Wounded Warriors Weekend provides worry-free retreat for service veterans

Each year, veterans suffering from PTSD are invited to the Wounded Warriors Weekend where they learn its ok to not be ok. The weekend is free for all vets and to help subsidize the event there are people like Rick Burnett who put in countless fundraising hours.

Burnett started fundraising for Wounded Warriors Weekend three years ago and said he doesn’t do it for the praise, instead he does it for veterans like his father. His most recent fundraiser, held on April 9 brought a few hundred people together for a night full of stories and entertainment.

Blake Emmons, founded Wounded Warriors Weekend four years ago to provide a retreat for military and emergency service veterans who suffer from PTSD.

“Personally, I felt…forgotten. We do a great job on Remembrance Day but what about the rest of the guys who are home? Particularly those like myself with PTSD?” Emmons said. “Friends in Nipawin, we got together and instead of having 10 or 12 the first year, we had 112. Then it grew, word got out, people like Rick (Burnett) here, the Legions saw how we saved lives.” 

During the evening, Emmons shared stories of different veterans who came to him confessing suicidal thoughts. But thanks to the Wounded Warriors Weekend, they didn’t.

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“The most memorable short letter was ‘Dear Blake, thank you, thank you, thank you. I sent the man I love to your Wounded Warriors Weekend and you sent me back my husband.’ I mean WOW, the transition for that young man,” Emmons said.

In 2013, Wounded Warriors Weekend presented Joe Rustenburg, a veteran from the Afghanistan War with a service dog to help with his anxiety and flash backs. On April 9, Burnett presented Rustenburg with a cheque for $600 to help pay his expenses.

“I’m…I’m…Words are hard to come by. I’ll be forever grateful for the kindness of the community and for people like Rick. It’ll help me and my dog a lot. Food’s expensive. It would bring tears to my eyes but I have a hard time with that and my wife does enough crying for me,” Rustenburg said.

Joining Rustenburg at the fundraising night, were other veterans including Frank Tomkins; a WWII veteran. By the time Tomkins was old enough to enlist and finish his training, the war had ended. He shared some of his stories from the time including how six of his brothers and 27 extended family members served in the war. Three of his school friends lied about their age just to be able to serve.

“The worst thing I remember was those three friends, two were killed in Altona and the third in Holland. I was fortunate to visit the one who died in Holland and that has affected me a great deal,” Tomkins said, wiping away a tear.

Tears turned to laughter when Tomkins said he likes to think Hitler heard he was coming and shut the war down before he got there.

The Wounded Warriors Weekend is scheduled annually in Nipawin during the August long weekend.

cswiderski@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @coltonswiderski