Wounded Nature—Working Veterans Board of Directors convened for the first time in their home port city of Charleston, South Carolina. Rudy Socha, CEO is currently residing in the Charleston area. Two board members, Stacy Pearsall and Jeff Stevenson are from that area as well, and the other meeting attendees began arriving Thursday evening, August 18, 2011. Charleston extended a friendly, southern welcome to all.
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.
