It is not uncommon to hear about self storage companies getting involved in charity within their respective communities. Every year there are hundreds of facilities around the country that get involved in the Toys for Tots program with the U.S Marines. Many also hold food drives and clothes drives around the holidays as well as throughout the year.
Not every endeavor under taken by the self storage industry goes towards collecting toys for children or food and clothes for the less fortunate. There is one that is geared towards showing those that put their lives on the line to protect freedom realize that their sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.
In 2009, Ron Raboud, an avid hunter and supplier of self storage buildings for various companies, decided to show his appreciation for veterans that came home wounded and/or disabled by helping them do something they used to love doing but find diffiucult due to their injury, hunting and fishing.
Taking someone special on a hunting trip was nothing new to Raboud and his friends. For most of the last decade they had taken a special person with them on their aannual hunt in Princeton, British Columbia, typically a youth with a life altering or terminal illness; the idea was to give the person an experience that they would otherwise not be able to get. In 2009 they decided that they should consider doing the same for a wounded veteran as well.
The experience was so rewarding to Raboud and his friends that they decided that they should try to do it more often and the idea for Wounded Warriors Outdoors was born.
“My motivation to found and pursue this organization is two-fold. I want to honor our wounded military veterans as well as the memories of my parents. My dad was a wounded World War II veteran. I can’t think of a more fitting way to honor them both,” Raboud says.
The group has been taking wounded veterans on hunting and fishing trips for over a year now. Besides Raboud’s favorite spot in Princeton, British Columbia, they have gone to Chassahowitzka Island Lodge in Florida for fishing trips; the Black Bear Inn for fishing trips in Ketchikan, Alaska; and the Record Buck Ranch for deer hunting in Utopia, Texas.
Raboud is the CEO of the Rabco Corporation where he has made pre-engineered metal buildings for the self storage industry for more than twenty years. They specialize in building low cost, low maintenance, high quality metal structures.
Sources Used:
“Self-Storage Veteran Launches Charity: Wounded Warrior Outdoors.” Inside Self Storage; 05 January 2010.
“Hunter Starts Program for Injured Military Personnel.” Flagstaff Sedona Business News; February 2010.
Wounded Warriors Outdoors, Inc.