Twenty-five years ago, we weren’t social workers. We weren’t non-profit executives, and we certainly weren’t experts in disaster relief. We were just golfers. When the world changed on September 11th, 2001, we didn’t have a grand strategic plan. We just had a shared feeling that we couldn’t sit on the sidelines. We had to do something. We had our clubs, a local course, and a simple goal: use the game we loved to show one family that they weren’t alone.
Learning by Doing-When we hosted that first tournament on November 29, 2001, we were flying blind. We didn’t know the “correct” way to run a charity—we just knew that a young family had lost a husband and father, and we had the means to help.
What we lacked in professional experience, we made up for in intent. We learned that: You don’t need a degree in sociology to offer a hand to a grieving neighbor. u don’t need a corporate background to organize a community. You just need a mission that is bigger than yourself.
A Legacy of “Showing Up”- We called ourselves 9/11 Help America and started documenting our journey on a simple webpage, mostly so we wouldn’t forget what we were trying to do. We thought we were just documenting a moment in time; we didn’t realize we were writing the first chapter of a 25-year story. www.911helpamerica.com
Today, looking back over two and a half decades, our lack of “experience” turned out to be our greatest strength. It kept us grounded. It kept us connected to the people we served—the families of the fallen and the veterans of subsequent wars—by approaching them not as “cases” but as fellow citizens. The lesson of the last 25 years is simple: You don’t need to be an expert to make an impact. You just need to show up.
Our Best Teachers: Our Veterans
One of our first “teachers” was Claudia Carreon (Islas), whom we met in 2007, our first female combat-wounded veteran. Claudia was injured in a head-on collision while driving in a fuel convoy. The accident resulted in a brain injury, the loss of her long-term memory, seizures, fainting spells, and debilitating headaches. Perhaps most devastating, she lost the memory of who she was before the injury.
Despite these hurdles, Claudia’s journey is a testament to the human spirit. Today, she is a successful businesswoman who owns and operates Churros El Rey, a catering business in Tucson, Arizona.
While her memory has improved slightly, challenges remain.
If you’re in the Tucson area, look up Churros El Rey, and say hello
