When your world has been turned upside down and back again, closure and healing are two key words.

And thanks to the generosity of a long-time member of the Thompson Falls Elks Lodge, military veterans who find themselves in the whirlpool of re-adjustment to civilian life will get a shot at closure as they embark on the healing process.

Philanthropist Jack Esler, who before he died last year, was an Elks member and Air Force veteran who wanted to help his fellow veterans, left a portion of his estate to the T Falls Elks Lodge, asking the organization to find ways to assist veterans.

As a result, and on behalf of the Jack Esler Foundation, Patrol Base Abbate, an organization dedicated to helping those who served, was presented last week with a check in the amount of $20,000 to support the effort to re-assimilate with life after military service.

“This donation will help us bring several combat veterans together around a campfire and help them find their purpose in life,” said Abbate COO Kevin Fallon during a brief ceremony at the Thompson Falls BPOE Lodge. “There are more organizations like ours these days who reach out to veterans who are having difficulties re-adapting to civilian life after serving their country. This kind of donation is a big boost to that effort”.

Fallon, a former Marine, said the Patrol Base Abbate program has more than 4,500 members in 35 “clubs” throughout the country, including one based in the Thompson Falls area. Participants in the programs first attend a five-day “retreat” where the goal is to “re-calibrate inside the ‘wire’ and community to thrive outside the wire”, a reference to living in military camps and providing the ability to blend back into society in a positive way.

The retreats and subsequent programs such as horseback riding, fishing, hunting, artistic endeavors and more, are small groups who give veterans the chance to meet with other veterans and explore avenues to help them become productive members of the communities in which they reside.

“We keep these groups to usually 30 members per meeting,” Fallon said. “We have found that veterans who want to talk about things are more willing to raise their hand and speak out if they are part of a smaller, rather than larger group”.

The funds are used to bring the program participants together and to help fund the activities at those meetings.

“We want to help these kinds of programs as a way of saying thank you so much,” said Elks Lodge treasurer Beth Moore, who along with members Stephanie Whisenhunt and Christine Munday presented the check to Fallon and Sanders County Abbate member John Torres, who said helping his fellow vets was a “life’s dream as a way to help veterans find closure”.

Moore said the T Falls Elks club was “humbled” to be part of The Esler Foundation’s wish to help.