Light Up To Live, Inc

Our goal is to positively impact the lives of US military members and military veterans living with Post Traumatic Stress, Pain, Depression, or Brain Trauma by giving them unique and holistic alternatives to healing.

Our goal is to create community awareness of veterans' unmet mental and physcal health needs through the synergy of consistent communication to veteran organizations and tangible delivery of our unique services to those who serve our country.

Our goal is to raise enough funds to impact the lives of up to 50 veterans a year in our community and beyond and to disperse those funds and services in a timely, transparent, effective and honorable manner.

Being a small organization, our strategy is to affiliate with high quality, like-minded veteran-centric organizations in our immediate community that provide direct physical and psychological therapy.

We purchase and then donate polychromatic light therapy systems - up to 30-50 persons per year - to active military or military veterans who need the system for pain management. We introduce the systems in a physical therapy setting and they apply online for a system. Their applications give us a way to verify their medical and military status.

We partner with Service Dog training organizations who offer training specific to military members returning to civilian life and need assistance with appropriate socialization and emotional management skills. We fund the dogs as well as canine nutrition and veterinary expenses for the veteran.

We raise funds through two special events geared to business associates, friends and military organizations who support our mission and want a trusted and tangible way to express their gratitude to these veterans.

We communicate on a monthly basis through newsletters, social media posts, personal visits with sponsors and affiliates, video documentaries about the work behind our mission.

We are a highly experienced group of local business leaders with expertise in marketing, communications, military families, not-for-profit management, medical devices, automotive management and community service.

We operate a private professional office with one full time paid Executive Administrator.

We enjoy the hands on expertise of our Board members and the marketing support of our board members' marketing teams.

Our Board members leverage their business connections and community relationships to support our messaging, fundraising, and deliverables.

We meet bi-monthly to discuss detailed strategies for achieving our goals.

In the past 5 years, including two years of the pandemic, we have consistently achieved our goals. To date,
we have successfully placed 6 Service Dogs and 4 are currently in training at the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation. We have also delivered 100 light therapy systems to veterans who are graduates of the Adaptive Training Foundation which provides physical therapy for military members and civilians with adaptive needs.

We are on track in year six to deliver 2 more Service Dogs and up to 50 light therapy systems. Our fundraising remains steady with the consistent support of our loyal sponsors. We take pride in keeping our sponsors in the fold year in and year out.

We have met our goal of staying within our financial means and abilities of our sponsors and board members and NOT taking on expenses or commitments that we were not confident that we could achieve. A financial stretch for us in 2021 was the funding of large Ford Transit Van for the safe transportation of Service Dogs to their veteran handlers.

While our Board has not grown, we have added a Planning Committee comprised of individuals who have expertise that we need for the execution of our fundraising events. This provides consistency and quality overall. We also retain legal counsel, accounting counsel as well as digital marketing experts to keep our website fresh and optimized. These services are pro bono or at a reduced fee.

Our data base has grown from 0 to nearly 1000 supporters who have opted into our newsletter and our social media following is approaching 5,000 followers.