S2:E15 From Pain to Purpose - Karly Gadell with Plus One Heroes

Military Spouse Karly Gadell joins us this week to share her mission and purpose behind starting the Plus One Heroes nonprofit. While Plus One Heroes is a relatively new organization, it has been growing and helping many people facing crisis when they needed it the most. Mission Statement:  Plus One Heroes is a 501(c)(3) organization, founded a fellow military spouse, Karly Gadell. Plus One Heroes provides immediate financial assistance to military spouses and families facing crisis, ensuring they receive the support they need, when they need it most. They are dedicated to bridging the gaps in emergency aid, advocating for the spouses and children behind the uniform, and strengthening the military community through swift, compassionate action. One of their newest Plus One initiatives are MilSpouse Survival boxes. The hope is that these boxes will provide some joy during extended TDYs, Rotations and deployments.    Plus One Heroes Highlights:  In just under a year, Plus One Heroes has secured nearly $85,000 to support military families in moments of real need. During the government shutdown, our partnership with the Rate Foundation helped us distribute $50,000 in commissary gift cards to more than 500 families across all branches. For the holidays, we received an additional $10,000 through Rate’s Reindeer Ruck program, supporting Fort Leavenworth families facing especially difficult circumstances and recognizing three outstanding military families for their service and volunteerism. One of the most meaningful parts of this year has been launching our Plus One Wish Program. Our first wish, “Claire’s Wish,” was for a military child battling terminal brain cancer to return to Hawaii and make one more memory with her family. We raised over $10,000 to make that happen and she’ll be traveling in May. After sharing her story, the Army Golden Knights even stepped in to fulfill her dream of skydiving. We just wrapped up another campaign for the CW2 Berton and his family. CW2 Berton  is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. Wr raised $8,500 to help his spouse and their  three young children navigate relocating to DC from Germany in a matter of days for her husband to start treatment at Walter Reed. We are currently raising funds for a Gold Star child, who lost her Army dad this past February. We are giving this preteen a special room makeover during the month of April, in honor of month of the military child.    #militarychild #veteranvoices #veterans #militaryspouses #veterannonprofits #veteranorgs