Annual music festival benefits vets with PTSD

By Sarah Hall

Editor

More than 540,000 veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to The Wounded Warrior Project.

“You can’t see what these guys and gals see in war and unsee it,” said Rick Carlesco of Victory for Vets, a Liverpool-based nonprofit. “Now, some vets come home and they’re fine, they can cope, but other vets come home and they can’t.”

Victory for Vets focuses on raising awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an often-silent disability triggered by a traumatic event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. While PTSD can happen to anyone who has experienced trauma, it’s particularly common in veterans; in addition to the 10 to 18 percent of vets from the War on Terror impacted by the condition, 10 percent of Gulf War vets and 30 percent of Vietnam vets suffer from PTSD, though it occurs in approximately 7 to 8 percent of the general population.

Since 2014, Victory for Vets has put on a country/rock music festival at Sharkey’s in Liverpool to raise money for ClearPath for Veterans, a Chittenango nonprofit that provides support for returning veterans, including peer-to-peer support, classes, service dogs and more. The money helps an accepted veteran who is dealing with PTSD or military sexual trauma to train their own dog to become a service dog through ClearPath’s Dogs2Vets program.

Victory For Vets also has started working with the Cpl. Kyle Schneider Foundation.

“If we can get these vets dogs, if they train the dogs, then the dog becomes a constant companion and whenever the vet has essentially a panic attack, the dogs calm them down,” Carlesco said. “The good thing about it is that that trains the dog, so when the dog retires, the vet can train the next dog and then we can get them certified.”

Carlesco started Victory for Vets three years ago with Heather Graham, a co-worker whose son is in the military. Their original intent was to have a local band play at a small barbecue to honor the military. But when Carlesco’s cousin, a vet, took him golfing in Chittenango and showed him ClearPath, Carlesco knew he had to do something more.

“The damage this does to families in Central New York is staggering — 22 vets are killing themselves every single day, and I’m not stopping until that number’s zero,” he said. “I will work until they put me in the ground, until I can get every single one of these vets a dog.”

In the last three years, Victory for Vets has raised $45,000.

“Last year was almost a washout. We worked like crazy to get the stage ready so [headliner] John Waite could even go on, because it poured all day,” Carlesco said. “This year, if we get some good weather, we’re hoping to hit it out of the park. We’re hoping to raise between $20,000 and $30,000. I’d love to write that check.”

This year’s event takes place Saturday, Aug. 5, at Sharkey’s Bar and Grill in Liverpool. Doors open at 1 p.m. At 3 p.m., 100 bikers will arrive, preceding a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Musical acts are Dirt Road Ruckus, Jason Wicks, Scars and Stripes and Held Hostage, and the show is headlined by Molly Hatchet.

Tickets are available at victoryforvets.org, or you can buy them at Sharkey’s (7240 Oswego Road, Liverpool) or the Sound Garden in Armory Square. General admission tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door (bring chairs). Preferred seating in front of the stage is available for $45. Organizers are also offering VIP seating, which includes a meet-and-greet with Molly Hatchet for $75.

Carlesco said organizers are already starting to plan for next year’s event, which they’d like to be even bigger.

“We’re talking about doing a two day-event with camping,” he said. “We’ll do a classic rock show one night, and then a country show the next night. I want to get a number closer to $100,000 a year, because we could do a lot of good with that.”

Carlesco said it was critical for the community to step up and provide support for vets because the government just isn’t capable of meeting their needs.

“One of the problems a lot of veterans have is they don’t want the stigma, so they often don’t go get help. They tell everybody they’re fine, they’re okay,” he said. “If we can get them therapy off the books and get them a service dog, these guys can live a relatively normal life. To me, it just seems like such a waste of life when you don’t get help that you need.”

Carlesco said veterans often self-medicate to cope with their trauma.

“A lot of the guys from Vietnam came back smoking pot, taking drugs. My father-in-law was a World War II vet and he drank to excess,” he said. “We can stop this. This is something we can fix.”