Conversation with Steve Hall

Steve Hall grew up in Bradenton, joined the Marine Corps and returned to the area in 2002. Now, he is the senior benefits specialist with Alltrust Insurance. Hall is involved in many organizations in the area. He chairs the Gulf Coast CEO Forum, is board director of the Sarasota Human Resources Association and is a member of several other boards. With help from Bill Robertson, CEO of Kirk-Pinkerton, he has matched funds with Goodwill Manasota for a grant with Goodwill’s SERV initiative, which helps provide emergency money for veterans in need.

Hall's efforts began approximately a year and a half ago, when Robertson decided the last Friday of every month of his "Let's Talk Law" on WSRQ Radio to connecting veterans with employers. Hall began helping find employers to be featured on the show.

Doing this show, we realized there are a lot of veterans who have emergency needs. Basically, for whatever reason, they’re in a situation where they need help and they need it today. So, myself, Bill Robertson, as well as Jaime DiDomenico (president of N&M CoolToday), we came up with the idea of a veteran’s emergency fund. We funded it. So we initially set up a private Facebook group, and that way, if there’s ever an emergency need, the administrator could send it out to this group knowing this group is inclined to help. 

The idea of all of that is, to not judge the situation...Here are these veterans who’ve done a lot for us, they’ve served our country, and they get up against challenges. So every dollar we put in goes back out to help a veteran, there’s no administrative cost. But because it’s administered through Goodwill, the philosophy is, "Don’t give a hand out, they give a hand up."...Let’s say a veteran comes in and, for whatever reason, they couldn’t balance their checkbook. Instead of just saying, "Here’s $20, hope it works out," they have to agree to participate in a program that’s going to help you. That might be finicial cash management, budgeting —whatever is going to help you so that way you don’t come back in the same situation.

I was in the Marine Corps, I was stationed in Hawaii. I had a great time. I was young but I didn’t have to worry about getting shipped out...Now that I’m older I really appreciate that some people are willing to do that for us. Now, it’s rewarding to give back. An example is, there was a guy who did five or six tours in Iraq, was renting a house with his family of four, and the house burnt down. He had nothing. He goes to Goodwill and knocks on their door — and most veterans are proud, they don’t want to ask for help or they don’t know how to ask for help — and out of that fund, they gave him like $2,500, and not only that, Operation Second Chance sent the family to Disney for the weekend while they got their life back together. 

We realized we need more resources. So myself, Robertson, Joe Part, founder of Alltrust, Bob Rosinsky, CEO of Goodwill, CJ Bannister, Goodwill Manasota Director of American Veterans and Their Families, and Veronica Miller, Vice President of Goodwill Industries, we got together to brainstorm, and the idea came up that, "Why don’t we create a roundup campaign?" The idea is that, the 30 days leading up to Veteran’s Day in November, we will have local businesses participate. Like when you go in to purchase a smoothie at Tropical Smoothie, or you go to Anna Maria Oyster Bar and you get a dinner for $9.50, you’ll be asked by that server if you’d like to round up your bill to $10 and use these proceeds to help create an endowment for these veterans who are in emergency situations. 

We’ve been going around and meeting with a lot of people. We’ve met with the Chambers of Commerce in Manatee and Sarasota counties, the Economic Development Councils, Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance, houses of worship and churches, restaurant and hotel associations, and across the board all of them want to help. They’re going to help promote this to their members, but also as we’re marketing this, we can say, here’s the entities that are involved and it’s all of these folks. When you start wrapping your head around how many businesses that is, it’s a lot of people, it’s a lot of opportunity.

There isn't anyone — at least no one I’ve met — who doesn’t light up when you talk about veterans and look forward to the opportunity to help, but sometimes they don’t know how to help.