Cultivating Connection
Local non-profit, Growing Veterans, provides community and newfound sense of purpose in life after service
By Mia Steben
On a breezy afternoon, Sean Dalgarn prepares organic plant starts for tomorrow’s sale. He moves with purpose and familiarity around the small garage, talking to the other volunteers and adding more soil to the small leafy starts.
Sean, 34, is the Communications and Outreach Manager for Growing Veterans, an organization dedicated to veterans. Located in Lynden, Washington, the three-acre organic farm provides a model that incorporates informal peer support farming. They hope to prevent isolation that can lead to suicide after military service.
In 2018, The United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) reported a 26 percent increase of suicide among veterans for ages 18–34 due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The report found more than 6,000 suicides each year from 2008 to 2016.
Sean turns down the music with his soil-covered hands. As the lyrics disappear into the air, the breeze moves through the grass, creating a slow-peaceful rhythm of springtime. Sean bends down to examine the dwarf mini apple trees, which were just planted in a recent workshop. Talking about its development, he seems more like an amateur gardener than a military veteran. But he is both.
In 2005, Sean enlisted at the Whatcom County armed services fair career center. He still remembers his recruiter’s name.
“I was in the United States Air Force in 2005 to 2009. I did three deployments — two to Iraq and one to Kuwait,” Sean said.
Being deployed three times in four years wasn’t unusual for that time period. Sean explained that the rate of deployment was high and supporting one of the United States’ various campaigns was a guarantee. But his second tour in Baghdad, Iraq was harrowing.
“We ended up seeing a lot of the fallout of the fighting going on and a lot of it, especially the indirect fire, was aimed at us,” Sean said.
Without pausing, he adds, “My job was to go anywhere those impacts took place and deal with whatever came, whether that be battlefield triage or sending a counter in the direction they were firing from. We would tell the army where we thought it was coming from and start cleaning blast sites.”
He has many stories but notes one particular event.
“I responded to the 2007 Iraq parliament suicide bombing. We had to clear the building and search everyone. There was actually a lot of things from that deployment that stick with me and always linger in the back of my head. For the most part, I had it pretty good. A lot better than most,” Sean said.
In 2009, Sean was honorably discharged from active duty. He enrolled in school at Whatcom Community College where he met Chris Brown, the co-founder of Growing Veterans.
For Sean, Growing Veterans is an opportunity to work on himself and help others.
“I got involved in 2015. Joel Swenson was volunteering and he got me out here. I started volunteering and got a job for Growing Veterans as a cultivator and volunteer coordinator for about two and a half years. I got hired as the Communications and Outreach Manager recently,” Sean said.
Some issues veterans face may not be related to PTSD, according to the VA. While this is a prevalent issue, it’s the transition stress involved with losing a way of life or losing a tribe, said Sean, that leaves so many veterans feeling disconnected.
But at Growing Veterans, they are given the opportunity to find a new tribe, build lasting friendships and cultivate connections.
Out in the field, Joel Swenson, farm manager, is kneeled down in the soil preparing the field for more spring planting. Sean yells over to him. They aren’t strangers. Joel and Sean have known each other since they were four.
They were on different tours and served different years but both found Growing Veterans.
Joel was a combat medic in the airborne unit for the U.S. Army from 2007 until 2011.
In 2002, Joel graduated high school in Sedro-Woolley and joined the paramedics program at Central Washington University, but ran out of money before graduating. He learned that the military would finance the rest his education if he enlisted. He went through basic, medic and airborne training before being stationed in Anchorage, Alaska.
Joel was deployed to Afghanistan for an entire year and considers 2009 to be one of the deadlier ones.
“I was a medic who treated the locals and my own guys. My scope of practice in Afghanistan was like, whatever I could do to keep someone alive.”
Joel gazes over the field and switches the topic to discovering Growing Veterans.
“I started here with no experience whatsoever and just working with other vets in the community. We are creating life and we aren’t destroying it because in the military you’re taught to destroy everything,” Joel said, “Of course, they don’t untrain us when we get out and we are like ‘what the fuck? Now what?’ Everyone seems to lose a sense of purpose when they get out.”
Lucky. That is what Joel calls finding this place and helping other vets. When he first arrived, Joel remembers working alongside a Navy vet. They were both shoveling manure into the greenhouse, for tomatoes.
“I’m not treating physical wounds anymore but emotional wounds,” Joel said.
At Growing Veterans, they help vets pursue their passions and interests whether through a beekeeping project or writing grants. It’s the laid-back and non-threatening environment that Chris Brown, Growing Veterans co-founder, had envisioned when this whole idea began.
Chris wants Growing Veterans to be a place where veterans and civilians can come together and learn from each other, a sentiment echoed by both Sean and Joel. Some use the farm as a stepping stone or building block for their own transition. But for others, Growing Veterans is a lifeline.
“We’ve heard, at least, from a handful of veterans where they were at their last rope. They were contemplating suicide but coming to the farm was the thing that gave them hope in the future,” Chris said.
Dr. Aaron Smith, an assistant professor of counseling with the Psychology Department at Western and an eight-year veteran Marine, understands the value in programs like Growing Veterans. According to him, social connectedness is one of the most important predictors of psychological well-being and resilience.
“Organizations like Growing Veterans provide an opportunity to reconstruct a social-support system, which [vets] may have lost when they left the military,” Dr. Smith said.
These organizations help veterans process their experiences and recreate meaning, which is a strong predictor of growth for challenging life circumstances, he said.
“In the military, they give you a purpose each and every day. You have to find your purpose after the military,” Dr. Smith said.
From volunteers to managers, for veterans like Sean and Joel, Growing Veterans became more than a three-acre farm, but a place where they could spread community empowerment and support.
