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News 12 Staff

831spotlightnj2_2024-08-31-09-35-28

We are putting the spotlight on just believe incorporated in Tom's River. Paul HS is the CEO Jerry Carreno is a reporter with the Asbury Park Press A pp.com. They've been working together for 10 years and we want to talk about Larry's home that you just broke ground on. First. Let's start with the bronze picture that you have of his shoes. What does this mean? Everything? That's the only word that can come out to see him, you know, uh, that's what I have left of my friend. Um, and, and I wanted to do something great to, uh, remember him and honor the veterans that serve our country. And, uh, Larry, uh, Larry did something that I couldn't do at the time when, when, uh, I was gonna join the military and 2001 and, and, uh, when he went, you know, and, and, uh, you know, they sacrificed and when he came back, things weren't right. And you know, those, those boots, I, when he, uh, when he passed away, I was cleaning out a storage locker and there was a bag in his coat and I, I, uh, unraveled this tote and those those boots were in a picture of him standing next to a bunch of, uh ammunition, uh in Iraq. And I knew that those were his boots when he was over. And I, I wanted to honor him as much as I could in our friendship. And I just knew that those boots are gonna be a symbolization. When someone walks in that house, you're gonna feel that honor that I feel when I, when I see that and that emotion that I have, it was so hard to even send him to California to get bronze. I was crying and the guy saw me in the, in the mail room and he goes, what are you crying about? And I said it is gonna take me too long to try to explain to you the emotion I am feeling of letting these go right now just to get them bronzed and I can't wait. They're not even home yet and I'm seeing them right now is even making me emotional because of how much our friendship meant. But also those boots are gonna show people that honor that we had for our country. And you know, having covered Paul's works, his good works for 10 years. This is the most emotional I've ever seen him over a project. This one is deeply personal for him and, and that's powerful. Someone who helped a lot of people to, to be so deeply personal about it that really tells you something about the importance of this mission.

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831spotlightnj3_2024-08-31-13-04-15

We are putting the focus on just believe inc in Tom's River. Paul Holt is the CEO Jerry Carino is a reporter with the Asbury Park Press A pp.com. We are discussing Larry's home, which is a new project. Tell us of what benefit and what it's gonna offer to veterans there in Little Egg Harbor. Yeah. So the ultimate goal is obviously to offer honor and hope to the veterans that served our country. You know, um, when you face uh addiction, you know, it's hard to do it um alone, you know, and you need a, you need a, a comfort of a sober living home, you know, which most people have. But one of the things that was lacking that I've noticed and through my friend, Larry was, there was no veterans helping veterans sober living home. And, and as Jerry had said earlier, this is a first of its kind. This home will also be available for AD A which is the American Disability Act. So someone if they are disabled, they'll be able to utilize the home as well. So they'll have ad a requirements in the home, you know, where the shower will be accessible for a wheelchair or some amenities like that. And also one of the visions I do have with the backyard is to create a veteran garden, you know, to give that peace, you know, part of that honor, but also the peace of the home itself because I want them to feel at peace and know that this is a safe haven, a safe place for them to be and, and get their lives back on track together. Uh, a total of six men, um, with a house manager, case management. Uh, we already have veteran groups that are involved like mob de de, uh, uh, we soldier on, uh, community hope for veterans. The veterans of, uh, affairs is already involved. Uh, and there's more people that want to be involved in this project and we're just so excited for the outcome and the, the best part is we're already helping the veterans by doing the project. Um, how many were on site was just phenomenal, um, and the emotions that they had. Um, you know, Jay Hayden, uh, a dear friend of ours growing up, uh, served in the military and hearing him speak his story, um, impacted me because I knew here I am. I haven't even built the house yet and we're already helping veterans. So it's, it's gonna be awesome and the context here is that this is something that's really needed. I mean, this is a widespread issue that hasn't been addressed to the extent it could be. And this is addressing that right now.

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91spotlightnj4_2024-09-01-08-59-19

Paul Holz is the CEO of just believe Inc in Tom's River. Jerry Carino is a reporter with the Asbury Park Press. A pp.com. We are talking about Larry's home for veterans. You gentlemen have been working together for 10 years. Tell us what requirements will veterans be facing to stay in this home? So, one of my proposals to Little Lake Harbor was to create an advisory board with a panel. Uh So the first part is we'll do an intake with the individual uh that's seeking to uh have refuge in the home and then they'll go to the panel and then the panel will make a decision if the, the uh requirements are met uh for the individual to make. The next, uh part of the process with is the interview in the home, uh with the people that are in the house. Um Once those, those are met, uh met, uh and then the, the uh criteria is met. So people can't just walk into the home, uh and just say, oh, I'm, I want a bed, I'm gonna stay here. Now, you have to meet these requirements in order to get into the home and then uh once they're in, they'll be shown uh their the room. Uh One thing I did forget to mention is uh not only is the house named Larry's home, but each room is going to be named after a sergeant that served in the military that had passed away. And I already have one of the rooms named uh through uh my friend Dennis Odeo of Mas, the president of the uh of that organization. So that's a very special tribute. This must have been what attracted you. One of the things that attracted you to the story. Sherry, no question. And the, the it's special story. Uh And also on the, on the uh following up on the requirements, it's important to explain those to the public because you're trying to galvanize support for this project, galvanize political support, galvanize public support, galvanize financial support. And the best way to do that is to show there's a plan we're just not building a house and you're gonna open the doors and hope for the best. Here's XY and Z, what's going to happen to help, you know, get these folks who live here back on their feet and back into community life. And when you put together the amazing back story with the mission with the plan, that's when things can happen. And so that's one of the reasons this story was so attractive to me and I think our readers as well

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91spotlightnj5_2024-09-01-09-21-25

Our focus is on Larry's home in Little Egg Harbor. It's a project of Just Believe Inc. in Toms River. Paul Holz is the CEO. Jerry Carrino is a reporter with the Asbury Park Press APP.com. They've been working together for a long time, gentlemen, we all know once people hear your segments, they're going to want to get involved to help our veterans. How can they? Yeah, so the first place to go to would be the website at justbelieve Inc.org. And then the second place they can go to is we have a thrift store in Toms River located at 734 Route 37 West, unit number 5 in Toms River open Monday through Saturday 10 to 5. They can come in, they can, uh, become a volunteer there, uh they can donate clothing. Or or knickknacks and and so forth, um, those are the, the easiest ways to get connected into the organization. We also have an administration building at 200 corporate circles second floor in Toms River, uh, and we always look for volunteers for answering the phone or joining our outreach team delivering food on Wednesdays and Fridays. We deliver to over 300 people in the community. Um, and, uh, you know, those are just great ways for people to get involved. Um, right now I would say our unfortunately our code Blue system is a little in limbo, but I think we're gonna be having a landing spot soon that we can disclose, uh, hopefully soon, but, uh, we're excited about that. We've been doing Code Blue for over 7 years and that's another way for people to get involved as well. And when, when we did talk about public enthusiasm, the importance of public involvement in projects like this, you know, one thing that jumped out. Me when I went to, uh, to cover the groundbreaking for Larry's home, Paul was that you had a huge turnout like I could barely find a parking spot. So, so it, it was a good sign that uh that your message is resonating, you know, and so you've always called on the community to help in the various, uh, humanitarian things that you've done. But in this case, you really, you're, you're, you're pulling out a lot of the touchstones, the heartstrings of things that are important to people, veterans who served this. Country, uh, people who are housing insecure people battling addiction, and that goes on everywhere including in Ocean County and so to me seeing all those folks turn out, it became clear that there is a groundswell of support and there are people out there who watch this who maybe don't know about what you're doing who will wanna help and there are many ways you can get involved, but make no mistake, the public's help is integral to helping Larry's home and these types of projects succeed.

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91spotlightnj6_2024-09-01-13-31-29

Larry's home in Little Egg Harbor is coming to help our veterans just believe Inc in Tom's River is behind the project. Paul Holt is the CEO Jerry Carino is a reporter with the Asbury Park Press. A pp.com that's been working with Paul for 10 years now. Paul, as Jerry said, this project is deeply personal to you. Tell us about that. Yeah. So we were, uh, checking through, uh, multiple places for loans and so forth and I really felt comfortable with, uh, Maison Bank and we were going through the project and, uh, they had called me and they said, well, you know, you're approved, but there's one catch, you have to sign your name for this personally. And without hesitation, I said yes. Uh, because I knew how personal this was to me. Um, and how long I've been serving, you know, the homeless population, the veterans, my friend, our relationship, the losses, all the things that I've gone through, uh, to come to this point. And I was like, I've come too far to say no now. And I asked my wife and she said, you've come too far to say no. Now she's like, here, it's all or nothing. Um, we don't even own our own first, our own our house yet. And, um, you know, here we are, we, uh we signed our name to this one and, uh I'm just, I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity. The ultimate goal for just believe is to build a shelter in Ocean County, uh, ran by just believe, you know, I wanna be able to do the same love, compassion, empathy that I have that we're doing with this veterans home, but also continue it on and do it full time instead of just five months out of the year with the co glue system. So I'm just so excited about this project and what it means to me personally, uh to my wife and my family. Thank you for allowing me to do this, my board. Um All the coverage from the press. It's just been amazing. And II, I just can't say thank you enough. I'm just, you want to get a board of a moving project and an organization that's doing something in Ocean County. Just believe is your organization. And, you know, we feel about his commitment and compassion. We probably, I probably interviewed Paul 100 times over the years, over 10 years and this last time about Larry's home when he said, like I put my, my, I signed for this loan myself personally. And that's not just to do that. He did that. It's wonderful for him to like, announce it to the world to say it like that on the record, I thought, wow, this is something else and this is deeply personal. It has great potential and it's something the world should know about. What a sacrifice. Thank you, gentlemen.

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Just Believe CEO Paul Hulse and Asbury Park Press reporter Jerry Carina joined News 12’s Della Crews to discuss the project.

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