{"id":12810,"date":"2018-05-24T22:55:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T02:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=12810"},"modified":"2018-05-24T23:56:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T03:56:29","slug":"local-nonprofit-takes-vets-out-to-the-ball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/05\/local-nonprofit-takes-vets-out-to-the-ball-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Nonprofit Takes Vets Out to the Ball Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1985\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1985\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1985\" src=\"http:\/\/tomsriver.shorebeat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BlueClaws.Ma22-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Ma Deuce Deuce President Dennis Addesso, at left, welcomes two fellow veterans to enjoy seats at First Energy Park for a recent Blue Claws minor league baseball game, as part of a night out the nonprofit provides. Photo credit: Ma Deuce Deuce.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1985\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ma Deuce Deuce President Dennis Addesso, at left, welcomes two fellow veterans to enjoy seats at First Energy Park for a recent Blue Claws minor league baseball game, as part of a night out the nonprofit provides. Photo credit: Ma Deuce Deuce.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Local veterans nonprofit group Ma Deuce Deuce has launched a program to give veterans a night out at the ballpark.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As a way to foster camaraderie and counter the isolation many veterans feel, Ma Deuce Deuce (Ma22) is seeking veterans who might enjoy some time out at First Energy Park in Lakewood to catch home games of the Blue Claws.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cMaking connections and fostering a sense of community is what we are all about,\u201d said President and co-founder, Dennis Addesso of Toms River. \u201cSo many veterans feel isolated and have no outlet and are grappling with PTSD and other issues. We feel a night at the park can break the ice and allow us to gauge where we can help them, in a setting that they can enjoy some family entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The cost of the game seats was underwritten by the generous sponsorship of local businesses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">The Serenity Cafe, Toms River<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">MJM Tree Service & Maintenance, Forked River<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">Gerard J. Petrocelli & Gillen Realty Inc., Toms River<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">Kimberly Barfuss, Brick<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe have been overwhelmed with the support our community has provided in the past and the hits just keep coming.\u201d said Tom Kiselow, another founding member of MA22 and its Chief Operating Officer, said. \u201cAnything that can be used to get a veteran out of the house and on a path to recovery and restoration is what we are all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Last year Ma22 was instrumental in raising funds for several other non-profits including Operation Restored Warrior (ORW), a free 5-day faith-based program a majority of the team are alumni to. Ma22 was also co-hosts for Operation: Ruck It with local veteran nonprofit Warhorse SCUBA. The event consisted the two organizations along with 185 other participants and 35 volunteers rucking (military term for hiking) 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) down the Jersey shore. Among the other events Ma22 hosted was a benefit for a local veteran\u2019s family, Gary Bell of Brick.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe\u2019ve picked up a lot of steam since the Gary Bell Irons & BBQ event and haven\u2019t slowed down since\u201d Addesso added. Gary Bell was a Marine Purple Heart recipient from Brick, NJ who succumbed to the perils of PTSD years after his tours in Iraq. The event was a huge success creating a trust fund for Gary\u2019s sons, Riley and Parker, who were 11 and 7 at the time of his passing. \u00a0\u201cMa22 was a blessing to our family in a time where it was really needed,\u201d said Rande (Bell) Martinez, sister to Gary. \u201cThey are truly a group that our community and our veterans need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ma22 is an Ocean County based 501(c)3 charity that focuses on veterans advocacy and creating raising awareness of the \u201c22 daily Veteran suicides\u201d epidemic as well as providing veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a diversity of restorative and therapeutic programs\/non-profit organizations at no cost to the veteran.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For more information or to contact the group, email <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dennis@ma22.org<\/a>, call 732-684-1314 or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MaDeuceDeuce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&q=http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MaDeuceDeuce\/&source=gmail&ust=1527306794952000&usg=AFQjCNEcfyYkY9MZtuufeO3p3TrO7bMTPA\">www.facebook.com\/MaDeuceDeuce\/<\/a><wbr \/>. A web page is currently under construction with expectations for launch in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/05\/local-nonprofit-takes-vets-out-to-the-ball-game\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local veterans nonprofit group Ma Deuce Deuce has launched a program to give veterans a night out at the ballpark. As a way to foster camaraderie and counter the isolation many veterans feel, Ma Deuce Deuce (Ma22) is seeking veterans who might enjoy some time out at First Energy Park in Lakewood to catch home [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[24,57,56,2993],"class_list":["post-12810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-lakewood","tag-lakewood-blueclaws","tag-ma-deuce-deuce"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BlueClaws.Ma22.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3kC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}