One woman aims to provide service dogs to Mid-South veterans with PTSD
* This story was published in the Nov. 11 copy of The Daily Helmsman, a University of Memphis student-run newspaper. See copy of link at bottom of story.
Sunlight flows through every windowpane of the sanctuary at First Congregational Church, illuminating row after row of empty seats. A handful of elderly veterans sprinkle across the front pews, their lapel pins centered on their jackets and hats to indicate fields of battle long since left, but not yet forgotten.
A few younger, former service members isolate themselves in the back rows, keeping their distance, scanning for threats, and waiting for the “Victory Over PTSD Town Hall Meeting” to start.
Sitting right in the middle of all of them is an unassuming, attentive 31-year-old civilian named Amanda Butler. She pushes up the bridge of her glasses and continues to jot down notes and questions on the back of a brochure as the first speaker gets to the podium.
The panel on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America, promptly begins at 2 p.m. As the speakers share their personal experiences with war, depression, and the road to recovery, Butler shakes her head and keeps writing, fully invested in the parts about healing the veterans of Memphis.
In many ways she has been in this position her entire life. Surrounded by grandfathers, her father, and close friends who made it their duty to serve their country, her mission has always been to give back.
“My Grandfather served in the Air Force and would do whatever he could to help other people,” Butler said, “and he always encouraged me to treat others with kindness and respect. I saw it as my legacy to follow in his footsteps in some way.”
What started out as a love for community service projects, such as food drives and planting gardens as a child, turned into something far more personal and poignant in December of 2013. Butler lost a close friend and former Marine, Paul Oliver, to complications from a lethal mix of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) medication.
She explained her grief and the aftermath: “We all knew Paul was tortured by what he saw and experienced in three tours. I began to think about what I could have done to help him, and that turned into feeling like I had to do something to stop this from happening to other veterans suffering with PTSD.”
Thus, Butler founded a nonprofit called The Paul Oliver Foundation to help veterans cope with the symptoms of PTSD through the use of service dogs. She reached out to Oliver’s mother, Nancy Oliver, with the idea of honoring Paul. Much to Butler’s surprise, Nancy had received a similar call from Kimm Harris, the wife of a Marine who was mentored by Paul.
“We knew we wanted to help veterans and educate the public about PTSD,” said Harris, “and we thought about what seemed to be working to heal Paul before his death – his dog, Scout.”
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, between 11 and 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans return from war with some symptoms of PTSD. Treatments range from therapy to cognitive processing, a procedure in which the patient further explores their memories and understanding of the symptoms they are exhibiting.
VA hospitals do not directly utilize service dogs as a form of treatment due to the lack of clinical research, but nonprofits across the country have proven successful with their programs. Through her research, Butler discovered there are currently no organizations in the Mid-South specifically aimed at providing service dogs to veterans with PTSD. She knew the task would be daunting and expensive, with the average cost of training a dog ranging from $7,000 to $20,000 according to the Foundation for Service Dog Support.
Relying on grassroots fundraisers such as church dinners and silent auctions over the course of the last year, Butler started growing her network of community partners and certified trainers necessary to start obedience and basic service dog classes in 2016. Backed by the unconditional support of her husband, she made the foundation her full-time, zero-salary job, and worked alongside Harris to build a board of directors.
Soon after they began, she reached out to her longtime friend Brigitte Billeaudeaux to become the secretary for the board, knowing the mission would strike close to home.
“We began talking about the affects of PTSD on our lives, and it really made me think of my father,” said Billeaudeaux. “He was a veteran of Vietnam, so, for me, helping veterans improve their quality of life is important.”
With a mission statement, a board of directors, and their 501(c)3 status approved earlier this year, Butler and the Paul Oliver Foundation understand the road ahead is long and tedious, but the requests from veterans in need have already started pouring in, serving as her daily motivation to keep pushing forward.
As the town hall meeting wraps up, Butler moves over to the Paul Oliver Foundation table, ready to educate anyone willing to chat about her mission. Only six or seven veterans and other representatives of nonprofits wander over to hear her vision of providing service dogs across the Mid-South, but Butler is not dismayed.
Instead, she smiles ear to ear as she grasps the engraved dog tag chained around her neck.
“We really connected with that woman from the Vet Center,” she says. “You got to start somewhere.”
