6 minute read
PERSONALITY Michelle
PERSONALITY
MONUMENTAL PROGRESS
Michelle Caldwell bridges gaps in veteran services
by PAIGE AIGRET
Michelle Caldwell is a veteran, CEO and founder of several organizations, a youth advocate, a 16-time foster parent and an adoptive parent of two children. But Caldwell is tightly focused especially on military veterans.
Both her father and uncle served in the military. Seeing her uncle return from Vietnam truly struck her with the weight that soldiers carry home from war and the struggles they face in returning to their communities. As an adult, Caldwell was inspired to join the military after volunteering with a missionary group while in college. She served in naval aviation from 1985 to 1989.
Now, Caldwell is working on a number of projects through the Monument to Women Veterans Museum, which opened in November 2021. The museum is located in Pensacola in what used to be the Amtrak Station. Pensacola lies within Congressional District 1, which ranks No. 1 in the country for the number of military personnel and veterans per capita.
In starting the nonprofit MWV 10 years ago, Caldwell assessed programs for veterans in her area and identified unmet needs. She found that the greatest void was in services for women.
The museum is just one piece in the greater machine that is the MWV. Caldwell has big plans for the old Amtrak
→ Michelle Caldwell is nothing if not ambitious. A military veteran, she is a mental health counselor, community servant, foster and adoptive parent and the founder of the Monument to Women Veterans Museum in Pensacola. She plans to make the museum a resource center for veterans transitioning back to civilian life.
Station. What she is creating there will serve as a campus for veterans, regardless of gender, who are returning to civilian life, and it will include a monument to honor female veterans. Already, Caldwell is using the facility to its full capacity.
The building is home to an exhibit area with ever-changing collections highlighting current and past female veterans. The museum serves as the face of the campus that Caldwell is creating. A National Visitor and Training Center and the Center for Strategic Military Excellence will operate beneath the MWV umbrella. Programs will work together to help veterans gain access to benefits and resources and connect them with the tools they need to be successful in civilian life.
Caldwell believes in reaching out through partnerships with existing organizations that share similar philanthropic goals. The MWV Museum hosts training and classes that support veterans in workforce education and personal health. Subjects range from lead-based paint to yoga.
The organization started with the idea of erecting a monument for female veterans, and that plan is still in place. Through a public-private partnership, the City of Pensacola is working with MWV and Elizabeth MacQueen, an internationally commissioned and award-winning artist and sculptor, to get the monument built.
The design for the monument incorporates a pond with LED-lighted stainless steel flames reaching out and a green laser beaming from the top as a beacon. This laser beam will reach a height of 35 feet, which is as high as the Federal Aviation Administration will allow. For MacQueen, the beacon represents how “women are the light.” A floating elliptical band inscribed with the names of female veterans will surround the flames.
Years in the making, both Caldwell and MacQueen are eager to break ground on the monument. They are currently raising funds for a model that will be housed in the museum ahead of the monument build.
Caldwell views the monument as a testament to the three R’s of MWV: recognize, respect and recruit.
“We need to recognize that women actually have been in combat since 1948, we need to respect the service that they have brought to this country and then we need to recruit for the next generation,” Caldwell said. This is where she finds significance in the flames, seeing them as purifying and “a statement about the power that we bring to the table.” EC
↑ Located in an old Amtrak station that closely adjoins railroad tracks, the Monument to Women Veterans Museum is home to ever-changing collections that highlight contributions made by women via their military service.
LEADERSHIP The Gulf Breeze Area Chamber Foundation named Michelle Caldwell its Community Leader of the Year for 2021. Contributions to her Monument for Women Veterans Museum may be made by visiting sherowarrior.com and clicking on the red box at the upper left corner of the homepage.
Business is Grand
Grand Boulevard is a hub for professional offices and services
We reside in a day and age where the work/life balance is becoming increasingly important. For 15 years, Grand Boulevard Town Center has been an advocate for merging work and play.
Grand Boulevard is often thought of as a center of retail businesses and restaurants, but professional offices continue to expand throughout the popular destination. Grand Boulevard currently has 29 professional office tenants ranging from real estate offices to legal services and banking and more.
“The professional offices located within Grand Boulevard bring huge value to the center and from the very beginning have been important to our success,” said Stacey Brady, director of marketing and communications at Grand Boulevard.
The professional businesses attract clients who in turn shop, dine and attend community events hosted by Grand Boulevard. This model works well for the business as they can take a client to lunch or dinner, seal a deal with celebratory drinks, make plans over coffee, book client rooms at one of three hotels and strengthen relationships by attending a Grand Boulevard signature event together.
— Dan Bruckner, owner of My Vacation Haven
Offices tenants in Grand Boulevard enjoy numerous amenities including access to more than a dozen restaurants, a variety of retail stores, a fitness center, movie theater, live theatre, on-site lodging, salons and more.
Professional tenants’ employees conduct business and stay active during and after work hours, crossing off professional, personal and health-related tasks such as utilizing the fitness facilities, making purchases, dining and taking afternoon strolls around the scenic property.
“Grand Boulevard is very attractive to businesses that are looking for a professional office space that is state of the art and beautiful while being right in the center of action,” Brady said. “Being located here is a huge benefit to companies because both the employees and clients can enjoy every aspect and amenity of the town center.”
Dan Bruckner, the owner of My Vacation Haven, a vacation rental company, has been a tenant since 2007. Grand Boulevard was an obvious choice as it was central to where he did business and offered everything he wanted to provide to clients.
Bruckner enjoys the ease with which he and his clients experience the location. They can have a meeting, go out for lunch, buy a birthday present, grocery shop and get in a workout all within walking distance. Bruckner uses restaurants for client meetings as well as staff luncheons. He may treat his staff to ice cream at Kilwin’s and shuts down the office early on Fridays to go to the movie theater.
“I’m fortunate in the fact that the team at Grand Boulevard cares about both the patron and tenant experience by creating a clean, beautiful and safe space for all,” Bruckner said. “Management has a good feel for what their audiences want and need by providing easy tenant experiences, hosting entertaining events and giving back to the community we live and work in.”
