A Passion to Serve Those Who Have Served: Veteran Travis Reynders Shares His Work Experience with the Gary Sinise Foundation

Simquily: Before we dive in, please share a little bit about yourself and your family. 

Travis: I was born in Albany, New York, raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, and I currently reside in Jefferson City, Missouri, with my beautiful wife, Lyndsey, and two amazing children, Watson (3) and Gwendolyn “Winnie” (6 weeks). Lyndsey and I met in college at the University of Missouri—Columbia (Mizzou) in 2008 and started dating in 2010, a few short months before I left for boot camp. We married in Las Vegas in February 2012 before my first deployment, and then had a true wedding in January 2013 before our families and friends in Jefferson City. Personally, I enjoy golfing, hunting, fishing, and having movie nights with my family! Professionally, I enjoy the work I get to do with the Gary Sinise Foundation R.I.S.E. program. 

Simquily: As a member of the Gary Sinise Foundation team, please share a little bit about the Foundation and what you appreciate most about the organization.  

Travis: The Gary Sinise Foundation truly honors those men and women who are serving or have served our country both at home and abroad, as well as those men and women serving our communities daily as first responders. Through various programs, the Gary Sinise Foundation strives to better the lives of and serve active duty, veterans, and first responders daily. I appreciate most the dedication our leadership has shown to answer Gary Sinise’s call and challenge to “do a little more.” 

Simquily: What is your role with the Foundation? What drew you to the job and what do you enjoy most about your work? 

Travis: My role is a Project Coordinator in the R.I.S.E. (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment) Program within the Gary Sinise Foundation. We build custom, specially adaptive smart homes for wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Specifically, my role primarily deals with bringing our national partners’ products and services to the local job level, maintaining budgets, and assisting Project Managers where needed on specific projects. I was drawn to the job because of the mission and a desire to give back to the veteran community. 

What do I enjoy most? I love our R.I.S.E. team! The dedication, hard work, and sacrifice made by every member of the team to ensure veterans and their families are cared for is unmatched. I have to mention Scott Schaeperkoetter, Nathan Linhardt, Chris Smith, Brad Michel, Andy Jahnsen, Casey Marsch, Pete Franzen, Tim Kirk, and Robby Bax. The team is what makes every day at the office or on the road great! This is truly a group effort, and the camaraderie is what I had been missing since the Marines. A passion to serve those who have served this country is what drives us every day. How many people can say day in and day out they work with people who share their passion?! It’s a culture unlike any other and takes us all to drive the mission of the Gary Sinise Foundation. 

Simquily: Please share a little bit about your military experience. What motivated you to join?

Travis: I enlisted in the Marines in November 2010 and left for boot camp on March 21, 2011. I graduated boot camp in June 2011 then went to two months of Infantry School to become an 0351 or Infantry Assaultman, which specializes in bringing the assets of rockets and demolitions to the main infantry units. I was a member of 2nd Battalion/1st Marines (2/1) Fox Company and 1st Battalion/5th Marines (1/5) Alpha Company. I deployed two times: 31st MEU out of Okinawa, Japan, first; then, to Darwin, Australia, second. 

I was motivated to join for two reasons: family legacy and the realization that college was not for me in my younger, immature years. My father, uncle, two grandfathers, and numerous other relatives served in the military. The only choice for me was Marines—I wanted to be in the infantry and serve with the best! To the second reason, college is not for everyone right after high school, and I only wished I had figured that out earlier. However, I met my wife in college, so I say it all worked out perfectly and on God’s time! Takes some people a long time to figure that out, and some never do. 

Simquily: What was challenging about life in the military? What are a few takeaways from your time in the military that continue to impact your life today? 

Travis: On a purely personal side, the most challenging part was turning off the military side of me when it came to home life. I was a selfish individual back then, and Lyndsey came second to a lot of things, which is truly regrettable looking back now because I missed out on some great adventures together as a young married couple. On a military side, in general, the most challenging part was the unknown of daily life: What will we be doing? Where will we be going? Why are we doing the things we were doing? These were all things my friends and I discussed all the time. The other challenging part was how some people only ever saw your rank, never your overall ability. 

Leadership has been a big takeaway—mainly in reference to what that word truly means and truly looks like in action. I served under some great leaders, and I also had some absolutely terrible and pathetic leaders. I try to take things I learned from the good leaders and mold them together with my style. And then on the flip side, I try to be cognizant of the bad leadership traits I saw and not replicate those. 

Simquily: What was challenging about transitioning out of the military and returning to the civilian world? 

Travis: The hardest part about transitioning was going back to school and the workforce. The way I had to deal with co-workers and fellow students from a communication standpoint was vastly different, and I had to catch up on the latest technology and computer skills. Being an infantryman, I didn’t really utilize technology and computers on a daily basis, so learning those programs and how technology had changed was difficult at first as well, even though it was only four short years that I was away from a college campus. 

It is my belief the transition program I went through prior to leaving active service was a waste of time and can fail a lot of exiting Marines. A retiring higher rank does not have the same goals, desires, etc. as a junior Marine who is leaving after four years; yet, we all go through the same program. Looking back, I think there were a lot of guys in my class who had similar opinions and felt if it was not mandatory to do, then they would not have gone. Being a little bit older and having navigated the college application process prior to my service gave me an idea of who to contact and where to start that process. But not every exiting Marine had that advantage. 

Simquily: Take us through the additional challenges our wounded heroes have returning to civilian life and how the Gary Sinise Foundation is working to not only honor but also help these men and women. 

Travis: I can really only speak to the R.I.S.E. Program and the specially adapted smart homes. All of our veterans we build for have unique and different challenges they face. I would not do it justice discussing those challenges. What we do in our program though is discuss those challenges in detail to understand how to design and build homes that suit their specific injuries and needs, as well as what will allow them to gain independence in their own homes. We also take into account the family dynamics to better understand how the families operate, not only now but in five, ten, fifteen, and thirty years. We strive to make these homes their “forever” homes! 

Simquily: What is the process like in designing a home for each individual?

Travis: In designing a home, we typically have local architects meet with the veteran and his or her family to really understand the needs and challenges of everyday life in order to incorporate a solution to those issues in the design. Every home is completely customized, meaning no one floor plan or house is the same. Every veteran’s injuries come with different challenges, and the family dynamics are all different, which is why custom homes are the only way to truly build a quality home that addresses everything. 

There are certain requirements all homes must adhere to based on what the Specially Adapted Housing grant from the VA dictates, such as two accessible egress routes and turning radiuses for wheelchairs, thresholds, grab bars, etc. Home Automation is not a requirement from a VA perspective, but every home we build has integrated lighting, locks, security, audio, thermostats, etc. so the home can be controlled from an iPad. The process can be time consuming and go through several revisions, but we want to ensure we are building quality homes that suit the veterans’ needs and the family dynamics, all while being as cost effective and efficient as possible. 

Simquily: Do you get to be present for the unveilings of the smart homes?  

Travis: I have been present for eight home dedications, and it will never get old seeing the families walk through their front doors for the first time when the homes are completed. To say I haven’t shed a tear myself every now and again would be a lie! The greatest part about it is every reaction is completely genuine because the veterans we build for are genuine people who feel like they may not deserve the home, which could not be further from the truth. With the homes being custom, the veterans do a great deal of selecting the products and materials that go in their homes, and the reveals allow them to see all those decisions come together into a beautiful home. 

Simquily: What are some ways Americans can honor our veterans in everyday life? Does a simple “thank you for your service” comment in passing at the grocery store or airport mean much? What else—big things or small things—can we do to honor our veterans? 

Travis: Absolutely—I think people can honor veterans in everyday life by thanking them for their service, especially the Vietnam-era veterans who were not welcomed home properly, as service members are today. The Vietnam veterans have truly stepped up to ensure what happened to them does not happen to the current generation of military members coming home from deployments. 

I think a thank you always means a lot to a person, no matter where it is coming from. There are other things to do for veterans too, whether it’s volunteering time at a state Veterans home to just sit and have great conversations, donating to a charitable cause, or adopting a service member or unit that is deployed and sending them care packages. A “thank you” does not always have to be a big event like a fundraiser. Small things go a long way when you just do what you can.