Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 3
>> number 3, consider and take appropriate action on the following, a, recognize the 2010 leap of the heroes wounded warrior project, and b, recognize the 2011 leap of the heroes ii wounded warrior project, October 7th outreach project opportunity.
good morning.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
mark sallow with the Travis County sheriff's office.
I want to thank you for taking the time to hear about our event last year and planned for this year.
I'm going to tell you a little about our event from last year.
our 2010 leap of the heroes event.
we're going to show a video compilations of that event and I'm going to tell you briefly about this year's event and I'm going to pass the mic to my esteemed colleague from the wounded warriors.
last year on September 10 the Travis County worked along with irene k.
mendez elementary as well as officers from the hays county sheriff's office, san marcos police department, Texas state university police department, martin dale police department, caldwell county sheriff's office, comal county sheriff's office, and the lockhart police department and I don't know if I failed to mention martin dale, but martin dale police department was also involved.
we hosted an event last year called leap of the heroes.
and basically working in concert the sheriff's office working in concert with san marcos put together a donation package to sons era empowering event and that was a tandem skydive to include a video of the event.
our partners and san marcos put together a barbecue lunch for everybody that attended.
the wounded warriors and their families.
what we did was we met the wounded warriors, their staff, their families at san marcos police department.
and a police escort escorted the wounded warriors.
working with a wonderful principal, sandra reyes, put together a presentation with the students.
they wrote the wounded warriors cards and letters.
they sang them a song, proud to be an american.
they had a nice presentation with them and the san marcos administration.
following that event, policees court took them to skydive san marcos where we hosted a lunch and for the rest of the day a tandem skydive was provided for all wounded warriors in attendance.
I would ask if they could put the video on and please make sure the audio is up.
sheriff hamilton got a wonderful audio for the individual from a local group called phillips, craig and dean and it's a wonderful, wonderful song.
it works very well with the i.v.
video.you will see the star of e video, juan, with the video.
play it now if we can.
__ __ __
>> [ applause ]
>> this year's event is on October 7th, same -- basically the same itinerary.
the irene kate mendez elementary school is pumped up.
I think they will have two grades to do the presentation this year.
principal reyes is on board 100%.
our partners in the hays county, comal county, caldwell county area are on board as well to help us out with the initiative.
we put out the flyer yesterday looking for donations on the sheriff's office and we'll be putting it out hopefully this week on the county system as well.
and a special shoutout to you Commissioner Davis for your help last year.
appreciate it.
>> let me ask you a question.
as far as ensuring that we have an opportunity to get more participation, especially on the financial end, do you have specific website, Travis County website that you can go to to create such an event to maybe assist in more contributions?
>> well, on the flyer the -- there's specific directions on who to make the check out, make the check out to the wounded warrior project and mail the check to me.
I'm the liaison.
we'll be working with our community outreach to see if we can get it on the Travis County website.
>> it will be good to do that, I think, as an addition to whatever existing website that's out there that you can maybe link to this.
and of course, if it's the sheriff's portion of it, you know, I'm on board with it, but just that you need an adequate linkage for folks to have the necessary information to contribute because it is a great cause and it's a great expression.
I really appreciate it.
>> thank you, sir.
at this time I'll turn it over to juan arredondo, wounded warrior american hero.
>> hello, everybody.
I'm u.s.
army retired sergeant juan arredondo.
spent seven years in the military.
and I want to thank the major and all of the law enforcement agencies that were involved in this event.
this is very important to the soldiers as far as the community getting involved because we're seeing what a soldier doesn't want is to be forgotten about what he did and.
and this experience gave the soldiers involved with the children at the school, with the law enforcement agencies, with just the public, and it brings back a lot to them because it lets them know that they don't need to be ashamed of their wounds or of their injuries and they can get out in the public and still do things and show them that, you know, that they can still do everything that they -- I did it missing an arm, you know?
one of the guys on the video lost a leg while sky diving, but we found it.
>> [ laughter ] I wanted to point that out.
>> [ laughter ] yeah.
only we could see that, misplace our prosthetics.
but they had fun.
the smiles, the expression you saw on my face, it was -- you know, it was great.
>> we want to thank you for your service and it's a great program.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> there are a lot of people who would pay big money to see that.
>> [ laughter ]
>> and our county judge!
>> also, we might want to talk to judge denton as the judge presiding over the v.a.
court, the veteran's court, because he actually used to jump out of planes for the military.
yeah.
I think it would be wonderful to have the presiding judge over the vet court do it as well.
>> any way we can assist to -- I would appreciate it.
again, I want to thank you for your service.
that's very important.
and --
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you for your service.
>> thank you very much.
keep up the good work.
>> [ applause ] we will take number 4 next, then we'll call up 14.
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