A wonderful article written by Kelly Bostian with the Tulsa World.

With $50,000 in potential matching funds, the leader of The Foundation for Exceptional Warriors has high hopes he can help others. But recovering from his own recent tragedy is complicating the aid.
Ronny Sweger, Executive Director and Co-founder of The FEW, is not asking for help for himself. He is more focused on helping other veterans find healing through outdoor adventures.

“What makes us different is we serve special operations and the valorous,” he said. “Once people see our mission and understand we are different from everybody else, they want to help. If I can talk to them in person it usually works. I just don’t have enough people to talk to, and right now my time is so limited.”
Bringing in money is not an easy task, even when you’ve got special operations experience. These guys aren’t used to asking for help.
Sweger, a Green Beret who once coordinated, tracked and supervised all special operations forces activities in Kuwait and established special operations bases in Iraq, sometimes lacks ammo when it comes to fundraising here at home.
“I’m not a fundraiser — I’m a warrior and the folks on our volunteer staff are warriors,” he said. “We don’t really know how to ask for money.”
The FEW has a new fundraising site at gofundme.com, but it’s a little awkward.
“It says our next event is a dove hunt and it says we’re trying to raise $10,000, so it looks like we’re trying to raise 10 grand for a dove hunt. People see that and (think), ‘Whoa!’” he said.
He would love to have a public relations firm donate in-kind services for fundraising.
Timing has been tough on The FEW organization lately. Appearances on the “Grateful Nation” show on Outdoor Channel last week resulted in numerous offers from people willing to host hunts. Unfortunately the organization does not have money to get veterans to those places to enjoy those opportunities.
With potential matching funds available, if The FEW can raise $50,000, that $100,000 total would equal total contributions last year. “We helped 80 veterans and their families with that money,” he said.
Reached at the end of a long day Wednesday, Sweger was hopeful for donations because of the new matching-funds incentives but aware of the reality of life’s hard curves.
Time is limited for the decorated Green Beret because he is faced with trying to re-settle his family after his home burned to the ground a few weeks ago.
He cleared area for the home on a 10-acre farm in the hills east of Spavinaw for his wife and triplet boys after he medically retired five years ago.
“I carved out a space on the top of a hill and tried to disappear,” he said.
Many retired special operations veterans seek that kind of refuge when they come back to the States.
“It’s hard for us to relate to anyone,” he said.
The fire took his refuge. “We lost everything,” he said of his family’s 3,000-square-foot home. A foundation volunteer has helped the family of five, plus Sweger’s service dog, by offering a one-bedroom guest house for now. “It definitely beats a hotel room,” he said of the tight quarters.
The triplets celebrated their eighth birthday a week after the fire.
“We told everybody to just send birthday cards because we didn’t have a place for anything,” he said. “They got like 300, 400 cards apiece. It was a great birthday.”
While Sweger fights his way back into a home, The FEW board members are stepping up fundraising efforts.
Why give to The FEW when so many others help wounded warriors find healing experiences outdoors? Sweger said other groups rely on disability ratings through the Veterans Administration. And while a Green Beret who comes home after six years of deployments may not be “wounded” or a soldier who was awarded a medal for saving the lives of others may have escaped harm, “You can bet they are carrying some heavy baggage,” Sweger said. “These guys come home and crawl into the woodwork and try to disappear, and nobody is reaching out.”
Often, special operations veterans don’t even fit in with other veterans, he said. “We’re called ‘the quiet professionals,’” Sweger said. “We’re trying to rebrand these guys and tell them, ‘We’re the quiet professionals, not the silent professionals.’”
Sweger said the work with The FEW is healing medicine for him. “I love finding these guys, pulling them out of the woodwork and changing their lives,” he said.
To learn more about The FEW or donate to the group, see its website at exceptionalwarriors.org. To give through Go Fund Me, go to The FEW page at gofundme.com/the-few.
Kelly Bostian 918-581-8357
kelly.bostian@tulsaworld.com