They are ‘priceless assets to the veteran community.’ Here’s how this group serves

Paul Chapa is a patriot for the patriots.

As the founder and president of Olathe-based Friends in Service of Heroes (FISH), Chapa and his crew of some 100 volunteers dedicate themselves to saying thanks to those soldiers who have served their country in the past, or are still protecting it today.

“We don’t want to be a Band-Aid. If you want a Band-Aid, being a part of FISH is not for you,” says Chapa, 61. “We don’t want to give a handout. We want to give a hand up.”

Chapa notes that volunteers have not served in the armed forces.

“The least those of us who have not served can do is remember them and honor them.”

Since its founding in 2013, FISH has donated more than $1 million in goods and services to military soldiers and their families. The group, which operates on an annual $100,000 budget funded by donations, provides service dogs, wheelchairs and durable medical equipment to veterans.

The group sponsors a monthly series in which they bring in speakers, both current soldiers and veterans, to support one another.

Veterans, Chapa says, rarely ask for help.

“There’s a lot of guilt. They disappear into our society.”

FISH volunteers are key to organizing Memorial Day activities and hold an annual Armed Forces Day event, which celebrates the military. On June 19, they will host the 10th Annual Combat Golf Tournament at Falcon Lakes in Basehor, Kansas.

“Paul Chapa and the FISH family are priceless assets to the veteran community in Kansas City,” says Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Bull.

“There is such a backlog at the VA, and our veterans get discouraged when they don’t get the help in a timely manner.”

For Chapa, who comes from a long line of family military men but did not serve himself, the idea for the nonprofit came in 2008.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 weighed heavily on Chapa. When his younger cousin returned from a deployment in Iraq, they got to talking. Chapa learned his cousin was coping with death of his best friend, who was killed in action.

Chapa, who worked for a trade magazine out of Chicago at the time, originally wanted to organize what he called a retail patron event as a way to recognize his clients for their efforts supporting the military. But he was irritated that when he presented it to his bosses, they simply viewed it as a great money-maker for the magazine.

Chapa left the publication, started his own magazine — and took his appreciation of veterans to a whole new level. The retail patron program took off. Five years later, FISH was officially born.

Over the past decade-plus, FISH has donated all-terrain wheelchairs for nine amputee veterans, placed 39 service dogs and helped 1,200 families and veterans with financial support.

On a recent sunny afternoon, in an office in downtown Olathe, Chapa and Col. Ernie Garcia met with Garcia’s new service dog, KC

It took more than a year for KC to be cleared to go home with Garcia, whose tours included Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, over an illustrious 40-year career. He was diagnosed with PTSD in 2020, and a donation of $10,000 from FISH enabled him to get the dog.

“KC allows me to socialize again,” Garcia says softly. “I can go places I couldn’t go. She’s the reason I’m still here with you.”