 with DAV and I'm joined by Chief Communications and Outreach Officer Dan Clare. Today we're here to give an update on Patriot Boot Camp, DAV's new program for entrepreneurs in the military and veteran community. Dan, welcome. Thank you for joining us today. Thanks for having me. So before we get into what's new and what you're really here to announce, let's kind of talk about the basics. For those who haven't heard, what is Patriot Boot Camp? Patriot Boot Camp is a charity, actually it was an independent charity that DAV acquired January 1st and what we really acquired was an entire community of people, civilians, and military folks. But the program is designed to help people in the military and veteran connected community become business owners, business start new ventures. So it's a really exciting new thing for DAV. The program's actually been around for 10 years. It's a community of 4500 people and they're all there to help veterans, spouses, military members succeed in business. And so DAV hosted its first Patriot Boot Camp last month at our headquarters here in Erlinger. How did that go and what did you take away from it? It was a great event. I mean, we had an alumni, it was an alumni event, so we had people who were familiar with Patriot Boot Camp, but you could see kind of the success that they'd had since they'd attended their first Patriot Boot Camp event. And then it was kind of an accelerator for them to take them to a higher level. What I loved about the event, whenever we have an event, we have as many mentors as we have participants. So the mentorship that went on there was fantastic. And then we have a pitch ask give portion that I thought was really great because you're asking people to go ahead and pitch your company, pitch your venture to this group of people, ask them where you need help and tell them where you can help them. So all the people there in a cohort kind of become a network community themselves. So it's a really exciting event. And it really has, I mean, the people who participate love it and it really seems to help veterans and power veterans to become benefits creators, as opposed to where DAVs help them get their benefits. Now they're helping other people. And you mentioned that the first event was an alumni event. And I think it says a lot about the program that people keep returning once, twice, even three times. And they're still just as enthusiastic and still getting so much out of it. I know you also surveyed participants from this first event. What were the results of that? It was over 90% satisfaction rate. We're going to improve the food a little bit. Some of our stuff got a little bit of a knock. So people who participate in the future will have a little bit better grew up for you. But seriously, people were very happy with it. And what's great about Patriot Boot Camp is that community within DAV now, they're constantly trying to help one another. And I've followed up with some of the veterans who participated. And we plan to just keep going, keep helping each other out and seeing how far it takes us. So we have the next event scheduled. Tell us when that is and what people need to know. It's October 20 through 22. It's going to be here at DAV National Headquarters near Cincinnati on the Kentucky side. It's going to be a full event for new founders. So it's going to be a two and a half day event. Pretty intensive stuff going on there. A lot of mentorship. More mentorship probably than even in the alumni program. But we're going to connect people with legal resources, marketing. We're going to help people with scaling talk about venture capital, talk about traditional forms of seeking funding for your business, bootstrapping. We're going to try and give people all the resources they need to succeed through the event. And not just giving them the resources. It's hard to say in two and a half days what you can do. We're going to take them to another level I think in two and a half days. And after that we're going to still be there with our caffeine connects with alumni events and other things to kind of help people keep going along their path. Well, I think like you alluded to before, this is really about community. And so there's a lot you can can do in two days, but it really is a lifelong kind of support system. Can you tell us where and how people can apply for the next Patriot Bootcamp? Sure. And whether you're applying or you just want to learn more about the program, you can go to patriotbootcamp.org. We're working on the website a little bit, but you can register right away through the site. Again, it's October 20th through 22nd. It's here at National Headquarters. We're going to have a lot of fun along the way. But I want people to get involved. We do virtual training in the form of caffeine connects. We do at least one of those a month. So people can tune into those two and find more resources on the website. And who can apply for Patriot Bootcamp? That's a good question. It is open to the veteran and military connected community, and that includes spouses. So whether you're a spouse who is moving from town to town, you find out that's the best way for you to maintain your professional success while you're spouses in the military. It's for you. Disabled veterans, of course. Other veterans, you're all welcome to apply. We're really looking for this class for people who have done some of their homework already, who have an EIN already, and who have a website set up. So we're hoping for that, but it's not an absolute requirement. We're looking to help 50 people through the program, and we'll have 50 fantastic mentors there to help them. And it's kind of welcoming them into a community at that point. And the application deadline is August 29th, is that correct? I think it's August 29th, yep. Okay. And I also think it's important to know that there is no cost in applying and participating. That's correct. No cost to apply, no cost to participate. You do have to cover your travel coming out and your lodging. But beyond that, we're going to take care of your meals, and we're going to try and get you a discounted rate for hotels and stuff like that while you're out here. Make it as affordable as possible. So it takes a lot of people to pull off a Patriot Boot Camp event. You've mentioned mentorship a few times. For those who are interested in supporting this in other ways, maybe in mentoring, how can they learn more and who should they contact? Same thing. I mean, you can go through the website and sign up for information. If you're specifically interested in being a mentor, I'd ask that you email us at infoatpatriotbootcamp.org, and we'll follow up with you specifically. We're looking for people who have specific skills helping entrepreneurs. So if you're in marketing, business leadership, funding, whatever, those are the kinds of skills that we're looking for. Great. Dan, is there anything else you'd like to add? No, just I want people to get involved and sign up. If it's something that you can do, if it's not something you're interested in personally, please let your fellow people in our community know because we want to get as close as we can to getting 50 people out here and the people who participate in the program to see the value. So I'm hoping lots of people sign up. Great. Thank you so much, Dan. Again, visit patriotbootcamp.org for more information, including how to apply for the next Patriot Bootcamp event, and follow DAV on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for updates.