STARS and SCARS… American300 Mentor Shares with Wounded Warriors

Steamboat Springs, Colorado -   When Jen Housholder was a little girl, bad things happened to her.  Over time she found herself finding ways to make the bad memories fade away.  Like so many of today's Armed Forces Members, life as a kid wasn't a bed of roses.  In many ways appointment to Lieutenant in the United States Air Force was one of her first major tickets to freedom. 

Years later after choosing to transfer into the Army, when she failed to meet the height requirement for young Lieutenants to fly for the Air Force… Jen Housholder found herself flying combat missions in a UH-60 Blackhawk over the roof tops of Iraq villages. 

War has a way of bringing out the best and worst in all of us.

The demons from the past started to creep back into her dreams and daily thoughts and by the time she redeployed to the middle east a second time… the demons were running the 'hous'.  After her final deployment she sought help and today is a certified US Air Force Master Resiliency Trainer and full time test engineer at Edwards Air Force Base.  

Teaching military members how to cope so that they will one day be able to once again hope for a better day is something that Jen Housholder has made part of her life's mission. 

American300 and Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports have once again partnered up to place this full-time warrior and part-time musician with 23 wounded warriors here in Steamboat Springs for the STARS and Stripes Heroes Camp.  "This is blast, I've got a snowboard instructor that is teaching me how to ride and I'm hanging with all these fellow warriors," said CWO2 Housholder today between runs on the headwall at Steamboat Ski Resort, adding " tonight we're all headed down to the VFW where I'll give a talk and then end the night playing and singing."  

Craig Kennedy, Director of Wounded Warrior Programming for STARS noted that between this January Camp and the up coming February STARS and Stripes Heroes Camp, there will be over 45 wounded warrior participants with American300 mentors embedded in each camp.  "Brown bag talking is way more effective then lectern hall stuff… all of us have had plenty of briefings over the years. What makes STARS camps so effective is the living breathing experiential learning that takes place." says Robi Powers, founder of American300 who partnered with Julie Taulman and the STARS program several years ago to provide the local Wounded Warrior focused camps with mentors, he adds "there's no better classroom then the great outdoors and STARS knows outdoor mentoring…  while we have a lot of experience with military mentoring, it's a perfect team approach." 

For more information about American300 programming visit:  www.American300.org

For information on STARS visit:  www.steamboatstars.com 

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