AL U M NI
CAN
ONE PERSON
CHANGE THE
WORLD?
2002 from the University of Alabama and
began teaching there before going to Marist
in 2004.
After he started in his role as Commander,
Zurhellen began to receive calls every day
from veterans who needed assistance –
jobs, housing, dental work, mental health
help…the requests seemed endless. He
did what he could to help his fellow veterans
and connected with his fellow Fordham Prep
alumni to pitch in along the way. “David
Fitzpatrick ’87 connected me with a dentist
who agreed to help a vet who lost his teeth
in a robbery.” Tommy transformed the Post
to become more service oriented, such as
handing out 500 backpacks to homeless
veterans, and coordinating with other non-
profits to assist veterans.
Tommy Zurhellen ’87
The experience also reminded him of the
question he was asked when he was a
student at Fordham Prep: “Can one person
change the world?” In Zurhellen’s eyes,
the answer was a resounding yes.
When the Commander position opened at
Tommy Zurhellen’s ’87 local Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW) post in Poughkeepsie, he
knew he did not want the job. “No one wanted
the job,” says Zurhellen. With a bit of cajoling
and an election, he took on the position and,
in the process, learned he could make a
transformative impact on his fellow veterans.
Zurhellen is a Bronx boy through and
through. “I grew up in Riverdale, went to
St. Gabriel’s for grade school. My older
brother graduated from the Prep in 1984
(Jay). It was great time and place to grow
up.”
After 8th grade, Zurhellen followed his older
brother’s footsteps to Rose Hill where he
played football under Bruce Bott, was part
of the Fordham Prep Dramatics Society,
and an early attendee of Emmaus. When
reminiscing about his days at Fordham
Prep, he recalled his first day of Sophomore
English with Fordham Prep Hall of Honor
member Mr. S. Jerome Martin. “We sat at
our desks and Mr. Martin was snapping his
fingers in the circle. After a few minutes
he stops and asks, ‘Does anyone know
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RAMVIEW
what that was?’ After a few unsuccessful
guesses, he says, ‘It’s butterflies with
hiccups.’ That sort of creative, ‘outside-the-
box’ thinking opened up a whole new world
for me and my writing.”
While in his role as VFW Commander,
Tommy learned a couple of sobering
stats: 22 veterans die by suicide each
day and 40,387 veterans are homeless
every night. In order to be the change, he
decided to do something extraordinary:
take a sabbatical from Marist, walk from
Portland, Oregon to Poughkeepsie to raise
awareness of suicides and homelessness
among veterans, and raise money for the
cause. The project is called “VetZero” in
recognition of its two aims: reduce both
suicides and homelessness to zero.
The walk was scheduled from April 15
to August 23 – 130 days to walk over
2,800 miles. Each day was planned out
with days off built into the timetable. In
Portland, Zurhellen was joined by one of
his shipmates in the Navy, Paul Hartley. As
one could expect, there were challenges
along the way.
“My route was mapped out, but I used little
of the planned itinerary,” says Zurhellen.
“Navigating through snow or the altitude,
along with physical challenges, caused
changes along the way.” While walking
through Wyoming, Tommy had issues
finding food and water, not to mention
battling loneliness while walking through
more desolate areas. “Another part of the
challenge was also mental— continuing
the journey when I had thoughts of giving
up. Thankfully there were no bear attacks!”
At first, the journey garnered little
attention, but as Tommy updated people
about his journey through the VetZero
Facebook page, people started coming
out to meet him along the way. His first
media interviews were in Sioux City, Iowa
and as he went eastward, more and more
outlets promoted his cause. The growing
awareness also brought out the best
among the people he met along the way.
“When I started the journey, I would either
camp out each night or stay in a motel.
As word spread, people started having
me over for dinner and hosting me in
their homes. People were tremendously
generous.”
Zurhellen also garnered the attention of
national media, ultimately getting featured
on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”
The awareness helped Tommy surpass his
monetary goal and raise over $50,000 for
veterans.
The walk made Zurhellen, in his words,
“Poughkeepsie Famous. “I don’t have
to pay for my coffee anymore,” he joked.
But more importantly, the walk brought
attention to real issues the public at
large may not be aware of. “There’s a big
problem with mental health issues and
homelessness and doing the walk has
helped open doors to talk about these
issues.”
The work “mentally energizes” Zurhellen
and encourages him to continue to make
a difference. He now gets calls, emails,
and texts from other veterans and groups,
thanking him for his work. For him, it goes
back to the question he was asked at
Fordham Prep: “Can one person change
the world?” For Tommy, the answer is a
resounding yes.
After graduating from Fordham Prep,
Zurhellen headed off to Beloit College,
located in southern Wisconsin, where he
played football and majored in creative
writing. After graduating in 1991, Zurhellen
was at a crossroads. Not knowing what he
wanted to do, he came back home to work
at his father’s business. After a couple
months, he felt a calling to something
different. “At Fordham Prep, we were
challenged to be of service to the people
and community around us. So with that in
mind, I enlisted in the Navy.”
Zurhellen served from 1991-1997 working
on the USS Truxtun and USS California
cruisers. He took part in Operation Uphold
Democracy in Haiti which gave him his first
taste of working for the common good.
After leaving the Navy, he earned an MA in
English from Western Washington via the GI
Bill, then earned his Master of Fine Arts in
SPRING 2020
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