Last year, NDCL was allowed to volunteer for the Travis Mills Foundation at the IHeartRadio Station, answering phone calls for a raffle that donates to the foundation. Within one day, the 10 NDCL students were able to raise $100,000 in total! As a result, Travis Mills himself reached out in hopes that our students would return! In addition, he even drove out to the school for the day to speak to the school about his journey and how his life came to be the way it is now. Of course, this inspirational story was followed by a few jokes and student participation. As soon as he was done speaking, he was bombarded by so many students expressing their appreciation for him and his courage to share his story with them. 

Now, you may be wondering, what inspires these students about his story? Well, to begin, Travis enlisted in the military for the first time after deciding that college was not his path to be taken in life. Travis met his current wife, Kelsey, through MySpace and they became inseparable within months, despite him being across the world most of the time. After getting married in a hurry, they were blessed with their first baby. On April 10 2012 in Afghanistan, Travis Mills was faced with the most traumatic day of his life. He was critically injured by an explosive that led to a portion of all his limbs flying off. After spending days in the hospital, debating if it was even worth fighting for his life, the many nurses and doctors were able to save his life by amputating both legs and both arms. After months and months of recovery including physical therapy and mental healing, he and his wife began putting together the Travis Mills Foundation. 

In September 2013, the foundation was founded officially by Travis and his wife Kelsey. For the past 11 years, the Travis Mills Foundation has helped thousands of veterans who were critically injured along with their families. For example, the foundation offers seven programs to veterans and their families that are all free of charge. These programs include the Family Program, the Warrior Path Program, the Caregiver Program, the Recalibration Program, the Ambassador Program, the Virtual Program, and finally, the Offsite Program. All of these programs have individual goals that allow every veteran and their family to conform and be supported through their recovery. However, the overall outcome that all of these programs portray is supporting and appreciating the sacrifice that veterans vow to take when it comes to protecting their country despite how it may treat them in return. 

This year, when our NDCL students returned to iHeart Radio Station for the annual telethon, they raised over $100,000 in donations yet again for the Travis Mills Foundations! The students spent 10 hours of their day answering phone calls for raffle tickets and our very own junior, Joey Mazzolini, was featured on WTAM 1100 radio station promoting the raffle and raving about the speech from Travis Mills that took place at NDCL on Wednesday, November 6. If one thing the NDCL community has learned from this past week, it would be to Never Give Up. Never Quit.