By Brynna Williamson
Are you a veteran? A first responder, maybe? A family member? Do you need any services, or even just someone to talk to?
Not to worry! They Got Your 6 Foundation has… well… to put it simply, got your 6.
Chris Macellaro helped institute—and now runs—They Got Your 6 Foundation out of Wood County, Texas. This noble organization is a nonprofit charity that offers free services for veterans and first responders or their families. And they do it personally, with genuine, individual, timely care.
Some of the services they offer include temporary housing assistance; emergency needs such as toiletries, food, or clothing; job assistance; counseling (which is free of charge to service members and their families); suicide intervention and prevention training programs; and much more.
They Got Your 6 Foundation also offers peer groups for emergency workers, first responders, ex-service members, or family of any of these to “come together under one roof” and “build meaningful and lasting relationships.” The group is non-clinical, but rather offers a specified time to go and meet like-minded people.
Macellaro says that the Wood County-based charity is a “short-term solution for a short-term problem.” They Got Your 6 Foundation aims not only to help veterans and first responders in their immediate need, but also to teach them how to be self-sufficient in the long-term.
“We basically do anything and everything we can do to help somebody in a bad situation—just try to help them get back out. That’s kind of one of our principles today,” said Macellaro. “We want to be… help(ing) people to be self-sustained… because everybody goes through hard times, and it’s just helping people get through a hard time; that’s really what we’re about,” he said.
The whole idea for the nonprofit was based on a personal experience of Macellaro’s. Having served in the army, Macellaro experienced a feeling of lostness or purposelessness after getting his official discharge—a common feeling, he says, among other ex-vets and first responders.
“I’m going to tell you—9 times out of 10, (the problem with suicidal veterans is that) generally they’re alone; they’re isolated; they feel like they don’t have a purpose—which is a big thing for military people,” he said. “I mean, they’re trained to do a certain job, and then, unfortunately, once the contract is over, the military doesn’t really have a use for you. So you go from doing all of this hard work in the name of your country, to all of a sudden, you don’t have a purpose anymore. And it breaks a lot of people.”
Macellaro, too, struggled with his “disconnected” feelings after leaving the army; however, it was while he was sitting in traffic one day near Dallas that he “had an idea.”
“(I was) sitting in traffic one day, and I thought to myself, ‘Well, there’s kind of a common police / law enforcement / firefighter / military slang—“I’m on your 6”—which means your partner is behind you and he has your back,” he explained. “Well, I thought, ‘What if there was a little different variation to it— ‘They,’ and ‘They Got Your 6,’ in other words, the other people around you have the community’s back?”
From there, the spark of an idea turned into a reality. Macellaro and a few of his friends, who were also veterans of different generations and branches, began working on the steps to found They Got Your 6 nearly immediately.
“We wanted to give back to other people that were in similar situations as us!” he said.
The organization started in Macellaro’s then-church, Kennedale First Baptist Church, in 2015. However, when Macellaro moved to Wood County, Texas in 2019, he started putting together all of the many elements needed in order to certify the charity as a nonprofit. And on July 7 of 2021, They Got Your 6 officially received the certification.
Today, the organization is one of Wood County’s biggest veteran supporters. They Got Your 6 Foundation works not only to help veterans and first responders, but they also work to make them “self-sustaining.”
In recent months, this means They Got Your 6 has shown up in the community to do lots of projects—some small, some large, but all meaningful for both the receiver and the volunteer. Macellaro says that They Got Your 6 Foundation has done everything in this category from “housing projects” to “paying people to mow lawns” to “chang(ing) lightbulbs… (at) little old ladies’ houses.”
“We are our brother’s keeper!” says the website.
Today, the fruits of all Macellaro’s labor are coming in. They Got Your 6 Foundation, Macellaro says, has 219 people on the email list—every one of whom is a veteran or first responder who has participated with the organization in some way. They have 42 volunteers. They have 5 board members (Jim Bailey, Erin Mason, Tyler Brown, Maurice Peterson, and Macellaro). They have worked on many, many projects.
But for Macellaro, the most important factor of They Got Your 6’s success is not the data—it’s the individuals.
“The group is one of the more important things we do, just from a mental health standpoint. Just that connection, and that feeling of ‘Hey, I’ve got a friend I can call now,’” he said. “If you think of what ‘grassroots’ means, I think we should probably be right there, listed in the definition of what we’re trying to do in the community.”
According to Macellaro, a huge focus of They Got Your 6 Foundation is not only the emotional, mental, and physical well-being of its constituents, but also their spiritual well-being.
“I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, or the ones that don’t even walk with Christ,” says Macellaro. “I love ‘em. We are Christ-focused. So… either in a direct way, or an indirect way, we want to show people God’s love.”
Macellaro says that there’s “no better way” to show people Christ’s love than to “emulate what we know of Christ’s teaching.” This means that, in the peer group meetings, Macellaro takes a moment to pray in front of the group. He says that this has meant a lot to attendees in the past. He says he is also “really big” on demonstrating God’s love to others in small ways.
“I am really big on the premise of planting seeds—and then showing people what it’s like to be a Christian. So (we do) little things, just like the prayer,” he said. “I don’t make a big deal about it. So I pray, and my hope is that some of those people that may not believe can (say), ‘Hey! I’m in a dark place, and this guy, or this gal, they don’t appear to be in a dark place. They’re praying people; maybe I should try that out myself, maybe I should ask questions.”
As far as what They Got Your 6 can do for the Wood County community, Macellaro says that he has one message to share: “Life is hard enough. There are people who have walked in your shoes, at one point or another in their lives, that are here for you—right here in this community. There’s no reason to be alone; there’s no reason to feel like you’re alone; we are doing good work in this community, and if you’d like to be a part of it, we’d love to have you,” Macellaro said. “Our guiding light is, ‘We want to help you get back on your feet and be a productive member of society again.’”
When the They Got Your 6 Foundation website says that it’s “‘Where No One Walks Alone,’” they mean it.
To contact They Got Your 6 to thank them, donate, volunteer your time or services, or even to request assistance or more information, visit the website at https://www.theygotyour6foundation.org/.