As they gathered around the dinner table, Steve Mandile asked his daughters Abby and Ella, then 11 and 9, how their day at school had gone.
Abby sighed, then shared that some of her friends were being bullied. “The bigger kids make fun of their clothes and how they look.”
“Are you guys being bullied?” Steve and their mom, Jessica, asked, and the girls shook their heads.
“No…not yet,” Abby said, and Steve wondered if there was something he could do to help.
Steve is an Uxbridge, Massachusetts, selectman. He helps make the town’s laws and regulations. But he knew bullying wasn’t something you could make go away with a new law.
Steve is also a disabled Army vet. He fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he suffered PTSD and severe back injuries. But, with the help of various veterans organizations and counseling, he pulled his life together. But there were so many vets still suffering, so Steve had joined in a march at the state capital building.
Help Our Vets! read their signs, and they had made a real difference. All day, passersby stopped to listen to Steve and the others describe the problems and possible solutions, and most left with a better understanding of the plight of wounded warriors.