People magazine is reporting on Veterans Retreat, a 16-room, ADA-compliant vacation home in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine, “where military families with special needs can come to relax, have fun and share their experience with others facing similar challenges—all free of charge.”
The retreat is the work of Travis Mills, a retired staff sergeant from the 82nd Airborne Division. Mills was wounded on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2012 when he put his backpack down on a hidden IED. He would lose four limbs, spending 19 months recovering at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
In 2014 Mills started the Travis Mills Foundation. He has raised $2.75 million in donations to restore and run the historic, 11,000-square-foot house. “The majority of our donations come from everyday proud Americans. We get letters from grandmas that are 87 that say, ‘I don’t have much. Hope this helps with something.’”
The Veterans Retreat will host 56 families this summer.
“For me personally, I don’t see a lot of amputees whatsoever, especially not quadruple amputees,” Mills recently told the AP.
“But I am very confident in myself and my abilities. Where, we bring people in here and we give them a network to reach out to. We give them other families that have the same situation that they go through every day and let them know that here are some tricks or adaptive sports or things you can do as a family to make you feel you are still a part of everything. That you can still keep going.”
Thank you for supporting MRCTV! As a tax-deductible, charitable organization, we rely on the support of our readers to keep us running! Keep MRCTV going with your gift here!