We got our start in 2013 after my father, a civilian, suffered a back injury in 2010 leaving him with debilitating, crippling back and sciatic nerve pain for three years. He was subjected to unbelievable amounts of opiate painkillers and a toxic cocktail of other medications that nearly destroyed our family. He was no fun to be around.
He finally had several surgeries in 2013 which helped get him on his feet again and feeling better. We began talking about ways to help other families in our community who might be suffering through the nightmare our family was finally coming out of.
My wish was to give back to our injured and disabled veterans after seeing a disabled veteran in the outdoors on a show on The Sportsman Channel. I told my father I thought helping our American Heroes was the way to go. After weeks of discussion as a family we decided to try it just once and see. We ended up with a 1st Sgt. Marine named Ryan Leighton who we took to Hollister CA. to hunt Blacktail deer and wild boar. Ryan and his family have been our family ever since.
This incredible hunt with our 1st American Hero sealed the deal and we became Veterans Sportsman Alliance a short time later.
We have an ever-growing VSA Family that we are extremely proud of and would do anything humanly possible within our powers to help in any way we can.
We are now in 2017 and on June 1st I graduated from Cupertino High School and am proud to be able to carry on the wonderful organization we started. Now with the help of some very generous and amazing veterans, companies, and civilian Patriots we are growing and evolving to meet the needs of our VSA Family Heroes.
God Bless our Military.
Cheyanne Johnson / VSA Founder
(with the help of and many thanks to my dad and mom)