Former Beach resident shoots “Hoops For Homeless Veterans”
Inspirational Speaker David Essel, who used to reside on Fort Myers Beach, will take to the basketball court next month to raise money to help homeless veterans obtain treatment for substance use disorders.
Essel, who also is an author, life coach and adjunct faculty member at Edison State College, plans to raise at least $10,000 by making 1,000 free throws over a two-day period. Essel is seeking sponsors who will pledge $1 for each free throw he makes. The funds raised will be given to Southwest Florida Addiction Services to provide treatment for homeless veterans.
Essel once played for the Syracuse University Basketball Junior Varsity team for two years and says he “absolutely will make it to 1,000 free throws.”
The two-day free throw marathon will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Florida Gulf Coast University Auxiliary Gym inside the Alico Arena on the FGCU campus. Spectators are welcome.
In a YouTube video posted on the Internet, Essel speaks passionately about his desire to help homeless veterans and implores others to send the video to their friends.
“These are soldiers who have fought for our country for the freedoms that you and I enjoy. Now they have returned to their homeland and have fallen through the cracks,” Essel said. “We need to help them just as they have helped us.”
There are 450 treatment beds in Florida for 18,910 homeless veterans, according to the 2009 CHALENG report. Only 2 percent of homeless veterans in Florida have an opportunity for a funded bed. SWFAS officials said the recent homeless count in Lee County found 128 homeless veterans, although the actual number is estimated to be closer to 250.
In the past five years, SWFAS has treated 391 veterans in a residential program. About 19 percent of these were homeless and 15 were women, according to SWFAS Transitional Living Center Director Rosemary Boisvert.
Essel said he first became interested in homeless veterans five years ago in Sarasota when the bayfront area was home to many homeless veterans. Most were addicted to drugs or alcohol, he said. He saw a man struck by a truck while trying to run across four lanes of traffic.
“I was the first one to reach him and I held him while we waited for the ambulance. I visited him in the hospital and in rehabilitation,” he said. “It changed everything about me. It shattered the illusion that homeless veterans are different from you and me. They aren’t they are just people who need somebody to care.”
Essel himself has been in recovery from alcohol and cocaine addiction for many years and now helps others as an addiction recovery coach.
Donations to Hoops for Homeless Veterans may be made in any amount on the SWFAS website at www.swfas.org or mailed to SWFAS at 3763 Evans Ave., Fort Myers, FL 33901. Sponsorships are available for $500 and $1,000. At the $4,000 level, Essel will speak to the donors’ business or organization for one hour. All donors will be recognized on a plaque in the new SWFAS Adult Residential Treatment Center in central Fort Myers.
To contact Essel, call (941) 266-7676 or visit www.davidessel.com. For more information about SWFAS, visit www.swfas.org.