{"id":7000,"date":"2018-12-06T07:54:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T12:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=7000"},"modified":"2018-12-07T10:57:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T15:57:02","slug":"something-to-believe-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2018\/12\/06\/something-to-believe-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Something to Believe in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alumnus Josh McCain Quits High-Powered Job to Start Nonprofit for Active-Duty Special Operations Forces<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In March of 2015, Josh McCain (\u201809) was looking for something more.<\/p>\n

It was a curious time to be searching. He and his wife had moved to New York City in 2012 and found remarkable success. He was the director of business development for a large health care company, and in almost three years on the job, he had increased their revenue by leaps and bounds. He had received major awards and had been placed on the city\u2019s who\u2019s who lists, including King of Kings County in Brooklyn and 40 Under 40. He had essentially conquered one of the toughest cities in the world.<\/p>\n

Still, he couldn\u2019t shake his restlessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat offer, that job, single-handedly changed my life,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd after I got my bonus and my paychecks and all that stuff, I just realized my heart wasn\u2019t there, and I was looking for something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a visit with his brother-in-law that began to stir McCain\u2019s heart. A soldier in the Special Operations Forces (SOF), his brother-in-law had just returned from his 14th deployment at the time, and the effects were becoming obvious. Each deployment seemed to be wearing him down more, and McCain couldn\u2019t stand watching him suffer. He decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n

McCain grew up in Bozeman, Montana, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and remembered the restorative power it had on his life. He wondered what resources were available for active-duty soldiers like his brother-in-law to decompress and recharge during their two-week block leave before and after deployment. He interviewed more than 60 SOF personnel, and found their resources were minimal at best.<\/p>\n

In June of 2015, McCain filed the paperwork for Big Sky Bravery, a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving active-duty SOF soldiers personalized outdoor recreation experiences in the wide-open spaces of Montana. In October of 2015, he and his wife quit their jobs, moved from New York to Bozeman, and hit the ground running.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to get those first three soldiers out, it took everything we had,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I was more persistent trying to get that approved than I was in selling\u00a0anything in my entire career. I sat outside of a department store for about six months, any day that I was able to do it, trying to sell raffle tickets or jingling a bell like I was working for the Salvation Army. I ended up getting the first program funded doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of this interview, McCain had just completed his 17th weeklong program, which had hosted a total of 76 SOF soldiers in three years of operation. These soldiers are selected by the Department of Defense, and engage in a wide range of activities, including skiing, ATV riding, hiking and climbing, all with equipment and gear from Big Sky Bravery sponsors. The activities vary in intensity and difficulty based on the soldiers\u2019 age and what kind of experience they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

For the soldiers, taking a week from their block leave, and time with their families, seemed to be having a real impact. But McCain didn\u2019t realize the true impact of Big Sky Bravery until he heard from one of the soldier\u2019s wives. He wasn\u2019t sure how the conversation would go, and worried he was going to get an earful about keeping her husband away from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m going to be very short and to the point when I say this,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201c\u2018I would rather have my husband here 100 percent mentally for one week than zero percent for two weeks. And whatever you did when he was out there changed his outlook and changed his life. He was able to breathe when he got home. That last week he was with us was one of the best weeks of our marriage, and I\u2019ll never be able to thank you enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since starting Big Sky Bravery, McCain and his wife have burned through all their savings. He\u2019s held down three jobs while trying to keep the organization afloat and keep a roof over his family\u2019s heads. While leading these programs, he\u2019s broken his back, dislocated his shoulder twice, fractured his tibia, torn his MCL, sprained his ACL and suffered a concussion. He knows there\u2019s no guarantees of success, but the work has all been worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing for us that is guaranteed is we know that when somebody gets off that airplane, there\u2019s a reason why they\u2019re here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s up to us to figure it out as fast as possible how we\u2019re going to help them when they get off the plane, because we know everyone has a story, and they were all selected for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain, who was named a Georgia Southern 40 Under 40 honoree in 2016, still has big plans for Big Sky Bravery. This year, he\u2019ll hire another program leader, a former SOF soldier who can free up McCain for a little decompression of his own. He also hopes to build a lodge in Big Sky, Montana, where program alumni can come and bring their families to share their experience with them. It\u2019s a big dream, McCain admits, but when you believe in something, you\u2019ll do anything to see it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think I\u2019m going to have to ding that bell a few more times outside the department store,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumnus Josh McCain quits high-powered job to start nonprofit for active-duty special operations forces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-fall-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}