our clean-up efforts are limited based on available volunteer boats and workers for each project. While in the greater NYC area, we hope to surface one or more corporations or high net worth individuals willing to sponsor a boat and crew for one year.”

Volunteers and donors can find details on the Wounded Nature – Working Veterans web site: http://woundednature.org/ship-schedule/january-feburary-march-2011/

Clean-up Boat Primary Sponsorship Proposal

Index:

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. Branding – Victory Vessel and Crew
4. Crew Events and Appearances
5. Audience Draw and Contest
6. Generating Media Coverage
7. Penetration
8. Opt In Email and Cell Phone Text Capture
9. State by State Events and Appearances
10. Cost
11. Contact
Appendix A

1. Introduction
Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is the only organization utilizing veterans and water based vessels to clean up the environment, provide first stage employment opportunities for veterans, and educate the public on a year round basis.

As a result of 10 years of economic depression funding for waterway and beach clean-ups has been either drastically cut or totally eliminated in the federal, state, and local budgets. As a result of these severe cuts, the only beaches being cleaned are the main public beaches where voters frequent. The beaches being cleaned happen to be areas that wildlife avoids because of the number of humans occupying this area. The areas that wildlife has migrated to, use for breeding, and raising their young are not being cleaned. This results in an accumulation of trash that wildlife eats, becomes entangled in and is an aesthetic eyesore to what should be a pristine area.

Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is working to address this problem by utilizing houseboats to transport workers into these clean-up areas, encourage public involvement in clean-up efforts, and education through public appearances by the clean-up crews. Veterans will be hired and utilized as crew members.

The houseboats will travel and clean areas along the entire east coast from Maine to Key West, FL.

Wounded Nature is working to make the East Coast become the showcase for displaying to the world how to solve the problems of reducing waste and the rate of unemployment for veterans. Your brand can become closely associated with this campaign and all of the positive connotations associated with it.

Wounded Nature – Working Veterans will have 4 boats moving up and down the East Coast cleaning beaches, visiting military bases, and educating the public at port festivals.  Individual vessels will have their own sponsor and be branded by the sponsor.

Wounded Nature – Working Veterans will also have one boat on the West Coast.  This boat will be focused on cleaning up the tsanmi trash combined with the trash that has already accumulated over the past several years. 

Due to weather and water conditions on the West Coast a Nordic Tug will be used in place of a houseboat.  As a result this increases the total annual operating cost for our West Coast clean-up vessel to $2.2 million total.

This opportunity will expose our sponsor’s brand to over 830 million views over the course of a year. Sponsor synergy and many social media components are not yet quantified, but could equate to an additional 20 million exposures per month bringing the total number of potential exposures to over one billion views for your brand.

This sponsorship exposure will have a greater value than many traditional advertising views because the majority of our exposures will be generated in the form of news reports, articles, and social media marketing in the context of endorsements; “should have been there,” “should have seen this,” or “make sure you attend.”

This sponsorship associates your brand year round in a high publicity context that is supporting a clean environment, veterans, and our military. It is our intent to help you sell your products, services and increase market share.

Not only is this proposal a great advertising vehicle that justifies ad dollars based on exposure, but it will also create a tremendous amount of political goodwill. Our sponsors will be able to tell East and West Coast politicians that their company is cleaning up their state at no cost to the state while also working to boost their economy by soliciting veterans and environmentalists to attend our events and participate in the beach clean-ups.

2. Overview
Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is a non-profit organization which evolved from the need of a solution to two substantial issues:

First, it has been discovered that plastic pollution in the ocean does not decompose as quickly as marine researchers once thought. As plastic breaks down slowly in the ocean, smaller particles are mistaken for being small particle food sources such as plankton and fish eggs, and ingested by ocean animals. This causes death due to blockage of the ocean animals digestive and circulatory systems.

The beverage industry estimate that over the next 3 years 600 billion containers will be sold and only 200 billion of those containers will be recycled. Currently 74% of Americans have access to curbside recycling yet only 33% of beverage containers are being segregated and recycled. Wounded Nature – Working Veterans will be working to improve the total percentage for plastics being recycled. The opportunity exists to prevent up to 400 billion beverage containers from being littered and reaching landfills.

Second, veterans returning to the United States from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing employment discrimination, due to a falsely perceived risk of emotional instability. The national rate of unemployment among returning veterans is about 4 percent higher than the rate for civilians, and in some states, it is up to 15 percent higher. As a result, each veteran who is unable to successfully transition into the civilian workforce ends up on disability, which ends up costing the American taxpayers 2.1 million dollars over their lifetime.

Wounded Nature – Working Veterans is the first organization to benefit both causes of cleaning up pollution in the ocean and also granting unemployed veterans jobs. In doing so, Wounded Nature – Working Veterans secures a unique position in the non-profit sector. Our vessels make it possible to access remote beaches and estuaries along the East and West Coasts that have previously been untouched by other groups staging clean-ups. Through collaboration with the Veterans Administration we hire veterans to remove the plastic, trash and medical waste from these rural beaches. Not all of the veterans we hire will have been injured during their tour of service. The veteran’s employment with us provides them with their first civilian paycheck and aids their transition into the workforce. For many of our workers, the first paycheck is symbolic of the end of a long and difficult journey to reintroduction.

Our year round campaign includes: launching beach clean-ups, visiting military bases and hospitals, and educating the public at port festivals. We will contact the major local media outlets in each state before we dock, and offer two major networks the opportunity to live aboard one of our boats for two days during our visit. Our staff will document and promote our journey through press releases, staged media events, the internet and social media, and each of the veteran workers aboard the ship will have the opportunity to set up personal blogs. In many ports, the presence of the boats will lead to other attractions being booked around our visit.

3. Branding – Clean-up Boat and Crew
We will have 5 clean-up boats with each one honoring that individual boat’s primary sponsor. The boats will be 50-55 feet in length, outfitted for saltwater use and have a cruising speed of 10-12 knots. In fair weather the ships will move along the coast in the open ocean within two miles of the shoreline. During days of threatening weather, the East Coast boats will utilize the intercoastal waterway.

Each clean-up boat will have a crew of four. There will be a USCG licensed captain and 3 crew members. The captain will be responsible for the overall maintenance and supply (food, fuel, fresh water) of their vessels at each stop. The 3 crew members will be veterans and will be the ones actually making the personal appearances. For some events the vessel captain will also appear with the crew.

The primary sponsor will be responsible designing the “skinning” of their boat. The sponsor will also have the opportunity to name their boat.

The team for each boat can be outfitted by the sponsor to wear the sponsor’s corporate colors and brand. The crew members from each vessel will be referred to as “Team Sponsor” For example if Pepsi supports a Victory Vessel, that boat would be referred to as Team Pepsi and the entire crew would be outfitted in Pepsi branded clothes. Another crew may be Team FedEx, etc.

The sponsor can outfit the crew members for their sponsored vessel. If the sponsor does not wish to handle this, Wounded Nature will outfit the crew and include the sponsors brand on all of the shirts and jackets.

Sponsors can sell their branded outfits including the Wounded Nature – Working Veterans logo on their web site. It will further reinforce to your customer base your company is commitment to the environment and veterans.

4. Crew Events and Appearances
Each team will be the focal point for the public at each stop. Teams will be encouraged to acquire supporters and followers to show up at their appearances. This will be done via media interviews and social media marketing.

At each appearance, our crews will work to convey 6 important messages:

1. The public needs to reduce consumption of “throw away” items with an emphasis on Styrofoam, plastic bags, and plastic bottles.
2. The public needs to recycle those plastic items it does use.
3. The public needs to stop littering. Cigarette butts, bottle caps, plastic bags, and Styrofoam pose the greatest health hazards to wildlife.
4. Our sponsor companies work to reduce consumables, make their facilities green, and recycle to minimize output to landfills.
5. Employers need to hire veterans who have recently separated from the military.
6. Our sponsoring companies hire veterans and gain valuable team contributors as a result.

Whenever possible, crew members will be available at each port to make appearances in support of their sponsoring brand. This could entail private parties, special appearances away from the main event, or special media interviews set up by the sponsor.

5. Audience Draw and Contest
Using the clean-up boats to identify ourselves, we will draw the participation of large crowds by sponsoring contests. The contests, geared toward fun without the chance of injury to anyone, will tie in with our blog and social media campaigns, while generating a substantial amount of local and national publicity.

The contest will be established in conjunction with our sponsors and be geared towards increasing attendance and publicity at each event.

We would also ask the audience to utilize social media to get the word out for each contest. The judges (one representative from each of our sponsors) along with the audience will decide the winner for each location. We will then ask the public to vote each month on our web site for a state winner. Each voter would have to sign in and we would have an opt-in box for them to allow each of our primary sponsor’s companies to contact them directly.

6. Generating Media Coverage
Becoming the primary sponsor for Wounded Nature – Working Veterans, and branding the Victory Vessels will generate a substantial amount of continuous positive publicity over the course of an entire year. Our publicity efforts will reach into traditional, digital, and social media platforms.

Because we advocate for both marine wildlife and former members of the military, our support base is enormous, and the support base has room to grow in several directions. Our goal is to generate publicity through as many media outlets as possible. To do so, we will be utilizing the following media venues to reach as many people as possible:

TRADITIONAL

TV – The clean-up boats are a natural for TV news shows because it presents a great visual. We will invite a TV crew from a couple of stations in each state to live aboard with us for two days while we are in their state.

The Military Channel has already committed to producing a special show covering our launch, and documenting the selecting of our inaugural group of veteran workers.

Newspapers and local magazines – We will list our appearances and events in their community calendar sections. We will also be profiled in post-event articles describing our work serving each paper’s local, state and national communities.

Public Appearances – In addition to the port festivals and military base appearances, we will send crew members to visit local colleges, public aquariums and hospitals.

DIGITAL

Twitter – Our press releases, blog postings, and daily updates will be utilized to keep our followers and supporters updated via Twitter’s RSS feed.

Blogs – We will have several blogs with daily postings.

Google, Yahoo and Bing news archives.  Every time a WNWV press release is posted on the web site it will automatically be indexed into the news archives for distribution by Google and other news services.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook – Recently, Facebook surpassed Google for usage and popularity. WNWV will use its Facebook presence to advertise as well as solicit donations. At each event, we will invite the public to have their photo taken with our Victory Vessels and crew and share that photo and our web site with their Facebook fans.

YouTube – We will have videos of life aboard the Victory Vessels, and of our events and contests posted on YouTube.

7. Penetration
This sponsorship will expose your brand 830.2 million times over the course of a year. The majority of those exposures will be in newspapers, magazines, online and on TV. Exposure for our sponsors will have a greater value than many traditional advertising outlets since the majority of our exposures will be generated in the form of news reports, articles, and social media marketing in the context of endorsements; “should have been there,” “should have seen this,” or “make sure you attend.”

Wounded Nature – Working Veterans ships will attend at least 14 -16 port festivals annually, visit at least 15 military facilities, and perform a minimum of 35 beach and estuary clean-ups. The port festivals will draw between 10,000 – 250,000 per event along with a significant amount of media coverage. The beach clean-ups combined with offering the media the opportunity to live aboard our ship will generate a maximum amount of positive publicity for your brand. The initial impression for newspaper and television is the result of the total combined news viewership per state is as follows:

FL – 18 million
GA – 7 million
SC – 8 million
NC – 5 million
VA – 7 million
DE – 3 million
NJ – 9 million
NY – 15 million
CT – 6 million
RI – 2 million
MA – 4 million
NH – 2 million
ME – 1 million

The above figures (87 million) show the immediate reach for projected newspaper (40%) and television (60%) coverage.

The subsequent follow-on reach due to newspaper and television articles being archived, or appearing on Twitter, and Facebook are as follows:

Newspaper article archives are retained for 2-4 weeks. For newspapers the average number of unique visitors to their site each month is 3 times their weekly circulation rates. Throughout the month they will average the same amount of repeat visitors. This provides newspapers with a total reach of 7 times average weekly circulation over the course of a month. This presents the potential additional exposure to 243.6 million readers.

Television stations are the wild card and their numbers and archiving methods vary widely. They retain aired news articles for anywhere between 1-8 weeks and their monthly web visits vary between 2-20 times the average nightly news viewership based on Nielsen ratings. Based on this variance, we are using 4 weeks for archiving and 8 times nightly ratings for averages. This provides the potential additional exposure to 417.6 million viewers.

Magazine coverage – Wounded Nature – Working Veterans will work to obtain article coverage in environmental, boating, fishing, marine, business, veteran, military, regional and national magazines throughout the year. Magazines have a pass along rate average of three readers per subscription. Combined, these magazine articles will generate an additional 32 million readers. The combinations of Marine, Army, Air Force, and Navy Times magazines alone will generate over 6 million potential views.

In addition to the above, we will have blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo News, Google News, among other social media avenues producing at least a potential 50 million views over the course of the year long sponsorship.

There are many additional factors that cannot be predicted or quantified at this point. Combined, this could amount to a combined additional 20 million brand views per month. Our unknown exposure predictions include:

- Sponsors efforts to promote their association with Wounded Nature – Working Veterans. This could take place in the form of commercials which include their houseboat, web site links, contests, etc.

- National news based on boat followers. We will invite boaters, fishermen, retirees, and veterans to travel with their boats and to schedule their vacations to accompany us as we move up and down the East Coast. Once we accumulate over 100 boats traveling with us, media coverage will be national with all of the major networks covering our mission.

- Independent blogs and social networking sites covering our contest participants and their followers, the boaters following us, and any land followers we acquire.

- YouTube. This is a big unknown with tremendous potential. All of our events will be videotaped, edited and submitted to YouTube. Not only will we be submitting videos but so will our followers and contest participants and their families. If a video goes viral due to humor, tragedy or of great interest by the general public then it will generate millions of hits and stay active throughout the internet for years. The average videos tied into us will generate thousands of hits based on key words alone.

- Military Channel, which has committed to covering our launch. Ratings will determine if any follow on shows occur.

Combined, without the inclusion of our unknowns, your brand will be exposed 830.2 million times over the course of this year long sponsorship. This is an exposure cost of $17.16 per thousand.

If we achieve our best case results of 1.07 billion exposures, your CPM will be $13.31.

Typical Advertising CPMs

Outdoor = $1-5 CPM

Cable TV = $5-8 CPM

Radio = $8 CPM

Online = $5-30 CPM

Network/Local TV = $20 CPM

Magazine = $10-30 CPM

Newspaper = $30-35 CPM

Direct Mail = $250 CPM

Personal Appearances and Vehicle Appearances = $1,000 CPM

With Wounded Nature – Working Veterans’ sponsorship, the majority of those exposures will include newspapers, magazines, online sites and be on TV. Our exposures will occur within some of the most expensive advertising real estate with the majority of the views appearing in the context of news articles and social media endorsements.

These media projections for brand exposure do not incorporate any West Coast publicity.  We will not be able to project a clean-up schedule until the debris field pattern becomes better defined. 

8. Opt In Email and Cell Phone Text Capture
Wounded Nature – Working Veterans will, through contests, appearances, and publicity, work to capture email address and cell phone numbers. There will be a separate opt-in feature for each of our primary sponsors to obtain permission for sending our followers special offers and announcements.

In addition, we will utilize our social media avenues to generate opt-in sign ups.

9. State by State Events and Appearances
Listed in Appendix A are the military bases and ports we will visit as we enter each state. Actual scheduling will depend on available dock space and the event organizers. Due to the number of military bases and ports, we will have to rotate appearances in some states.

In each state, the beach clean-ups will be scheduled during the week and will be used to generate publicity for our weekend port docking events, which will each last about 2-4 days

At each port we will make our clean-up boats available for our primary sponsor to host a lunch aboard. The sponsor will be responsible for supplying the food and beverages with our crew assisting to host their customers.

The schedule of locations to be visited and the month of visit are included in Appendix A.

10. Cost
This sponsorship opportunity is a terrific value for both exposure (total number of eyeballs on your brand) and image. This opportunity will associate your brand in a positive context with a cleaner environment and will show support for our military and its veterans.

Since each clean-up boat has to be custom manufactured to meet our needs and branded to represent your brand, cash flow is spread out over 15 months. That makes this sponsorship easy on your company’s cash flow. The cost for the first 3 months is $175,000 per month. The cost for the next 8 months is $100,000.  The last 4 months, your cost is $75,000 per month.

Year two costs will be 15% less than year one. As we sell memberships, obtain grants, and acquire secondary sponsors the annual operating costs associated with each clean-up boat will decline.

11. Contact:

Rudy Socha
CEO / Wounded Nature – Working Veterans
P.O. Box 20363
Charleston, SC 29413-0363
Cell 440-452-1042
rudy@woundednature.org

Appendix A

Appearance schedule for Victory Vessels:

January – West Coast Florida

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Port of Tampa, Tampa, FL
Port Manatee, Palmetto, FL
Port of Panama City, Panama City, FL
Port St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL

Military Bases:
MacDill AFB, Tampa, FL
Coast Guard Air Station, Clearwater
February – East Coast Florida/Florida Keys

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Port of Miami, Miami, FL
Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Port Canaveral, Cape Canaveral, FL (the second busiest passenger port in the world)
Port Fernandina, Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, FL
Port Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, FL
Port of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
Port of Key West, Key West, FL

Military Bases:
Patrick AFB, Brevard, FL
Tyndall AFB, Panama City, FL
Naval Air Station, Jacksonville
Naval Air Station, Key West

March – Georgia

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Savannah, GA
Brunswick, GA
Jekyll Island, GA

Military Bases:

Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Camden County, GA

April – North Carolina

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:

Beaufort, NC
Morehead City, NC
Wilmington, NC

Military Bases:
Camp Lejeune, Onslow, NC
Ft. Bragg, NC (we would bus our crew out to FB for the day)

May – DC/Maryland

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Ocean City, MD
Baltimore, MD
Washington, DC

Military Bases:
The Pentagon, Washington DC
Walter Reed, Washington DC
United States Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC
Washington DC Navy Yard
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD
Fort Meade Army Base, Odenton, MD

June – Delaware/New Jersey

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Lewes, DE
Wilmington, DE
Cape May, NJ
Newark, NJ

Military Bases:
Dover Air Force Base, Dover, DE
Coast Guard Training Center, Cape May, NJ
Naval Weapons Station Earle, Colts Neck, NJ

July – Rhode Island/Conn

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
Newport, RI
Woods Hole, RI
Warwick, RI
Misquamicut, RI
New Haven, CT
Bridgeport, CT
Stamford, CT
New London, CT
Mystic, CT

Military Bases:
Naval Station Newport, Newport, RI
United States Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT
Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, CT
Fort Hamilton Army Base, Brooklyn, NY
The United States Military Academy, West Point, NY (we would bus our crew to this base)

August – Mass/New Hampshire/Maine

Ports:
Boston, MA
Plymouth, MA
East Dennis, MA
Provincetown, MA
Nantucket, MA
Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Gloucester, MA
Portsmouth, NH
Hampton, NH
Portland, ME
Bar Harbor, ME
Rockland, ME
Eastport, ME
Freeport, ME
Kennebunkport, ME
Portland, ME
Bangor, ME

Military Bases:

Southeastern New England Coast Guard Base, Woods Hole, MA
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, ME
Naval Air Station Brunswick, Brunswick, ME

September – New York

Ports and downtown areas providing dockage:
New York City, NY
Manhasset Bay, NY
Flushing, NY
Port Washington, NY
New Rochelle, NY
Rye, NY

Military Bases:
Fort Hamilton Army Base, Brooklyn, NY
The United States Military Academy, West Point, NY (we would bus our crew to this base)

October – Virginia

Ports:
Norfolk, VA
Virginia Beach, VA
Hampton, VA

Military Bases:
Langley Air Force Base, Hampton, VA
Fort Monroe, Hampton, VA
Fort Eustis, Newport News, VA
Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA
Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Norfolk, VA
Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA
Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, VA

November – South Carolina

Ports:
Hilton Head, SC
Charleston, SC
Beaufort, SC
Murrels Inlet, SC

Military Bases:
Charleston Air Force Base, Charleston, SC
Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Beaufort, SC
Naval Weapons Station Charleston, Charleston, SC
Fort Jackson US Army Training Base, Columbia, SC (we would bus our crew to this base)

December – Overhaul/Maintenance

*This is a starting point and adjustments to the schedule will be made as new opportunities present themselves.

Saturday, August 4, 2012, 9:00 AM

at

Bush Law Group, PC

3 Broad Street, 4th Floor

Charleston, SC 29401

Present:
Kimberly Bush
Richard Bush
Carolyn Darrow, by phone
Matt Lipkin, by phone
Stacy Pearsall
Rudy Socha
Jeff Stevenson
Kevin Sullivan, by phone
Lou Winoski

Absent:
Jenny Bush
Jeremy Cage
John Dillard
Lee Kelley
David Neblett
Jared Slovan

The meeting was opened by Rudy Socha. A Rondee conference call was set up for those unable to attend. Charleston, SC is the home port of Wounded Nature—Working Veterans.

Main agenda items:

Board Seat Renewals and Term Extensions

Boat Sponsorship Status

January Fundraiser

Finances

General Discussion

Board Seat Renewals and Term Extensions

Jeff Stevenson and Matt Lipkin were both up for renewal and were approved unanimously. The Board also approved an increase of officer terms to two (2) years, noting that Jeff may not be able to step up to President on that schedule due to work responsibilities.

Rudy is also talking to Doug Kelley, Business Leader for Production at Boeing, about taking a position on the Board.

Boat Sponsorships

We need $1.5 million per boat sponsorship.

The CEO of Subway (an Army vet) has shown some interest in boat sponsorship beginning with local promotion of our events and local (Charleston area) store participation transferring to nationwide participation.

The Board Chairman of Chesapeake Energy is a former Marine and has an interest in boat sponsorship.

Rudy is talking with both of these men to try to secure a sponsorship.

January 2013 Fundraiser

The WN-WV fundraiser will be January 26, 2013. The website, http://woundednature.org/attend-our-party/ will carry all pertinent information.

Kim has secured The Omar Temple Hall for the event. Barefoot is supplying the wine and champagne for the party, Bacardi is supplying the rum and rum drink demonstrations, and Sweetwater Brewery will supply the beer. Barefoot will also tag their retail sales bottles in the Southeast to announce the party and promote ticket sales.

The attendance goal is 800 with a ticket price of $100.

We do need donations of auction items large and small for both the silent and live auctions to be held during the party.

Finances

We continue to be open to any and all various paths of sponsorship as we push to fund the first boat. Once the first boat is funded, it should be easier to secure sponsors for the remaining boats.

Rudy and Jeff are investigating some grants form Google.

Rudy continues to reach out to corporate sponsors.

General Discussion

We continue to use student interns for social networking and as a means to collect public donations. Local volunteers could provide increased exposure for us by donating their time, not dollars.

Stars & Stripes is a female veteran-owned marketing firm in San Diego. They have expressed an interest in finding a CEO for a high tech company to solicit donations for a west coast boat.

Pin-ups for Patriots are calendars distributed to military personnel serving overseas. They may have some of their pin-ups attend the party.

We would like to place our logo and a link to the WN-WV site on as many corporate sites as possible. Kevin will investigate placing the logo on the Green Mountain coffee site.

We will try to continue to increase the number of non-board member volunteers that could be retirees, military spouses, or students. Our current interns are from The Citadel and from the College of Charleston.

We will hold a short Board meeting by phone on October 6, at 9am to provide everyone with an update on the boats and party. The next full Board meeting will be held the morning of January 26, 2013, since everyone will be in town for our fundraiser.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Darrow

at

Bush Law Group, PC
3 Broad Street
Charleston, SC 29401

Present: Kimberly Bush            Absent: John Dillard
Richard Bush                                                  Matt Lipkin
Jeff Stevenson                                                Stacy Pearsall
Rudy Socha                                                      David Neblett
Carolyn Darrow                                              Kevin Sullivan

By phone: Jeremy Cage
                      Lee Kelley

The meeting was called to order by Rudy Socha. A conference call was set up for those unable to attend. Charleston, SC is the home port of Wounded Nature—Working Veterans.

The Friday evening “Meet and Greet” was held at The Citadel , Mark Clark Hall, Rm #230(171 Moultrie St., Charleston) 4:30PM-6:30PM. Beverages and appetizers were served.

Main agenda items:

New Board Members

Boat Sponsorships

Finances

New Board Members

Jenny Bush is with Cummins, Inc. and is the General Manager for Commercial Marine Business located in Charleston, SC.

Jared Slovan, DDS, is a Cosmetic Dentist in the Charleston area. He has always had a keen interest in everything outdoors.

Both board candidates were presented and approved.

Boat Sponsorships

We need $1.4 million per boat sponsorship.

Since the “Fox and Friends” Sunday morning broadcast earlier in March, there has been increased interest in WNWV.

Rudy is talking with several retailers regarding register donations at the checkout with collections used for boat sponsorship. Other large companies such as Walmart and grocery chains could be approached for the same type of donation. This giving plan could be a win/win for WNWV and the retail partner. Jeremy suggested we check out company websites to find their “hot points” regarding their mission for possible sponsorship interest, and maybe target regional chains that might not have as many programs already in place.

Jeff suggested that any register donations be conducted around a holiday that is meaningful to veterans such as Memorial Day, July 4th etc.

Rudy has also been in contact with Coke as a result of the “Fox and Friends” bottle cap segment for boat sponsorship.

Jeff stated that Google has increased involvement in programs for veterans over the last several months, but with guarded optimism for sponsorship.

Lee brought up investigating the “Joining Forces “ initiative.

David is working on fundraising toward sponsorship in Florida.

Finances

We continue to be open to any and all various paths of sponsorship as we push to raise the funding for the first boat. Once the first houseboat is funded it should be easier to secure sponsors for the remaining boats.

Richard will review our WNWV website donation page. Our 501c3 status should allow donors to receive a receipt with our tax ID number for their gift.

We need to capitalize on the name recognition and excitement we gained as a result of the Fox broadcast.

General Discussion

Kim suggested reusable grocery bags as a method of branding in local grocery chains.

We may be able to interest companies such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Cabella’s, and/or Gander Mountain to participate in some way.

Discover will do a documentary about WNWV on their Military Channel as soon as we have our first boat in the water.

Rudy now has some contacts at CNN that he can interest in coverage of our first boat launch.

Cummins Marine Division will help us to maintain the engines of our vessels.

Richard suggested we increase the number of non-board member volunteers that could be retirees, military spouses, or students. We currently have interns from The Citadel and from the College of Charleston.

Kim will try to organize a group of military spouses and appoint a coordinator from the group to work on projects in the Charleston area. We need to constantly be aware of trying to increase our name recognition.

Richard has donated the use of an office, phone, and office equipment in his firm as Rudy sees necessary.

Jeff is expecting Google to donate the laptops in this quarter.

Carolyn will investigate and apply for a listing in the CFC Catalogue.

Rudy has a meeting with Bank of America in regard to a property donation for office space.

A Charleston Fundraising Party with tickets at $100 each will be organized for next winter.

Rudy will contact everyone with the date and time of the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 10AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Darrow

I tried to notify as many people as quickly as I could, but as luck would have it, I could not get my screen to come up on my laptop.  This prevented me from having access to contact information for a lot of people I had asked to watch or attend the broadcast.  I was unable to get this computer issue resolved until more than 48 hours later.

To all of the people who came out in the cold rain to support us, thank you for doing so and on behalf of Fox and myself: we are sorry if you were inconvenienced by the cancellation.

I want to thank our scheduled guests: Mayor Tim Goodwin: Board members Stacy Pearsall, Kimberly Koth, Jeff Stevenson and South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rescue Program Manager, Kelly Thorvalson.  I hope everyone will be available once again on March 11^th.

A special thanks to the Charleston Post and Courier’s Tom Clifford and Dave Munday for publizing Fox’s visit, promoting us, and inviting their readers to turn out for this event.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/feb/18/fox-crew-to-visit-folly/

I would also like to thank my daughter Kelly, and her friends Jason and Tarrah who took time off from work and drove down from Ohio to assist with the live remote.  Also, my girlfriend, Sue and all of her family who gave up their weekend to show support for and assist Wounded Nature – Working Veterans.  Thanks Greg, Tiffany, Gage, Kevin and Crystal.  All of us made the best of the bad weather by attending Folly Gras and took full advantage of not having to get up at 5 am for the show.

After this weekend’s dry run, we are optimistic and very much looking forward to Rick Reichmuth’s visit to Folly Beach, March 11^th

^{Rudy Socha
rudy@woundednature.org}

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 7:00 AM

Present:  Richard Bush                                    Absent:  John Dillard
                Jeremy Cage                                                     Lee Kelley
                Carolyn Darrow                                                Stacy Pearsall
                Kim Koth                                                            Kevin Sullivan
                Matt Lipkin
                David Neblett
                Rudy Socha
                Jeff Stevenson

The call was initiated by Rudy Socha at 7AM.

Statement of Ethical Standards

As a result of Rudy speaking with an IRS attorney and our insurance company, a new Statement of Ethical Standards was drawn up and presented as a Board Resolution.  All members had received it prior to the conference call via e-mail for review.  We had a quorum on the call (recorded by Rondee receipt) and it was approved by voice vote with no objection.

Kata Bags
Stacy has secured an arrangement with Kata Bags (photography bags) for us to receive $5.00 per bag sold and registered, up to a total of $20,000.  Kata Bags expects to reach that goal in the first quarter of 2012.

Google
We will be receiving a $10,000 per month grant from Google that Jeff was able to arrange for advertising. We have had a number of problems  implementing this and have been working with Google to resolve the problems.

Charleston Postcard Company
Wounded Nature-Working Veterans T-shirts and auto stickers are being designed and produced by Charleston Postcard Company.  They will be sold through a wide variety of retail outlets, to wholesalers, and also online.  For T-shirts we will receive $2.00 for each retail sale and $1.00 for every wholesale transaction.  Stickers will give us $1.00 and $.50 respectively.  Charleston Postcard will represent our brand on a non-exclusive basis for two years, helping to generate awareness for WN-WV.  The products should be available for sale in 3-4 weeks.

Copyright Filings
Richard Bush and his law firm in Charleston will be handling these filings at no cost to WN-WV.

Estate Planning Gifts
The Estate Planning pages are active on our website now.  Richard is serving as the legal point of contact and Carolyn as a general point of contact. 

General Discussion
Rudy has also spoken with LifeLock, an identity theft prevention company, with regard to customer donations.

Jeremy requested that we improve our internal communication in regard to what is working and what is not working as we speak with potential sponsors and donors.  As we move forward, sharing this information via e-mail will help everyone fine tune their approach.  If necessary we will have another conference call toward the end of January, 2012.

Next Meeting
The next meeting of the WN-WV Board of Directors is scheduled for the week-end of March 23-25, 2012 in Charleston, SC.  Friday evening, 6PM-8PM, a meet and greet reception will be held for Board members and their guests at Citadel.  The Board meeting proper will convene at 8AM on Saturday at Mill House.  At some point over the week-end anyone needing a photo for the website can arrange to meet Stacy at her studio, Charleston Photography, to have one taken.  The Board members residing in the Charleston area will look into a possible group activity for the week-end as well.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Darrow

Watch as Mitt Romney is asked to support the Air Force PRIOR to assuming the presidency. Will Governor Romney use his campaign funds to help clean up the environment, support our veterans, and at the same time generate a tremendous amount of publicity for himself?

Let’s wait and see what answer Mark Plante, an unemployed Air Force Veteran and New Hampshire voter receives from Governor Mitt Romney.

To view Wounded Nature – Working Veterans complete boat sponsorship proposal, go to: http://woundednature.org/sponsoring-one-of-wounded-natures-vistory-vessels/

WounderNature 501C3 Letter from IRS

To view our IRS Publication 78 listing online, go to:

http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/search.do?nameSearchTypeStarts=false&names=woundednature&nameSearchTypeAll=false&city=&state=All…&country=USA&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=search&submitName=Search

Charleston Center for Photography owned by Stacy Pearsall and her husband, Andy Dunaway, hosted our very first “meet and greet” on Friday evening, August 19th. As people arrived and were introduced to each other it became apparent that the diverse group would enjoy the casual gathering over wine and finger foods. Stacy took photos of everyone in attendance to update the website. The highlight of the evening was a power point presentation of Stacy’s time as a combat photographer.

The board meeting proper began at 7:00 AM, Saturday, August 20, 2011 in the Rutledge Room of The Mills House Hotel. All necessary business was conducted, and board officers and terms were decided with Kevin Sullivan serving as the first Chairman of the Board. An active discussion followed regarding funding and the launch of the first Victory Vessel. As the business portion of the meeting concluded, Tripp Hays presented a brief history of Charleston and of The Mills House Hotel. Some then wandered across the street to lunch at a popular Charleston restaurant.

Since most people not from the Charleston area had flights Sunday afternoon and evening, a Sunday morning group activity was planned. Charleston SUP Safaris at Folly Beach taught everyone to stand-up paddle board. Sounds intimidating but with some good instruction from Jon, everyone did better than they expected and thoroughly enjoyed the morning. The group said their good-byes and headed home looking forward to the progress of WN-WV and the next board meeting.

Saturday, August 20, 2011, 7:00 AM

 The Mills House Hotel, Rutledge Room
115 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC  29401

Present: Jeremy Cage                                      Absent: Lee Kelley
                  Carolyn Darrow                                                David Avellar Neblett
                  John Dillard
                  Matt Lipkin
                  Stacy Pearsall
                  Rudy Socha
                  Jeff Stevenson
                  Kevin Sullivan

The meeting was called to order by Rudy Socha.  Charleston, SC is the home port of Wounded Nature—Working Veterans.

The Director notebooks were reviewed including:

    Articles of Incorporation
    Directors and Officers Insurance
    Agreement between Wounded Nature.org and WNWV Marine, LLC

The Board was seated and officers were appointed.

     Chairperson…..Kevin Sullivan (3 yr. board term)
     Vice-Chairperson…..Jeff Stevenson (1 yr. board term)
     Secretary…..David Neblett (3 yr. board term)
     Treasurer…..Matt Lipkin (1 yr. board term)
     Director…..Jeremy Cage (2 yr. board term)
     Director…..John Dillard (2 yr. board term)
     Director…..Lee Kelley (1 yr. board term)
     Director…..Stacy Pearsall (3 yr. board term)   

The board terms range from 1-3 years, and members are able to be re-elected.

Ethics

Statements of Ethical Standards were reviewed and signed.

Finances

Financial needs and the projected income statement were reviewed based on the operation of 5 houseboats each representing a branch of the military.

Many options were discussed regarding the sponsorship of the vessels.

     One sponsor per boat

     Initial sponsorships could be broken down into shorter time periods to lower the barrier of entry into sponsorship

     Possibly each military branch could pay to have it’s flag flown on the vessel

     Military organizations (eg. VFW, DAV, American Legion) could be contacted at the local and/or national levels for sponsorship

     Port –of-call sponsorships need to be considered

We need to be open to any and all various paths of sponsorship as we push to raise the funding for the first boat.  Focus should be on company’s advertising budgets not donation budgets since the advertising dollars are usually much greater.

Jeremy showed the beginnings of a Power Point presentation for a marketing package.  Everyone agreed that it would be advantageous to have that marketing tool available as we secure funding especially for the first boat. 

Victory Vessels

Three houseboat manufacturers were contacted and considered.  Gibson Boats is the only one that could meet our needs to build a V-hull boat for salt water use.

It would take 60-90 days to build a new vessel to our specifications with 8 bunks, galley, salon and helm station.

Guide Star

Guide Star rates non-profit organizations based on the percentage of dollars spent on public relations/marketing.  It takes about two years to be rated by Guide Star and this rating is very important to potential donors.

501c3 Status

Rudy will submit the documentation to file as a 501c3 next week.  It can take 60 days to get a response.  We currently have a Certificate of Authority in SC.

Board Responsibility

Provide guidance to WNWV in all aspects of launch and continued business.

Introduce WNWV plan to business contacts to secure support for this project.

Hire an Executive Director.

Donor Recognition

We need to determine appropriate gifts to be given to members/donors at each giving level.  It was suggested that volunteers manage this program, possibly headed by spouses of board members.

General Discussion  

Walt Boomer, a retired Four Star Marine General has recently raised $60 million for The Marine Heritage Museum, even during this unstable financial time.

The Veterans Administration Under Secretary would like to attend our next board meeting and do a 30 minute presentation.  The VA will screen our potential veteran employees.

The Military Channel will profile WNWV and do a one-hour program after the purchase of our first boat.

We will have 5 Victory Vessels.  Customs and the Coast Guard has classified them as uninspected passenger and housing for the employees.  The captains will need a 6-pack license and will be the only employees to fall under the Jones Act.  The remainder of the employees will be considered land-based employees.

StarBoards would like to book their events around our travel schedule for increased publicity.

Wendy’s and Discovery Channel have both voiced an interest in having someone on our board.  Thad Allen, Retired USCG Commander, who managed the Gulf Oil Spill may be interested in a board appointment.  Rudy will be in contact with them.

Jeff is confident that Google will be able to help in many ways (computers, advertising, software, etc.) as soon as we have our 501c3 status.

Jeremy stressed and everyone agreed that we need a working timeline and detailed work plan as we move forward.  We are looking at receiving 501c3 in Oct/Nov then pushing toward funding for the first boat with an expected spring launch.

Companies may donate marine items such as electronics in exchange for plaques identifying them as the provider.

Ocean City has asked if we could be there for Memorial Day as they expect 50,000 people for their festivities.  We would also try to coordinate with the East Coast boat shows as we travel.

College of Charleston or Citadel Students would be ideal volunteers (performing community service) to address the internet social networks.  Stacy will contact Citadel regarding student interns that are passionate about a program to benefit veterans.

A used boat that can be refurbished might be a less expensive and therefore faster way to get the first boat in the water.

Tripp Hays of The Mills House Hotel stopped by the meeting to give us some history of Mills House and Charleston.

A recognition event and fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, November 8, 2012, at The Mills House Hotel.  Tickets to this initial fundraising event will be $100.00.

(A board meeting will be held at that time as well for Nov. 2012.)

Our next Board meeting will be a conference call on Saturday, November 19, 2011, at 7:00 AM.  The next meeting will be as a group in Charleston in March, 2012.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Darrow

Charleston, SC – Operation Iraqi Freedom disabled combat veteran, Stacy Pearsall, teamed up with country music legends, Radney Foster and Darden Smith, to write a song about her experiences as a combat photographer titled, God Challenged Me. This song, along with five other songs also co-written by combat veterans on theFaces of Freedom album, is now available on i-Tunes. Pearsall, a 12-year veteran and now Charleston small business owner, operates the Charleston Center for Photography located at 654 King Street Suite D in Charleston, South Carolina.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/faces-of-freedom-ep/id460671403

God Challenged Me was written during a music camp hosted by the not-for-profit organization, Life Quest Transitions, just outside of Vail, Colorado. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, by singer Ashley Arrison. The collection of songs will be sung at the Faces of Freedom Concert to be held on September 11, 2011, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. From there, the concert will take a nationwide tour.

About Charleston Center for Photography

Charleston Center for Photography provides photographic education and support to the Southeastern U.S. by supplementing arts education for schools, re-education programs, furthered education for photographic professionals and technical training for all levels of photographers. In keeping with this mission, we support educational and photographic charities with similar goals. We strive to set a high standard for novice and professional photographers operating in the Southeast. We are the Center for Photography. For more information, go to: www.ccforp.org