Serving those who have served
In the military, service members learn to operate as a unit and support one another. Years and even decades after service, many veterans are still committed to that mindset. Kristen Howden is one of those veterans. Working at Wells Fargo, she says she’s received incredible support from the community of colleagues who served, which number approximately 7,000. Every day, she strives to give as much as she gets, whether it’s with her colleagues or through partners such as Warrior Rising. “As veterans, I feel like our job and our responsibility is to empower each other, to show up for each other, and to support each other in any way that we can.” says Howden, who also serves as the events chair for the Charlotte Veterans ERN chapter. “The support I’ve gotten at Wells Fargo empowers me to empower other people.”
Supporting veteran entrepreneurs and empowering the military community through a renewed sense of purpose comes full circle at Wells Fargo. “It’s important for us to invest in their success because we know that small business owners are actually the backbone of our communities,” says Passmore.
For his part, Van Camp is grateful for the support Warrior Rising has received. “Wells Fargo has been such a tremendous sponsor, a friend and supporter,” he says. What’s especially meaningful about the partnership, he says, is the fact that Wells Fargo representatives attend Warrior Rising events to see their investments in action. “They get to see how they’re impacting these veterans,” he says. “They get to meet the veterans and talk with them, and I think that really resonates.”
With the support of Wells Fargo and other partners, Warrior Rising has grown from a small organization that helped six veterans in 2015 to a renowned national change-maker that, in 2022, helped 8,600 veterans.
During his 14 years in the Army, Van Camp served as Detachment Commander with 10th Special Forces Group in Fort Carson, Colorado, where he led a team on nearly 300 combat missions; he also trained nearly 4,000 Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and other warfare techniques. Throughout his service, he learned how to lead, how to take risks, how to command and motivate people and how to fight for his beliefs.
Now, at Warrior Rising, he’s using those skills to help veterans find purpose and achieve their dreams. His motto, he says, is inspired by the motto of the U.S. Special Forces: to liberate the oppressed.
“Ultimately, what it comes down to is what we’re all fighting for: freedom. It’s freedom to do what we want to do,” he says. “It is our hope and mission at Warrior Rising that every veteran that comes through our program gains that same freedom.”
