Come to Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii. We have a wonderful show for you today. I have to say that a few weeks ago, I got very involved in the Wounded Warriors Project. I felt that I needed to do something for them. And as you remember, we had Dave Livingston on our show and then we had Bob McDermott. And they kept telling me about the Navy League. You've got to see what they do at the Navy League. And I did. And I decided that we should get involved. And Sue and I joined the Navy League, mainly because of the Wounded Warriors Project, because I felt we needed to help in some way or whatever way we could. And I'm working on that as part of my foundation. So I decided to ask Jane Ferreira, who is the Executive Director of the Navy League, to join us. And thank you so much for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you for asking me and having me here. I just think it's fascinating that here in Hawaii that you have approximately 2,000 members in the Navy League. And you're supporting maybe up to 100,000 people here. Yes, exactly. And yet a lot of us in the world that are not military really don't even know much about it. So it's very important that we tell everybody what the Navy League does. So tell us a little bit about it. Well, the Navy League has three missions. To support those who serve and their families. To go to more leaders through our youth leadership programs that we offer. And to communicate to our public and to our legislators the value of having free and safe seas. And your mission statement is doing that, but you do a lot more than that, obviously. It's all part of what we do. Everything we do directly serves our mission statements at one way or the other. We're very focused on that. So we keep very focused on our mission at all times. Well, the Wounded Warriors Project obviously is very close to my heart because as you know we have a program called Make Him Smile where we play music. And we've been up to Tripler before to play and we see all those soldiers there. And boy, it's hard to keep a dry eye. It really is, Jane. It's very, very difficult. They're amazing young men and women who have sacrificed a lot. And so it's important for us to be involved. And it's actually not the Wounded Warrior Project. That's a different program. Ours are friends of Wounded Warriors, Winterward Wounded Warriors. Tell us about it. That's the kids who are in the program at Kanyohi Marine Base. So it's the Marines out there. And they come from all over the Pacific because of the shifting in numbers and places. Now they have a lot of kids that come in from Guam and Japan, maybe even Korea, that are within our packed fleet or our AOR area of responsibility for the Navy and the different services in Asia-Pacific. So we will get kids that come in who have special needs. And Wounded Warriors are those who are wounded, ill, or injured. So we have families that come in who have kids that have cancers or parents or families. So it's because healing is a family, is a family role. And it's very important. It's critical, every part of that. So it is a family. And we bring in the family to help support the person who is sick or injured to get through the treatment that they need. It's wonderful. I was at Schreiner's Hospital just the other day and we were playing and there was a couple and he was in his military uniform and I asked him about it and we were, his child had just had some surgery done at Schreiner's and I asked him about it and he was, he talked about the Wounded Warriors project as one of the projects that he himself feels has been so beneficial in helping keep his family together. You also work with the spouses, right? Yes, we work with the spouses from the senior listed down through the lower listed ranks and the officers. And we meet probably once a month to talk about how do we engage the younger families to stay on top of what's happening with the Navy or the Marines or the Coast Guard so that they can kind of anticipate what's coming and no surprises and we just try to keep everybody informed and it's continuing education so it's a continuing effort on that. Wow. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How long have you been with the Navy? I've been with the Navy League. I've been a volunteer for over 10 years, I think 12 now. I was on the board a few years, three or four years as the secretary and then when Bob decided to go in a different direction I was offered the position and I took it and it was Bob and said he said Jane this is a job you've been training for your whole life and it is I'm just very I'm so very satisfied and fulfilled by having this position. Well I know how hard you work because I see your emails coming back to me at 7 o'clock at night so obviously you're in the office quite late. Yes. Is it a passion for you? It absolutely is a passion and you know a wise man once said if you have a job you love you'll never have a job and that's the way I feel. It's a great mission and I'm driven by the mission. And is your husband kids? I'm widowed but I do have three kids and three grandkids and everybody except my oldest son is here the other one went to school in Portland and never came home but so I'm lucky to have my kids and my grandkids here and and for me I've been involved with kids and programs with cyber and science and and those things for many years before I joined the Navy League so it's important for me that we always nurture the young to help them know there is a future and they don't have to leave Hawaii and let them know the job paths that they can look into and I help provide that information along with scholarship information so they can feel driven and motivated to stay home and have a career. So now when my grandkids are involved in the Hawaii State Science Olympiad or robotics programs then it is so even more fulfilling that things that I've been doing for over a decade have come to fruition. Yeah you see that's where passion really helps because it just shows you the fulfillment that you get by following your passion. Absolutely. So the children are part of the Navy League's mission statement as well helping the kids. Helping the those who serve and their families so definitely the kids from that respect so when deployments come when ships and subs come back from deployment we first of all we buy the third watch who's the guys that have to stay on the ship or sub dinner when they come back so everybody else can go home as much as possible and sometimes especially in the fall and Christmas we will do little activities with the kids before they come home whether it's making Christmas cards or something saying welcome home mom look forward to seeing a dad which is touching when these kids have been months without a parent and that is impactful and once you've been a part of that you see the true impact on our kids and military family. Jane we see it a lot in you know separation and the anxiety that comes from it's not it's not just the spouse who is out in the field somewhere it's really at home it hurts too and I know the kids and the the the the spouses whether it's male or female have a tremendous tremendous burden to carry being alone. I work with foster kids and I see that all the time so I respect very very much how important it is how do you handle women for instance who are without their husbands for four to six months and you see their anxiety growing how does the Navy League help them? The Navy League will support the programs that will help them we don't have the ability to or the the professional structure to actually touch them at all or help them but we can support the programs that do have that a direct effect and you and you lead them towards those programs are you? They usually are led towards I have to say within the services especially the Navy and they just do a great job of reaching out to making sure the families of deployed people deployed men and women they're on track with them and they're making sure that they're okay when somebody doesn't post on Facebook for a few days they'll go out to the house and see them make sure they're okay so that's why these monthly meetings with the with the senior leaders the spouses is good to to help touch that and then I find out from them what the needs are from other organizations within it so we try to help support them. We see so much PTSD is talked about you know and and it's happening of course the military is where it all started basically that's where we understood where PTSD came from. I know people that whose fathers were in the before Vietnam wars and now that is it has come to being diagnosed they say you know my dad's 82 but I remember and that's what he went through and he came home from whichever war it was so or whatever conflict so that's just PTSD is just one part of it there's just there's so much more that I think our services are really doing a good job in trying to get it addressed and the VA they're working hard they they've seen their the errors of their ways that say and they are trying really hard I have to say. You know we've heard a lot on the news of course about the sensationalism of what's wrong with the VA but I have to tell you going up to Trippler Hospital as often as I do for my music program I go there and I speak on the Holocaust all the time and we have our foster kids program up there they're a wonderful organization they are so good to the people that are there I'm not sure about how long appointments take and I don't know if that's really what the case is but people have to respect it's a huge huge organization and I think that the the VA is doing a tremendous job. They're trying their best it really are and you know we're actually having the colonel from Trippler who runs Trippler coming to our do a briefing with us I believe it's only 22nd so go to our website HonoluluNaviling.org and attend an event you'll see an invitation out there if you want to come talk to the gentleman who actually runs Trippler and then come out and join us. Yeah I just might do it they invite me every year to come and speak and I do it because I honestly believe that the the military here in Hawaii has done a great job in making sure that the soldiers are understanding of what the past is. It's it's really terrific now the Navy League it really works with all the other services. Well our core is the Navy Marines the Coast Guard and the sea services everybody on the waterfront but we are a service of one in fact once a month there is a briefing it's not a briefing it's a meeting of all the senior listed leaders from all branches of the service they all get together to talk about okay this what's going on and this is how we're addressing this and it's it's phenomenal I'm there as a support rule and it's it's tremendously helpful it's just an amazing event where they can talk about what's happening because now we have people living amongst each other in the old days you'd have Navy living Navy Army living Army now we have Navy Coast Guard Army all living on the same street that's just the way they're moving and so it's important for them to know what's going on at each of their services they can help each other best practices but the but what the Navy League does is a wonderful glue it provides that that reaffirmation that everything is okay and that there's a place to go to in case there's a problem and I think that's one of the reasons that I was drawn towards the Navy League we try to be the resource for that I know it's wonderful well we have to take a short break in a minute but I want to bring some photos up if we can and you can tell us a little bit about what those pictures are okay here's the first one okay that was at the band concert I believe no this is that Sailor of the Year event where we celebrate the top sailors from as Admiral Harris says from Hollywood to Bollywood and Penguin's dead polar bears it's the top sailors and it's like five to seven from shore five to seven from sea command so they are these are the best and brightest kids we have in that whole arena it's it's very motivating and it's it's very touching to see these kids who have done so much at such a young age isn't that wonderful let's see the next one and this is with our wounded warriors this is at the Honolulu Country Club who their foundation supports the wounded warriors and fifty thousand dollars we'll hopefully we'll get another fifty this year but it's they've done a great job in supporting the wounded warrior program and that's with the colorful lay on as Chaplain Jensen he actually is the the gentleman who kind of keeps it all together he's he's a volunteer well we've got one time for one more what's this one oh and this is I believe a sea services this is a few years ago because my hair was really short and I was a little thinner but I like you the way you are forget the right you just have to own it and so this is presenting one of the awardees a training certificate of a thousand dollars for our training company I used to work for well well you know Jane I have to say the I want to talk about all the programs I love the Toys for Tots program I was involved in RIMPAC as a vendor I still am actually to the military one of my company sells products to the military and when RIMPAC comes in we bring in container loads you know it's a it's a big big deal for us and it's what every few years every two years every two years 2018 is the next one yeah and it's it's huge and it's terrific and I can buy a new pair of shoes every time I do a RIMPAC deal with you guys I'll bet and you guys are involved in that and I want to talk a little bit about it I want to the our audience and we have about six thousand people who watch our show I want our audience to understand that the military is not just guns and it's not just people going out there to fight the support system necessary for the military is huge it's absolutely essential that what you do for the navy that navy league is absolutely the most wonderful thing that happens behind the scenes so we're going to talk a little bit more about it it's terrific well we need to take a short break I'm Seymour Kazimurski on Seymour's World we'll be back in a minute hello everyone I'm DeSoto Brown the co-host of Human Humane Architecture which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. and with the show's host Martin Despeng we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live but other aspects of our life not only here in Hawaii but internationally as well so join us for human humane architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Dr. Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii what a wonderful show we have Jane Ferreira who's executive director of the Navy League now how many of you around the world have heard of the Navy League up until a few weeks ago I had not either I may have heard the name but I never understood what they did and I think we're learning so much about what is behind the scenes what happens on base when a spouse is off somewhere for a six-month deployment or whatever that may be and the Navy League a membership of 2,000 people just here in Hawaii just in Hawaii can you imagine around the world they are one of the best support systems we can have so Jane thank you for joining us today it is really really wonderful one of my favorite programs is the Toys for Tots campaign can you talk about that a little bit we do a tournament uh golf tournament um I hear I'm invited for that you are invited in December for Toys for Tots and we play usually the Navy Marine Golf Course and we have the Toys for Tots coordinators come out and it's a very low cost tournament for the golfers because it's a toy harvest we do it so that we can turn over lots and lots of toys and that every every one of the kids in the military who don't have a toy gets a toy and believe me it is it is really amazing how many toys we get like a truckload did you get thousands of toys yeah we get like a truckload a truck yeah we we rent a truck every year and um we load it up we have very Hawaii is very benevolent and Toys for Tots is a program I think everybody's heard of and knows about so we it's it's a very fun tournament at Navy Marine we have a lot of fun and you do this tournament is you do a second tournament we do actually our next tournament is coming up August 4th which is at the Kaneohe Marine Base at the Clipper Golf Course and that's our our fundraiser um but it's it's a lot of fun we have a lot of golfers we'll have officers as well as enlisted to come out we'll have our wounded warriors playing with us and um it's a lot of fun and excitement it's a day on that course and the back nine of that course is probably one of the most highly rated in the world for the view it's just it's a great course and you're golfing down that back nine along the coastline at K Bay I mean it's it is beautiful it's a very fun day I have to tell you the truth I play there almost every week I love that course it's my favorite course and this is the back nine just amazing yeah oh 14 15 16 and 17 they're my favorite and you know I I take so many pictures of it when I'm there and I send it to my family they're buried in snow in the winter time or rain and all that sort of stuff and I say this is what I'm doing today that's right there's a picture of the sands and the ocean and we're playing golf at K Bay it's absolutely fabulous tell me about another some of the other things that you guys are doing well um we have a year-long we have a year-long schedule that we do we start with our annual meeting which is in january that kind of lets our membership know what we've been doing what we have planned for the next year we vote in new officers or you know that are on the board we do specifically fleet sailor the year that we do march usually and like I said those are the those are the kids that are the best and brightest the top first ship and shore commands and we bring them in and their spouses and they're here for week and the navy league has all kind of activities for the spouses because where do you put them up the issue at the at the holocaust usually almost all the time the navy takes care of that the need we do it in partnership with the navy they take care of some things and we take care of some things they wouldn't do it without you it takes the navy league to actually make this happen on the scale that we do it I mean yes they all go to a luau and they go to diamondhead and they have so many activities while the service members are going through rigors too because you're a candidate and then you then they compete to see who wins and so there's we do fun things for those who are not up on the rigors and it we go through iolani palace every year and that is always such a nobody has any idea if you've never been to hawaii they don't understand the background and it's so it's so good because it really helps them understand hawaii and what we are and the history and the legacy of the of the right right now you have something here i'm going to put this up to the camera can you see that that is our bridge application and that's also online um on hollywoodnavyleague.org under membership and the bridges is the business networking group within the navy league so it's at a little higher rate of entry but that this is the group of senior community leaders and that extra amount that they contribute is is the oil that keeps our engine running every month and you have to have it it's the we need to support that because our military is first of all in hawaii our military is a big piece of our economy and the second reason is it's it's that's what's going to be here in case anything happens we have to have the support for the military now you have another one okay this is a little bit of partners in patriotism we have some partners that have been have been with us um and their donations help really make the programs executed at a higher level so i'd like to say thanks to mattson who's been with us and is such a stalwart supporter um hawaii electric hawaii electric mali electric and hawaii electric light company the hawaii electric companies have been also very supportive um the cave hamilton renny who does run the waterfront thanks to tim garter and his crew uh veterans united and veterans united home loans are just amazingly uh so second skin to everybody they're very giving um jay and automotive group it's a new partner this year and they've been they're a great partner indeed so if you want to buy a car or rent a car let me know because they will actually make a donation back to us for any vehicle that you buy well let me just say joe this is seymour i i know i know you're on the list and you watch my shows because i do get your notes lamborghini would be very nice thank you very much exactly they have a lot of donations indeed and then metagold metagold um whenever we have an event and and i have kids and events in my office all the time from cadets to cyber warriors to stem cub scouts there's always things going on in our office and metagold is always there to provide the drinks or the ice cream wonderful whatever we need we just did a family fun day um on july 2nd and that was a military appreciation day and we did that in partnership with restaurant 604 which is on arizona memorial drive the old schooners right by the rainbow marina there and so it was a great event there were so many families out there when the jumpers and the horsey rides it was tremendous thanks to restaurant 604 for being part of it i was told that i have to get involved in the american patriot the american patriot that is that is our big legacy event that is where we recognize a military and a community leader for what they've done so it's we've had dave carrey and we've had colonel bates um we've had um i didn't remember my list of all my past ones last year it was shelly wilson and um uh our own tag uh general general um i believe i mean but there's it's always something that we're trying to do and that's a big dinner right it is a big dinner it's a black tie affair it's going to be hilton this year and um this year the awardees are jennifer sabas and uh general bramlett which is army and and two very significant people have impacted hawaii so we try to recognize those who have have supported our community and like that's just it's a it's a great event and it's and we'll look for that will be on our website very shortly now i'm assuming pro harbour day is a big day for you as well harbour is a big day um we're we're there's so many things that are going on when it's a pro harbour day or or a veterans day or memorial day whenever it's an event in history yes everybody is um is involved in onsite and there's so many events usually in every day you have to try to get to uh but yeah we try to be out there and represent because we're all about recognizing and celebrating those who have served are serving and their families i mean it's you have you have to recognize and celebrate at every opportunity so i i when you're out there and you see somebody in uniform or please tell them thanks and let them know they're important to you you know we we have a tendency now to recognize more and more of what the military does for us and i have something i do at starbucks every single time if there's a military person behind me i always say i'm buying your coffee for you you know it's just something that i like to do because it's a nice thing to do you'll see the airlines for instance are also recognizing the military they board first on the aircraft now and i i think those are things we need to see you said to me that you have something special to read oh i there was something that i i got this morning um this is something that our chief naval operations at melton john richardson uh was on a chicago show this is something he said and this kind of sums up the importance of why we do what we do the united states is a maritime nation and hawaii is an island in the middle of the ocean you know on her own and he said over half our trade comes to and from the united states by sea and to hawaii look around your house look around your neighborhood half of that stuff comes to us from sea as consumers similarly so many of our jobs are tied to an economy that leaves our shores on ships and goes overseas for another somebody else to buy or to export that is what your naveli protects that is what your neighbor protects and that's what the naveli supports so your navy is out there for you all the time so that is that is huge and when you think that less than one percent of our population serves that tells you the significance for that one percent to serve the other millions you know and protect you absolutely right so that is that is huge so we've got a hundred ships on any given day that are forward deployed protecting those sea lanes with our products on them protecting our prosperity protecting our village kept those goods and protecting those jobs that contribute to the goal global economy and securing our shores wow and that is that is very profound i mean that is what it's all about they're protecting us and and our commerce not just us as um in case out of harm's way of our economy and our prosperity jane uh you're going to have a lot of people that are watching the show and saying you know what i want to do something i want to volunteer i want to give money could you repeat very slowly how they get in touch um honolulu navy league dot org honolulu navy league dot org uh you can email me directly at navy league jane at gmail.com and i'll be happy to reach out and meet with you and see what kind of support meets with your with your what you'd like to do whether you would like to volunteer whether you'd like to come to an event would you like to sponsor something the golf tournament coming up if you have a company that would like to be out on one of the teas with our golfers give me a call we'll be happy to have you have as a whole sponsor or if you have something you'd like to donate for a raffle or a team prize i want to make sure what we do is good for you too i will never say just write me a check because i need your money that's a truth however you have to make sure it's good for you as well as good for me so so please you know if you want to get involved and you want to talk about how this impacts our community and our service members let me know and i'll be happy to give you as many examples as you'd like well jane i'm sorry to tell you but we're out of time and i have to say you have been just a wonderful guest well thank you you are absolutely full of passion about what you do and it just transcends everything and i see people looking at you on air and saying wow and i just uh i just have to say you're it's just not a wonderful organization but you are credit to the navy league well thank you i'm i'm i'm driven by the mission i can see that i can see it thank you so much for joining us and thank you for telling our world our the little world of seymour's world that uh that the navy league is something we should really not just be cognizant of but somehow be a part of i think it's very important yeah help us keep on doing what we're doing that's exactly right so my friends uh we've learned a little bit more about the navy league and the support system behind our military personnel around the world i thank you very much for joining seymour's world today i hope to see you in our next episode which i think will be in two weeks from now aloha from seymour's world on thinktec hawai