For years Pete, Dave, John and Mike had been wanting to help our veterans and were always looking for ways to do so.  In a men’s bible study meeting Pete and Dave decided to take their first real step in doing something more than personal donations, they reached out to a well-recognized national organization to see what they could do on a local level and after several attempts with no response they were a bit frustrated; then Pete met the other OPs Board Member,  Kevin Kenney – himself a retired Army helo pilot who now flies a Life Flight helicopter.  Kevin was then, and remains, the Sarasota, Florida representative for Operation Second Chance (operationsecondchance.org) – a fantastic organization that has been helping our veterans for years.  Pete asked Kevin how they could get involved and Kevin said “…consider yourself involved…”  This was the beginning of their starting to take veterans on fishing trips/hunts/outings which lead to our organizing the Florida Fun Shoot (FFS) in 2013 with their first event taking place in spring 2014. 

     The first two Florida Fun Shoots were thru the Operation Second Chance (OSC) 501c3 where they were able to clear about $75,000 for OSC with a portion going to another Tampa based organization, Black Dagger Military Hunt Club (blackdaggermhc.org), and a specialized campaign, The Mike Day Tri-Challenge.  OSC was very supportive of all they were doing and helped them greatly, however, with all the expenses run thru OSC, and some funds being provided to other organizations, Pete, Dave, John and Mike were hurting the giving/expense ratio – which OSC had worked very hard to keep at over 90% return to vets for all giving they receive. 

     For this and other reasons in late 2015 Pete, Dave, John and Mike started Operation Patriot Support (OPs).  They received their approval for 501c3 status in 2016 and have continued the Florida Fun Shoot and added The Evening With Heroes event to fund assistance programs.   As OPs, they continue to support OSC, Black Dagger, and other veteran support organizations, such as Southeastern Guide Dog’s Paws for Patriots, and Support the Troops as well as providing specific support to other individual veterans.