07/04/2026
SO...It's July 4th
Right at 10 years since DTRT opened its doors. Today is it's last day.
When I opened DTRT , it was originally meant as a way to aid our veteran community any way we could . At first, it was the same stuff everyone else does..homeless vets. Tents sleeping bags food clothes ...all that stuff. We went to camps giving it all away to those that needed it ..no charge at all. Then it elevated into furnishing homes for vets and their families. While it was done a little bit here and there, nobody else in Brevard did it on the scale that we did. We averaged around $1000 of furniture donated per vet at a little over 600 homes in 4 years...600k back into the community..We never filed for a grant. During that time, we started accumulating uniforms and ultimately in March of 2021, Dover Detail came into being. To date, we are sitting at 214 uniforms shipped across the country at an average replacement cost (if the family was able to get it new) of around 2k for the uniform. This does not include researching dd214s that families had no hope of deciphering, leg work acquiring bits and pieces, and the ever present shipping charges. Just the uniforms comes out to 428K without the extra costs which we absorb. That means with zero grants from the government, we put out close to 1.28 Million in goods and services to both the local community as well as nationwide with the uniforms. Somehow we managed to upset a few people( and they damn well know who they are) that felt we stepped on some toes. Those folks treated helping homeless and in need vets like it was a business, so of course they had an axe to grind when we step in and do the same thing without requesting anything in return. All they care about is the next fundraiser. Did we do fundraisers? Yeah ..every year on my birthday through face book..best one was three years ago that raised around 800$ I believe there were three go fund me campaigns . The first one I took down after 20$ in two days. The other two were started by others even after I declined . I thank them for that, it helped out alot.
This was never supposed to be a money maker . It was supposed to be a way I could help my vet community and quite possibly give me a nominal income to support myself( that was around 350 a week ) but as time went one those paychecks got cancelled on a regular basis in favor of putting it back into the store. I wound up cancelling the payroll altogether when my VA disability started. No problem. I have had a ton of conflicts over the years with people over this place including a few from organizations that I belong to. Would have been easy to close it up at that point ...but no way in hell would I give any of them the satisfaction of thinking that it was their efforts that put DTRT under. A lot of you have seen a quote that I have posted numerous times " If you sit by the river long enough , you will see the bodies of your enemies float by." Both figuratively and literally that has happened without my raising a finger . I sat back and watched as each one eliminated themselves from the situation with the last ones celebration of life happening a couple of weeks back. Hope you found the peace that you lacked in life. Which brings us to today.
DTRT has closed it's doors forever and will never reopen. I have given 10 full years of my life to this donation center and I have finally reached the point where I can close it under MY TERMS..not because someone drove me out of it. For all of you that are sad to see us go..sorry ..but it's time . All of you saw how I did it...there's nothing stopping you from doing the same thing ..but most won't as they were happy to sit back and watch me do it and make themselves feel good about it by saying Attaboy! Attaboys don't pay the bills. Try it sometime and see what collections tells you.
Dover Detail will continue on. SO far there has been three local chapters that has gone all in to keep us alive. Marine Corps League Detachments 513 and 064 have been there since day one and has always had Dovers back when needed. Between the 513 and the 064 Dover has a new 40x12 shop courtesy of a pair of donations that acquired, permitted and set the building at its new home which brings us to the DAV. Titusville DAV Chapter 109 located at 435 North SIngleton Ave heard about our issues and offered a spot on the backside of their property and the only cost we incur is our part of the electric bill. No rent. In return I am more than happy to take the Service officer training and continue to help our vets navigating their disability issues. Mine started at 10% with tinnitus and now sits at 100% after everything getting diagnosed. So yeah ..I'm familiar with the process.
It went from buying out a yardsale to start a thrift store and ended with an organization that operates on a NATIONAL scale. Weird .that word National I've seen it in Names of businesses whose reach rarely if ever crosses the state line and yet we have shipped all over the country.Not bad for no government grants, and it will remain that way.
DTRT's page will remain up and as I post more Dover Detail functions I will share it ..however at some point I'll take it down . SO if you want to keep in touch, go follow the Dover Page as its about to blow up big.
In closing, I have a list of people that I want to thank for their YEARS of constant support and help.
Becky Mitchell and Lori Nelson..you two were the best work wives ever and this place would never have reached the heights that it did without you. Somewhere I still have a pic of Lori and I that was taken on the assumption we were actually married...ahhhh that was a good one.
The entire Brashear family, Krystal, Greg and six little ones. We have been supporting them for years and when we needed help they would appear out of nowhere and jump right in...again none of this would have been possible with out you.
Monica and Chrissy Strader (Mom and Daughter) both of you have been right there with me since the Cocoa Store and it would have ended there if you hadn't been there when I needed you the most. I Love You both ( Hailey and Mason YAY!!!!!!) so much and cant wait to see what the rest of life has in store for us.
David (Smitty) and Sharon Smith ..started as shoppers and wound up a fulltime everything ..carpenter, furniture mover, Footlocker architect and Uniform builder, Thank You!
Wanda my Softlines master and overall shop bulldog. I wont even go into everything you brought to the store and I look forward to you and Davia visiting Dover when you can.
Joe Meredith Chris and Dawn Blinson .THANK YOU for being there till the end and damn Im glad we don't have to do this again!
As for everyone else, I do thank everyone that honorably served at DTRT and you have my eternal gratitude. Some have been left out of this list as they would prefer to remain anonymous.
As for those that were not honorable.. you know who you are...I look forward to seeing you floating down that river.
Thanks to all and I will see you at Dover
Jerry
Gotta love those river banks...
