Meet Cheryl Montelle | Executive Director of Mil-Tree Veteran Project

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cheryl Montelle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cheryl, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I read the book War and The Soul: Healing Our Nations Veterans From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Dr. Ed Tick, I invited him to come to Joshua Tree and do a reading of this informative and profound book, and his reading inspired a full house. He encouraged us to start a community group that focused on including military veterans, and with the help of a few veterans and a handful of community members that’s exactly what we did. It felt right. The name Mil-Tree Veteran Project was what we decided on: Mil = Military and Tree = Joshua Tree and we have now been a 501(c)3 non profit for 11 years.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am the founder and executive director of Mil-Tree Veteran Project. Our mission is to create community between veterans, service-members and civilians through shared experiences, projects and creative expression to help end isolation. We used to only say to help veteran isolation, but there is plenty of isolation in the civilian population as well. What I love about Mil-Tree is that we have built a community of support. Because we bring community and military together, new relationships are made leading to all kinds of wonderful outcomes. The civilian and military communities sometimes need a bridge of understanding; the understanding that we often have more in common than we think. Lasting friendships have been made, and because of these friendships more one to one support began to manifest. We have even had a small baking business born out of one of the Mil-Tree events. I am proud that this community is growing and that there is more support for our local veterans through creative programming and events that all can enjoy. In terms of how we got to where we are today, we organically grew from something very small to getting grants and finally attracting more and more participants to our retreats, which include dialogue and the sharing of personal stories, to all of our creative programming. We have provided all kinds of art shows and workshops, writing workshops and spoken word events, singer songwriting workshops and performances, along with the creation of a community garden. We have also built a circular earth-bag sitting structure that we named the Sanctuary. It’s next to a small lake at the Joshua Tree RV and Campground and one can sit and talk to friends, meditate, or just watch the ducks swim and fly around the lake. Building this kind of organization is not easy, but it is worth it. Step by step, day by day. I have learned to have patience as we continue forward. I try to stay positive and through my personal spiritual practice I keep my life condition high and try to view even the tooghest obstacles as gifts; they teach me to find a better way. Mil-Tree is just one example of how you can have a vision and how you can put that vision into action. What I have learned is that if I follow my thread of inspiration, the action of turning it into a reality brings me great joy.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Joshua Tree is full of creative happenings. There are several places to hear great music, art galleries, and restaurants. I personally love to grab a taco at Red Dog up in Pioneer Town, or if I want to get fancy, La Copine is a very special and delicious gourmet restaurant. In October of every year the HWY 62 Open Art Tours are very special. There are plenty of shops and of course the Joshua Tree National Park. That is worth the trip alone to Joshua Tree, so magical.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to give a shout out to Dr. Ed Tick who wrote the book, “War and The Soul: Healing our nations veterans of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I also want to give a shout out to the Mil-Tree board: Patrick Wallis (Army veteran), Cheryl Bookout (Military spouse), Sara Foreman ( Military family member), Tracy Johns ( Marine veteran), Mark Grdner (Marine veteran), and June Jet Tucker (Financial officer), Danielle Giudici-Wallis (Military spouse), and Maria Bobin, who taught me how to run a non profit. Big shout out to Miguel Rivera, Ben Dennis who mentored me and were so patient with my naivety, and of course to all the volunteers — veterans and civilians alike. This organization would not exist without them.

It takes a village and the Mil-Tree community is wonderful

Website: https://www.mil-tree.org/

Instagram: @miltreecommunity

Facebook: Mil-Tree

Image Credits
Brian Leatart took the photos