Most of what we do is pretty simple. A storm comes through Doylestown or Horsham or Lansdale, a limb ends up on somebody's roof, and we show up with the trucks and take care of it. Trees down, driveways clear, neighbors back to normal.
But there's a part of this business that has nothing to do with trees, and we wanted to explain it.
Monster Tree Service of Bucks & Montgomery Counties is veteran-owned. Kris served as an Engineer Officer in the U.S. Army with deployments to the Middle East. Hunter graduated from the Naval Academy and served as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer across the Western Pacific and and Africa. Pat served in the Marine Corps Reserves. When we bought this business, we weren't looking for a career change so much as a next step of service — a way to keep leading a team and keep showing up for a community, just in a different uniform.
So when we looked around at where to put our support, the Travis Manion Foundation wasn't a hard call. It's headquartered right here in Doylestown, about as local as an organization can get to us.
Who Travis Manion was
First Lieutenant Travis Manion grew up in Doylestown and wrestled at LaSalle College High School before heading to the Naval Academy. He commissioned into the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq twice.
On April 29, 2007, on his second deployment, his patrol was ambushed in Fallujah. Travis led a counterattack that drew enemy fire away from his wounded Marines. Every member of that patrol survived. He did not. He was 26. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Valor, and he's buried at Arlington in Section 60, next to his Naval Academy roommate and best friend, Navy SEAL Lieutenant Brendan Looney.
Before that last deployment, Travis said something to his family that has since become the ethos of an entire movement: "If Not Me, Then Who..."
What the Foundation does with that
His family turned that line into an organization. Today the Travis Manion Foundation trains veterans and families of fallen heroes to mentor young people — teaching character, resilience, and the idea that leadership is something you volunteer for rather than wait to be handed.
Their programs run from youth mentorship to community service projects to leadership development for veterans, and to date they've supported more than 78,000 veterans and survivors and reached over 800,000 young people. That's a Doylestown organization with a national footprint.
Where we fit
We're a sponsor. A portion of what this business earns in Bucks and Montgomery Counties goes to TMF, because every job we do here happens in the community that raised Travis Manion.
It's not complicated. We got to come home. A lot of people we served with didn't. Sponsoring TMF is one of the ways we try to be worth that.
If you want to learn more about the Foundation, or find a way to get involved yourself, visit travismanion.org. And if you've got a tree that needs attention, we're glad to help with that too.
Monster Tree Service of Bucks & Montgomery Counties — veteran owned and operated, serving Doylestown, Horsham, Fort Washington, and the surrounding communities.