Check out the first in our series of 10 documentary videos for Kindling's latest project, Veterans Coming Home, in this excerpt from the VCH blog:
Elizabeth Hash, a Kansas Army National Guard recruiter, says being in the military fulfills her in a way she hasn’t found anywhere else. That realization came after a peacekeeping deployment in Kosovo. “When I came home I was missing that and trying to find where I belonged.” She feels she found it in roller derby.
“That girl hits so hard. You have that very competitive, like, oh, I gotta get away from Foxxi! But you’re happy that she’s on your team when you travel against other teams.
There’s a lot of that in the military too.”
That’s Elizabeth Hash talking about the competition – and the trust – that she built in the military and on a Kansas City roller derby track.
“You’ve got this guy next to you that you’re competing with when you’re doing your rifle marksmanship,” Hash tells us. “He gets 40 out of 40 every time, and you’re only getting 39. But he’s the guy you want next to you if something were to go down.”
The Veterans Coming Home road team spent time with Elizabeth while she was working at the KU Relay, a high school track and field event that brings together kids from across Kansas and Missouri.
“My goal, really, when I’m out talking to people is: let them see me out in the community being engaged. Then when I talk to kids at school, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I saw you at the relay event,’ they’re not as standoffish.”