{"id":161,"date":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=161"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","slug":"fresh-start-helps-veteran-and-teen-son-rebuild-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"FRESH Start helps veteran and teen son rebuild lives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"blog-content\">\n<div><div class=\"wsite-image wsite-image-border-none\" style=\"padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:10px;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;text-align:center\"> <a> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Picture\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lccm.us\/uploads\/1\/2\/5\/2\/125258056\/published\/don-3.jpg?1605730768\" style=\"width:auto;max-width:100%\"\/> <\/a> <div style=\"display:block;font-size:90%\"><\/div> <\/div><\/div> <div class=\"paragraph\">\u201cWell, I\u2019m an older-than-dirt, single father.\u201d<br\/><br\/>That was the icebreaker FRESH Start guest Don began with during a 45-minute conversation about his journey to LCCM\u2019s FRESH Start Emergency Shelter and Resource Center with his son, Malachi.<br\/><br\/>\u201cI have a 15-year-old son who I have been the sole source of everything to since he just turned four,\u201d Don said.<br\/>\u200b<br\/>And being a single father certainly came with hardships.<br\/>\u200b<br\/>\u201cWe lost our house, we lost everything,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery God-loving thing, but the shirt on my back. But, I don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/div> <div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div style=\"height: 10px; overflow: hidden;\"><\/div> <a class=\"wsite-button wsite-button-small wsite-button-normal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flipcause.com\/secure\/cause_pdetails\/OTQwODQ=\" target=\"_blank\"> <span class=\"wsite-button-inner\">Holiday Gift Guide<\/span> <\/a> <div style=\"height: 10px; overflow: hidden;\"><\/div><\/div> <div class=\"paragraph\">Don once operated a construction company and had contracts in the Baltimore, Md. area where he would travel to from Lehigh County each day.<br\/><br\/>But by 2012, Don hit some stumbling blocks.<br\/><br\/>\u201cI was pretty well out of sorts. I was a mess, I was a wreck,\u201d he said. \u201cI was physically a wreck, emotionally, mentally \u2013 I was just totally drained. I had nothing really more to offer, or to give or to do.\u201d<br\/><br\/>By the next year, he no longer operated the construction company and become involved in a criminal case that resulted in jail time, at which time his son was placed in foster care.<br\/><br\/>When he was released from jail, he quickly regained custody of his son, but he struggled to rebuild.<br\/><br\/>That\u2019s when he began attending Berks County Veteran Affairs programs. Don, an Army veteran, was pleasantly surprised by what the VA had to offer.<br\/><br\/>\u201cA whole lot of my missions were in East Berlin (Germany),\u201d he said. \u201cI left with a mega case of PTSD and some other stuff that will never go away, but it\u2019s being managed.\u201d<br\/><br\/>Because of his experience at the VA, Don wanted to do something to help other veterans.<br\/><br\/>\u201cI\u2019m thinking to myself, well, if I didn\u2019t know about this (VA programs), I can\u2019t be the only one,\u201d he said. \u201cHow can we make other veterans aware?\u201d<br\/><br\/>That is when he started the Sal Santori Radio Show, devoted to veterans and veterans\u2019 issues, which aired in Lebanon, Pittsburgh and Spartanburg, WV. Though the show is on hiatus, Don has plans to kickstart it again next year.<br\/><br\/>For now, he\u2019s focusing on a strategy to rebuild a life for himself and his son.<br\/><br\/>After a stay with friends in Palmyra that didn\u2019t work out, Don and Malachi briefly stayed at a hotel room in Palmyra. That\u2019s when a Caring Cupboard employee approached him and asked if he would be willing to accept some help from LCCM\u2019s FRESH Start shelter.<br\/><br\/>Since coming to FRESH Start in early October, Don obtained a job in Palmyra, which he said he saw \u201cGod\u2019s hand\u201d working in to provide him this opportunity.<br\/><br\/>Last year he worked security for a plant that was under construction in Palmyra. A few weeks ago, a temp agency that hires for that company asked if he\u2019d be interested in working there.<br\/><br\/>\u201cThey wanted to offer me a forklift position somewhere, but it wasn\u2019t enough money. And then they said, well, we have this other company up in Palmyra, and I said \u2018what did you say!\u201d<br\/><br\/>He started his new position in late October, and now wants to find a home in the Palmyra area so his son can continue attending Palmyra Area School District.<br\/><br\/>\u201cI told Malachi that we have spent years on the survival plane. Now we\u2019re going to experience the living plane,\u201d he said. \u201cSo my picture is a much more comfortable lifestyle for him and more things that will give him a better quality life. And living in a place of our choosing.\u201d<br\/><br\/>Long term, he wants to help his son realize his dreams.<br\/><br\/>\u201cHe wants to become a forensic chemist and forensic scientist,\u201d he said, proudly. \u201cI said, \u2018you go, boy!\u2019\u201d<br\/>\u200b<br\/>Don says he is thankful to everyone involved with the Fresh Start program and highly recommends single fathers to utilized this resource to get a \u201cfresh start.\u201d<br\/>\u00a0<br\/><br\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWell, I\u2019m an older-than-dirt, single father.\u201d That was the icebreaker FRESH Start guest Don began with during a 45-minute conversation about his journey to LCCM\u2019s FRESH Start Emergency Shelter and Resource Center with his son, Malachi. \u201cI have a 15-year-old son who I have been the sole source of everything to since he just turned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}