Over the past 19 Fourth of Julys, Carl Meyer has teed off at Chenequa Country Club in Hartland with the same goal: raise as much money as he can for veterans. This year, he will head out again, but with a big milestone added to his golf bag – he’s raised over $2 million.
Years ago on July 4, when Meyer’s wife and children were out of town, he decided to play a few holes. A few holes turned into 72, and when Meyer met up with some friends for dinner that night, one asked him what his plans were for next year.
“I’m going to do 100 [holes], but I’m going to do it for veterans’ charity,” he said.
When Meyer first started, he wanted to find a charity to work with. He considered different options, but a friend’s new venture stuck out to him. He decided to partner with Hire Heroes USA, an organization dedicated to helping veterans get jobs after they leave the service. The story of Hire Heroes USA and Meyer’s 100-hole efforts are linked, as they both started around the same time. When Meyer returned to the course in 2008, he had the backing of Hire Heroes.
Back then, Hire Heroes USA was working out of borrowed office space with four employees. Today, it has more than 150 employees and more than 114,000 confirmed hires of veterans. The operation has become more efficient, and Meyer now serves on the board.
The biggest difference between when he started and now, Meyer said, is how his monetary impact can sometimes feel dwarfed by the organization’s other fundraisers.
“I’ve gone to the New York dinners a couple of times, they’ll raise $2 million in 30 minutes,” he said. “One guy will start ‘I’m in for 200 grand’ and I go, ‘I spent basically a year to get 200 grand, in New York City that’s 30 seconds.’ It’s still huge money but it’s just the differences.”
Despite that, Meyer still finds himself in awe at the generosity of individual donors to his “100 holes” event. “I had an industry friend of mine, he’s been a good sponsor for many years, I think the biggest he’d ever done directly to me was 10. He called he said, ‘This year we’re doing $50,000’.
“I’m just blown away that somebody would give that kind of money.”
Meyer has never served in the military but said he feels grateful to live in a country where men and women volunteer to serve, knowing they could lose their lives. It’s the need to give back to those people that drives him back to the course year after year, even with bad knees and an aching back.
“Most of the people I work with I never see,” Meyer said.
Most of the Hire Heroes operations are based in Virgina and Texas, far from Meyer’s home in Wisconsin. However, his efforts recently hit close to home.
“In the last 18 months,” he said, “there have been two of my neighbors that have been helped by Hire Heroes, and it’s really fun to see.”
One of them was a veteran recently laid off from his job. Hire Heroes helped him into his dream position as an actuary. Another, who lives just two houses down from Meyer, is a military spouse who was also helped by Hire Heroes USA. Meyer said he loves to, “see what this is meaning to these people, how it’s positively impacting their lives.”
Meyer estimates that his efforts have helped more than 1,400 veterans obtain high-paying jobs. How many more he will impact is an open question. Meyer, who will be 69 in October, describes how long he’ll continue playing as a “million-dollar“ question. He said it depends on his health, but he hopes that his methods will inspire others looking to give back to those who served.
“Maybe we have for the month of July, a 100-holes event at other clubs for Hire Heroes,” he said. “Maybe that’s a way that you take it and expand it without the need to physically play 100 holes.”
Meyer always ends his day the same way: cracking open a Pabst Blue Ribbon and shooting a round out of a small yacht cannon he’s owned since the beginning. Then he heads to his house, just off the 13th hole, and sits down to sign thank you cards for every donor.
It’s an exhausting day for the self-described golf enthusiast, but it feels less so when he thinks about the impact he’s able to make by doing it. As for what he wants people to take away from his efforts, Meyer said the message is simple:
“Sometimes the military can get tainted based on who’s currently in office, and I don’t see that in any of the men and women I work with. We all as Americans owe a debt of gratitude for the people who are providing our freedoms.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hartland man golfs 100 holes each July 4 to support veterans
Reporting by Gabriella Hartlaub, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gabriella Hartlaub, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
