Nathaniel Lauzon is a second-year student at Saint Michael’s College studying Digital Media and Communications with a special interest in reporting and writing. This article is published through a collaboration between The Winooski News and a journalism course at Saint Michael’s College.
Colchester, Vt. – Sitting in her office at Josh’s House in Colchester, surrounded by pictures of her family, Executive Director Andrea Gagner-Murphy listens to a group of veterans laughing and playing a game of pool outside.
Four years ago, Josh’s House was founded by the Josh Pallotta Fund as a place for veterans to maintain or adjust to their post-service lives and receive support, ranging from food to friendship.
The story of Josh’s House began in 2009 when Joshua R. Pallotta joined the Vermont National Guard and was sent to serve in Afghanistan. After he returned from deployment, Pallotta suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the loss of two fellow soldiers while in the Middle East.
In 2014, Josh Pallotta died by suicide. His mother, Valerie, began the Josh Pallotta Fund to help veterans avoid a story like Josh’s from happening again.
Just a few months after Josh died, Gagner-Murphy met Valerie while working as the CEO of 14th Star Brewing in Saint Albans. They discussed a fundraiser for the Josh Pallotta fund, which created Josh’s House as a physical space years later. The two got to know each other well, and Gagner-Murphy is now the executive director of Josh’s House.
Gagner-Murphy explained how the organization works to make the world a better place for veterans.
Q. What exactly do you do as executive director?
A. I will do anything from unclogging a toilet to hosting fundraisers. I take care of the Josh Pallotta fund which is the overriding organization. I’m responsible for managing the budget, writing grants, and hosting fundraisers. On any given day, I could be scheduling massages, or I could be making a meal when our house manager, Courtney, is out or involved in other duties. We have about four big fundraisers a year that require quite a bit of attention to a letter-writing campaign.
Q. What is the overall mission of Josh’s House?
A. The ultimate mission of Josh’s House is to end veteran suicide. We recognize that one of the biggest ways to do that is through connections. Whether it’s veterans’ suicide, whether it’s adolescent suicide, one of the biggest reasons is when people feel isolated and alone. And so by giving veterans this opportunity to connect here, it lessens that isolation.
Q. What is the age range of veterans that come in?
A. We predominantly get mostly older veterans simply for the fact that they’re either retired or completely disabled. Seventy percent of our population is 60 plus.
Q. Do you get women to come in as well?
A. The number has grown considerably in the last couple of years. One of the ways that we try to encourage female veterans to come is we host a ladies’ night on the last Thursday night of the month where we’ll do an activity, but it allows them to come in and know that this is a safe space for them and what we found is when they come to ladies night, they come back afterward.
Q. What challenges do you think veterans face the most?
A. I think probably the biggest challenge is trying to navigate where the resources are to get help for whatever the problem is, whether it’s housing, whether it’s substance abuse, whether it’s food insecurity.
Q. Does Josh’s House offer counseling services?
A. We don’t have any clinical programs on site and that was kind of by design. One thing that we didn’t want veterans to do was to feel like they were being observed or diagnosed when they were here.
Q. How can the local community get involved?
A. We need volunteers if you wanna do a food drive or a canned goods drive. But one of the best ways that people can help us is through social media. Liking and sharing our social media posts are super helpful to us.
Q. Can you share a success story from a veteran you have worked with?
A. This veteran was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and his progressed really quickly. Shortly after we opened our doors in 2021, he started coming in regularly, and he was telling me about his diagnosis and how scared he was.
He showed up one Tuesday morning when we have Project Healing Waters, which is another veteran service organization. They do fly-tying and they asked him if he wanted to do some fly-tying. He’s like, “I have no idea how”. They were super patient with him and walked him through fly-tying and then he ended up staying most of the day.
When he left, he popped his head in and said, “I got up this morning and I thought today was gonna be a shit day. Then I came here and this has been a jackpot day.” I love to tell people that story because for a lot of veterans just coming through the door is difficult.
Q. How do you make Josh’s House a comfortable environment for veterans?
A. It’s not us so much as the veterans that are already here. It is the coolest thing to see someone new walk through that door and then [with] the veterans that are already here, there’s an immediate bond.
Q. What do you hope that this organization can achieve in the future?
A. What we’d like to do at least here in the state of Vermont is we’d like to have at least four or five Josh’s houses. We want to make a place like this accessible to every single veteran that lives within driving range in the state of Vermont.