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Graduation Day for Disabled Vets

June 13th, 2008 by Mike Vasilinda

This weekend is graduation day for two dozen disabled vets. They have been participating in an intensive, one of its kind, week long “Boot Camp” at the Florida State College of Business. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the goal is to teach the vets how to operate their own successful businesses.

Hear it Here: Graduation Day for Disabled Vets

They arrive early and leave late and often study into the night. These disabled vets are part of a one of kind week long boot camp to help them start businesses and learn how to succeed despite their disability.

JR Martinez was burned over 40 percent of his body when a roadside bomb exploded in Iraq. He now wants to turn the worst thing that ever happened to him, into the best.

“But For now, it’s the real world and there’s another path and there’s another battle that you have to face,” Martinez said. “And that battle is how you chase your dreams that you may have of creating a business or owning a business.

Once a successful Private Detective, Clay Rankin was a national guardsman deployed to Iraq. His injuries leave him unable to bend over, which is why he travels with a service dog.

“What brought me here is trying to figure where do you go when you can’t do what you’ve done your entire adult life,” Rankin said. “Which direction do you head from there?”

The entrepreneurial class is in its second year and not a dollar of tax payer money is involved. Randy Blass is the professor who brought it together.

“I’m retired air force, I retired just a couple years ago,” Blass said. “And there was something missing.”

And the common traits of the participants? The will to survive and succeed.

The boot camp was funded with a hundred thousand dollars in private donations and covers all of the costs for the vets, including travel, lodging and food.

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