The Veterans Club Dispatch – May 31, 2026

Veterans & First Responders Weekly Update

President’s Message

Community Matters

Last Friday evening, 28 veterans, first responders, and family members gathered for one of the finest dinner evenings we have shared together at The Veterans Club. Set in the beautiful conference center at the Best Western Plus in Coeur d’Alene, the evening reminded me once again how fortunate we are—not simply because of where we live, but because of the people we share this community with.

Russell and his team at the Best Western did an outstanding job taking care of us. They generously provided a room large enough to accommodate future growth well beyond our current attendance, seating capacity for 50+ guests, an attentive wait staff that saw to our every need, and a menu filled with genuinely excellent food. It was one of those evenings where conversation flowed easily, laughter filled the room, and relationships deepened around the table.

A special thank you also goes to Tim for helping coordinate such an excellent venue. You helped create something special.

That experience brings me to my first thought for this week’s newsletter: community.

We live in an extraordinary region, but when I speak about community, I want to go deeper than mountains, lakes, and beautiful scenery. I want to talk about people. The kind of people who quietly step forward to support one another. The kind of people who make room at the table. The kind of people who say yes when something meaningful needs help.

The Veterans Club is blessed with remarkable people—not only within our organization, but throughout the broader community that surrounds us.

The Best Western Plus demonstrates its commitment to veterans and first responders by consistently opening its doors to us. We can say the same for places like the Bunker Bar, Avondale Golf Club, Infinity Café, and the American Legion Post #143. These businesses and organizations exist to make a living and support their own operations, yet they generously donate space, time, hospitality, and resources so that veterans and first responders can gather, reconnect, and build meaningful relationships.

And the blessings continue.

Coming soon, the Elk’s Lodge of Coeur d’Alene #1254 has agreed to provide space for one of our upcoming Patriot Pour meeting locations and is already discussing ways they may support future dinners and meeting opportunities. That spirit of generosity matters more than words can express.

Simply put, we are blessed to have one another. But we are doubly blessed to live in a community willing to help create the spaces where connection happens.

Speaking of connection, I want to highlight two moments that reminded me this week why what we are building matters so deeply.

Jim Marymee joined us for dinner last Friday just one week after knee replacement surgery.

One week.

Why come out so soon after surgery? Because, in Jim’s words and actions, he simply did not want to miss an evening with his brothers and sisters at The Veterans Club. Think about what that says. Somewhere along the way, this stopped being “an organization” and became something much more meaningful: community.

I also want to mention Dan Blanchard and his wife, Nancy, who is currently facing a serious health challenge.

When word spread that Nancy had been hospitalized at Kootenai, something remarkable happened. Our chaplain team quietly mobilized prayer support, members reached out, and a steady stream of visitors took time to sit with Dan and Nancy at the hospital. No one was assigned. No one was instructed. People simply showed up.

That is community.

That is belonging.

That is people caring enough to step into someone else’s difficult moment and remind them they are not alone.

What we are building together matters on so many levels.

It matters personally because every week veterans and first responders gather for what I sometimes call our unique dose of emotional support (and no, I’m not talking about Tucker). We laugh, we share stories, we encourage one another, and—whether we say it out loud or not—we help carry life together.

It matters to our broader community because when veterans and first responders gather consistently, support one another, volunteer, mentor, and stay engaged, communities benefit. Healthy veterans and first responders remain role models, mentors, encouragers, and examples of service long after careers end.

And it matters regionally because business leaders, nonprofit partners, churches, civic organizations, and local venues continue stepping forward to help support something they recognize as valuable.

Every donated room matters.

Every cup of coffee matters.

Every prayer matters.

Every visit matters.

Every conversation matters.

Most importantly, every person matters.

Thank you to everyone who makes The Veterans Club possible—to our volunteers, facilitators, chaplains, chapter leaders, business partners, supporters, and to every veteran and first responder who simply keeps showing up.

What we are building together is important.

Because at The Veterans Club:

Connection saves lives.

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PATRIOT POUR MEETINGS

Tuesday Jun 2 @ 1100 – PF #1 at The Bunker Bar
Wednesday Jun 3 @ 0900 – Hayden at Avondale Golf Course
Thursday Jun 4 @ 0800 – CDA at Best Western Plus
Thursday Jun 4 @ 1100 – PF #2 at American Legion Post #143
Friday Jun 5 @ 0900 – Priest River at Infinity Cafe

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jun 7 @ 1600 – Patriot Cigar Night at Stogies & Stories (link)
Jun 13 @ 1000 – Kootenai County Sheriff Community Event (link)
Jun 13 @ 1200 – Women’s Veterans Day (link)
Jun 25 @ 1700 – Dinner Gathering (link)

Jul 25 @ noon – The Veterans Club 2nd Annual BBQ Celebration (link)

Aug 2 – National Night Out

Dec 5 @ 1800 – Christmas Dinner/Party (link)

For more event info, please visit www.theveteransclub.org/events/

For our full Google Calendar, please visit: www.theveteransclub.org/google-calendar/

Would you like your veteran and/or first responder event featured on TheVeteransClub.org and/or listed in our newsletter?  Submit a flyer with all information to info@theveteransclub.org.  All postings subject to editorial review.

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PATRIOT POUR is the heartbeat of The Veterans Club — a weekly coffee meetup where veterans and first responders gather for real conversation, steady encouragement, and authentic connection.  No dues. No pressure. Just coffee and camaraderie.  Click here to see all the locations:  https://theveteransclub.org/the-patriot-pour/ 

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One More Thing

Growth, Purpose, and Why We Keep Going

Over the next several months, The Veterans Club is going to experience growth. New chapters are forming. New Patriot Pour meetings will begin. New volunteers will step into leadership. New partnerships will emerge. As exciting as growth can be, I also recognize that for some people it can feel unsettling. When something becomes important to us, we naturally want to protect it. Some may quietly wonder whether growth will fragment the culture we have worked so hard to build or whether, over time, The Veterans Club might become something different than what we originally envisioned together.

Those are fair concerns.

Growth sometimes feels uncomfortable because it asks us to move beyond what is familiar. It stretches us. It asks us to trust systems, people, and processes that are still developing. But it is important to remember both what we are building and why we are building it. Your leadership team and Board of Directors care deeply about protecting the culture, relationships, and consistency that make The Veterans Club meaningful. We are not growing for the sake of growth. We are growing because what we have built works—and because far too many veterans and first responders still do not have access to it.

As many of you know, I tend to think like an engineer, and engineers like numbers. Numbers sometimes help tell a story that feelings alone cannot fully explain.

At its core, The Veterans Club is a peer-to-peer relationship support system. No therapy. No clinical environment. No institutional setting. Just real people sitting together in honest conversation, supporting one another through life. I will not bore you with the science behind how relationship-based support works or why our meeting structure matters, but I will tell you this: your Board of Directors takes these things seriously. Behind the scenes, there is thoughtful consideration given to the science of human connection, participation, consistency, and healthy growth. We evaluate what works, why it works, and how to expand without losing the heart of what makes this organization special.

Consider the scale of the need.

There are approximately 18.5 million veterans in America. Here in Kootenai County alone, there are roughly 22,000 veterans. Add to that an estimated 9 million retired first responders nationwide—police officers, firefighters, EMTs, dispatchers, corrections officers, and others who dedicated their lives to serving communities under extraordinary circumstances. Round the numbers together and we are talking about approximately 25 million Americans who served their nation and communities. Veterans every one of them.

And yet, every single day, approximately 30 of those men and women die by suicide.

That translates into roughly 10,950 lives lost every year.

Every one of us knows someone we wish could have found support sooner. Someone we wish had one more conversation, one more place to belong, one more reason to keep going. Many of us have quietly thought the same thing when reflecting on someone we lost: I wish The Veterans Club had existed soon enough to help them.

That is why we are growing.

We are not expanding because bigger sounds impressive or because organizations are somehow expected to grow. We are growing because we need a national infrastructure capable of bringing our unique style of relational support to veterans and first responders wherever they already gather. We believe people deserve a consistent place where someone notices when they are missing, remembers their name, asks how they are doing, and helps carry life alongside them.

Your Board of Directors has laid out an intentional plan: ten chapters by the end of 2026 and fifty Patriot Pour meetings throughout Idaho by the end of 2028. We plan to begin much of this work through relationships with Elk’s Lodges across the state. Why the Elk’s? Because the lodges already include many veterans, possess strong local leadership, established communication systems, physical meeting spaces, and deep roots in their communities. Just as importantly, the Elk’s organization offers regional and national conferences where we can share our story of hope, healing, and connection with leaders from communities across America.

Now let me share a little more engineer math.

Today, we currently operate five chapters averaging roughly fifteen attendees per meeting. That means about seventy-five veterans and first responders every week are sitting together around coffee tables, sharing stories, supporting one another, laughing, encouraging one another, and quietly building relationships that matter.

At fifty chapters, maintaining those same averages, we would be reaching roughly seven hundred and fifty people every single week.

And that number tells only part of the story.

Our meetings typically represent only about thirty percent of a chapter’s total engaged membership at any one gathering. Right now, more than 295 people receive this newsletter—people I consider part of The Veterans Club family. If those same participation patterns hold true at fifty chapters, we could one day be supporting an engaged community of well over 2,000 veterans and first responders across Idaho alone.

When viewed that way, growth stops feeling abstract.

Growth becomes personal.

Growth means more veterans finding community after retirement. More first responders rediscovering connection after stepping away from careers built around teamwork and service. More people finding purpose after loss, transition, injury, grief, loneliness, or isolation. Growth means more people finding a chair at the table and hearing someone say, “Glad you’re here.”

Now, I want to be honest with you.

The next several months may feel a little wobbly at times. New chapters require systems. New leaders need training. Communication grows more complex. Documentation increases. Strategies evolve. You will hear discussions about leadership development, fundraising, organizational systems, chapter support, future staffing, an Executive Director search, and many other efforts happening quietly behind the scenes.

That is not dysfunction.

That is the natural sound of a startup organization learning how to become healthy enough to accomplish something bigger than itself.

The good news is this: I believe in this team.

Your leadership team is already developing a chapter training program scheduled to launch in July to help new leaders succeed and help current leaders become even stronger in what they already do. Systems are being built to keep leadership teams connected to one another so they can encourage each other, solve problems together, and maintain the healthy culture we all care so deeply about.

Most importantly, growth does not mean abandoning culture.

Growth means protecting culture while making room for more people to experience it.

At the end of the day, The Veterans Club has never really been about coffee, meeting spaces, flyers, or organizational charts.

It has always been about people.

People who matter.

People who served.

People who sometimes hurt quietly.

People who deserve community, purpose, belonging, and hope.

Thank you for believing in what we are building together.

Connection saves lives.