BOZEMAN — On Saturday at Black Bull, Big Sky Bravery was raising money for special operations service members.
“It’s the world to us," said Josh McCain, founder of Big Sky Bravery. "It’s heartbreaking. War is an evil thing.”
About five years ago, McCain and his wife left their jobs to start a foundation that helps special operations active duty service members.
“I saw that there was a huge gap in veteran charities," he said. "There’s over 45,000 right now dedicated to veterans, but I couldn't find a single one for active duty service members, especially in the special operations community.”
Over the last five years, they have helped 176 service members.
“These guys are A-Team players," said McCain. "They’re from the most elite components that America has, and we just try to remind them of what their life was like before they got into that. Trying to get them to only focus on one thing and forget about all the other stuff that is going on in their life. Whether that’s skiing or whitewater rafting or getting on mountain bikes or ATVs, we have an insane week for these guys when they get out here.”
One big reason they started the foundation was because McCain wanted to help out his brother-in-law who has served in 18 deployments.
“It helped me drastically," said Army master sergeant Jeremy Keller, who is also Josh McCain's brother-in-law. "(I) was going through a rough patch. It was after my 17th deployment, it was just renewing and then just knowing all the folks around that were donating and helping, making it a reality, really hit the best.”
This weekend’s golf fundraiser will allow them to help out 10 more veterans.
“(The) Bozeman community showed up to support Big Sky Bravery and the special operations community," said McCain. "Because without these people that we give back to overseas, we wouldn’t have it.”
If you would like to donate to their great cause you can do so here.
