When we began USA Cares in March of 2003, it was intended to be, “regional” and “temporary”.
Nearly seven years later, it has turned into anything but. Our advocacy team just went over the $100,000 mark in support to those in our Warrior Treatment Today program with clients in 21 different states. We began that program in earnest in the first quarter of this year and continue to receive over 120 new clients every week—many of them sent to us by military related organizations, including the chain of command. We are poised to tell the world that we are now an official part of the Department of Defense “Real Warrior” program, assisting those who are involved with the care of our invisibly wounded.
So why is all this happening: Because of dedicated people like Karri, she joined USA Cares in 2007, as a Resource Coordinator in our family assistance center. The spouse of a soldier, she has watched him deploy to combat several times, and has moved her family in support of his career. She will be the first to say that she isn’t the “perfect” person, but there are only so many adjectives that describe what this one person did, one family at a time—2,669 times to be exact.
We work hard not to keep score with our resource coordinators because our clients, the military families we serve, are too unique and special to try to put them in a category of one size fits all. Rather, we track how we are doing to determine if we can do better. Karri didn’t keep score either. What Karri did was speak with each family she was assigned and treat them with the dignity they deserve—whether or not the reason they found themselves in a financial jam was due to poor decision-making or just bad luck. Right up until the week she left USA Cares to move her family yet again, she was working to make sure the process we all utilize was clear and properly implemented.
Along the way, as she worked with clients, Karri orchestrated grants from USA Cares in the amount of $620,926.50. And if that weren't enough, she coordinated with other charitable organizations to secure an additional $328,728.99. That translates into almost one million dollars worth of saving homes, keeping the lights on with food on the table, or working with a client to assist them in seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and/or traumatic brain injury. I have no doubt that by the time we close out the remainder of cases Karri was working, she will reach the one million dollar mark.
Most will never know all the lives she touched—the lives she changed. Karri appeared last year on a special holiday episode of the Steve Wilkos Show, representing USA Cares and having the privilege to actually meet one of her clients (segment follows). And just recently on the 2nd of October, Dennis Miller gave Karri a well-deserved “shout out” on his nationally-syndicated radio program, The Dennis Miller Show. It was a fitting salute to an amazing person who, while spending most of her time at USA Cares in a small cubical, worked with military families spanning thousands of miles.
Karri, I hope that one day our paths will cross again—you left many friends here in Radcliff, Kentucky along with very large set of shoes to fill.
On behalf of the two thousand, six hundred and sixty-nine families (which could be as many as seven thousand fellow Americans) I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and wish you God’s Speed.
Sincerely,
Roger Stradley
Founder
USA Cares
