Thanks to Impact Radio Group CEO Darrell Calton and KQBL APD Brenda Mee for sharing this great story about how they helped a local family. The Tillery Fund is a fund in the Boise community started to honor the memory of Joshua Tillery who died when the helicopter he was piloting was shot down in Iraq during a 2009 combat mission. The radio station became involved with the organization two years ago when morning hosts Kevin and Brenda Mee were invited to emcee their annual “Crawfish Feed” fundraiser. What they pulled off this year was simply outstanding. Shortly after the “Crawfish Feed,” Brenda Mee was contacted by WendyJo Ackley who’s family had been personally “adopting” military families and veterans for over 20 years in order to assist them with gifts and essentials each Christmas. The Ackley family was also motivated to do their volunteer work by the loss of a family member in the military. However, they did not have official charity status and they were in need of publicity and volunteers so Brenda arranged for both groups to meet and merge their resources and efforts. Now each holiday season, KQBL “101.9 The Bull” invites listeners to nominate military families and veterans in need through the “Adopt-A-BULL Family for Christmas” program. Submissions are made through the www.boisebull.com website and applications are also submitted through the local Army and Air Guard’s Gowen Field Family Services Department.
Once the nomination forms are screened and verified, Kevin and Brenda get to work on the air and on social media to let listeners know what’s needed. Brenda tells Radio Ink that gifts are nice but essentials are also covered. “They found out that a young veteran (early 30s, married w/3 young children) relied solely on a wood-burning stove to heat his family’s home…but he was out of wood.
The veteran is “medically retired” due to back injuries he suffered during a deployment in Afghanistan and his disability paychecks are being held up for about the next six months as they go through the VA system. Kevin and Brenda put the word out about the situation and immediately got a phone call about a home in the small rural town of Emmett that had five trees that had already been cut down on a vacant property.
They contacted the city clerk’s office, got the property owner’s name, then went on the air and asked if anyone knew this person and could they please call in regarding harvesting the wood from the trees. Within minutes the owner had been located (he was up in the hills on a hunting trip!) and he gladly offered up the trees to be used as firewood.
Kevin and Brenda told the Bull listeners that they needed help getting the donated trees
cut up, hauled, and stacked. Just two days later they were shocked when they arrived at the home to salvage the trees and were met by over 50 volunteers with wood splitters, chainsaws, axes, trucks and trailers ready to work. (CHECK OUT A VIDEO OF THE VOLUNTEERS HERE.) Within four hours 15 cords of wood were processed and delivered — enough to keep the veteran’s family warm for the next 2-3 years!
The Tillery Fund is a charity that is entirely staffed by volunteers and 100% of all donations benefit Idaho’s military families and veterans year round.
