ROGERS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Natural disasters like the tornadoes that swept Northwest Arkansas on Memorial Day weekend can cause post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans.
Sheep Dog Impact Assistance, a local nonprofit, is there to help those veterans find purpose and strength again while also helping the community clean up from that very disaster.
When military veterans and first responders leave the service, it can take a toll on their mental health. And with the recent tornado in Rogers, it was a traumatic experience for some.
“Just the violence of the storm is everything is breaking and things are getting blown around,” said Jeff Watts, director of continuous service and disaster response for Sheep Dog Impact Assistance.
Post traumatic stress disorder symptoms can be triggered during a natural disaster, causing flashbacks, anxiety, and nightmares according to ptsduk.org.
“This disaster hit home in our backyard and it really played with a lot of our emotions,” said John Parker, marketing director for Sheep Dog.
But just as some veterans may be triggered by the storms, they are also trained on how to respond and recover from destruction.
“With some of the experience, I’ve got doing it as long as I have to be able to teach these younger people how to do it, how to do it safely, how to work together,” Watts said.
Watts is also a retired 327th infantry with 100 First Airborne.
He has been working with the organization since 2017, giving hope and lending a hand to veterans around the country.
“When we were able to show up and say, well, let us get that tree off your house or let us tarp your roof so we don’t have any further damage,” Watts said.
He was working Wednesday with other crew members in the yard of a house on West Lilac Street in Rogers removing debris and chain-sawing limbs and branches from a fallen tree.
“This is my purpose. My purpose is to try to help others,” Watts said.
Sheep Dog has worked 2,300 hours, assisted 130 residents so far and cleared 70 properties, Parker said.
They also had 300 volunteers help them.
“Earlier today I was at Walmart, and a person in front of me said, ‘Hey, you guys helped my mother-in-law’s place. She did some debris removal.’ And just to hear somebody say, ‘thank you,’ that is really important,” Parker said.
Helping is a way of healing for first responders and veterans who are not serving anymore like Watts and Parker.
“It gives you that feeling of servitude again. And you have a mission and you’ve accomplished it,” Parker said.
Parker spent 20 years in the United States Navy and being with others who share the same career and experiences as him is beneficial to his mental health.
“It’s fun to laugh and joke, and at the end of the day, sit around and talk about everything we accomplished,” Parker said.
Being with Sheep Dog allows Parker to go home every night, remembering why he served in the first place.
“It just makes me feel good and it gives me the feeling of having a mission again, having a purpose,” Parker said.
Sheep Dog needs volunteers.
“Whether you’re a veteran active duty military personnel, or a first responder or just a volunteer that wants to come out and be a part of something to help the community, we’re always looking for those types of people,” Parker said.
You can sign up on their website.
“There’ll be a little box there where you can donate if you can’t make it out, or you can hit the volunteer registration if you want to come out and volunteer,” Parker said,
You can also donate by going to their website, Facebook, or Instagram.
“Monetary donations are huge during this time. Our offices were damaged, and we may not be able to get back into them for the next month or so. So, we have command centers that we’re setting up and doing work out of,” Parker said. “So monetary donations help, gift cards to Lowe’s or Home Depot. Those types of things help because we’re doing a lot of chainsaw work, a lot of tarping or you can just donate out of the kindness of your heart to help us continue our mission.”
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