Wounded Warriors United is a non-profit organization that was started by combat injured Veteran Thomas Tavtigian.

Tavtigian said that in his time in the Warrior Transition Battalion before medically retiring from the military, one of the most therapeutic things he did was simply being outdoors and enjoying nature.

“Five or six years ago I started this organization, I’m a medically retired combat-wounded Veteran from an IED, and I was in the WTB (Warrior Transition Battalion) for a lot of years and the outdoors really kind of helped me out so [we] started this just with the intent of getting [guys] hunting and fishing, camping, and hiking – just getting them outdoors,” said Tavtigian.

In the short time that the non-profit has been existence, Tavtigian said they now have a battle buddy program, a mentor program and this year they established a home improvement program.

Many of the wounded veterans needed a lot of work done, or help with work on their homes so Tavtigian added that program to the Wounded Warrior United Services; through this program he met Peter Webster, a disabled Veteran that Tavtigian says was scammed out of thousands.

“He was taken advantage of out of a lot of money because somebody mislead him to believe that he was a licensed contractor when in reality he was only a licensed plumber,” said Tavtigian.

Webster hired whom he believed was a contractor to help with repairs and renovations to a fixer-upper he purchased in Enterprise, Kansas.

“It’s only been a week that I’ve been involved, and I went out there [to Enterprise] and I don’t know if you’ve ever walked into a situation and you just look at something and then you’re just like what the hell happened…It’s caused more work and more damage to the home than originally contracted,” said Tavtigian.

Tavtigian said that since he has met Webster he’s spoken with other contractors trying to find estimates on the damage and what it will take to repair the now uninhabitable home.

Estimates for the HVAC and plumbing are $10-$15 thousand, not including the other repairs, according to Tavtigian.

“What could have been a $10 or $15 thousand renovation is now turning into a $30,000 project because all the work that the previous guy did has to be all torn out…everything has to be redone,” said Tavtigian.

The Wounded Warriors United Foundation is a small non-profit that Tavtigian said was able to help over 250 veterans last year.

This year, they may have to fore-go some of their planned activities, because Tavtigian said they have agreed to use all of their donations to help the Webster family.

“I’m putting some of the things that we were going to do in the Spring on hold right now; but most of the [guys] I’ve talked to said ‘I can go without a fishing trip’ or ‘I can go without a hunting trip if it means that a Veteran is going to get back in his house’,” said Tavtigian.

The Webster family has a GoFundMe where you can donate directly to them, or if you’d like to donate to the Wounded Warriors United Foundation based out of Manhattan, KS you can do so by visiting their website https://www.woundedwarriorsunited.com/.

The Wounded Warriors United Facebook page can be accessed here.

“This is just a nightmare story for somebody who served our country who has TVI and PTSD, who was taken advantage of, who was mislead by an individual who saw fast, easy money,” said Tavtigian.

Prescription drug abuse is one of the most common forms of addiction.

Captain Chuck Leithoff, JCPD, said that taking drugs not specifically prescribed to you or for longer than the time prescribed is dangerous.

“Prescription abuse is probably one of the main types of activity that [we] see; as people either get old prescriptions, or they get prescriptions from family members and then they take them and of course, if they weren’t prescribed for them, then they shouldn’t take them,” said Leithoff.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has partnered with local police across the nation, including the Junction City Police Department, to help get rid of some of those old prescriptions.

“The Drug Enforcement Agency basically was looking for a way for people to get rid of outdated prescriptions or prescriptions that they no longer take,” said Leithoff.

The old rule of thumb use to be to flush old pills down the toilet, but Leithoff said that is no longer considered the safest way to rid oneself of old prescriptions.

“[They] decided to do this take back program, where people can bring them in anonymously, and turn them in to the police,” said Leithoff.

Officers will take all prescription drugs no questions asked, and then package and send them to the DEA for proper disposal.

The last Drug Take Back program the JCPD hosted was six months ago and Leithoff said they sent almost 200 pounds of old prescriptions to the DEA for disposal.

There are no special rules to the drug take back, but liquids and needles will not be accepted.

“We can take any kind of pill, any kind of patch, and we can even take over the counter [drugs]; but they don’t have to package them, just put them in a sac and bring them in to the lobby,” said Leithoff.

An officer will be in the lobby of the Police Department located at 210 E. 9th Street, awaiting the prescription drop-offs.

The drug take back will be on Saturday, October 22nd from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm.

For more information, contact the Junction City Police Department at 762-5912.