Veteran works to create sense of community following shutdown through cookout

Three fridges and a deep freezer stacked in William Kane’s garage held over $2,000 worth of food he bought in preparation for a community cookout in Lawton. While many organizations and nonprofits went out of their way to assist during the government shutdown, Kane decided to join in that effort by creating his own event. 

Kane went on to explain what led him to put something like this together. He stated that after leaving the military, he started a landscaping business in Lawton. When the government shutdown hit, many of his military friends expressed their concerns over not being able to provide meals for their families or themselves. So, after a good season, he put up some of the money made, specifically $3,000, for the sake of contributing to the community.

“Being military, I had a lot of my friends who were scared about the potential loss of income,” Kane said. “Just trying to do right by people is all. In a time of need.”

After word got around that the cookout was happening, Kane started to receive a great amount of support, whether it was from close friends and family or people who just agreed with what he was doing. In addition to the $3,000 Kane used for food and supplies, he also ended up receiving $1,570 in donations.

“I was going to do it all on my own if no one even donated. It was going to be completely out of my pocket,” Kane expressed. “How much could we potentially raise for another event. That’s the goal is to continue community outreach.”

The cookout, held in the parking lot of the old Texas Roadhouse location, allowed anyone in the community to come and enjoy a free meal. While the original expectation was to serve around 500 meals to those in the community, they ended up serving 950.

Another goal Kane had with this event was to gather donations, whether monetary or canned goods. He said they wanted to use this event as an opportunity to build care packages, as it’s the middle of the holiday season and Thanksgiving is around the corner. While the event didn’t generate enough for the care packages, Kane is keeping his hopes up.

“Veterans giving back,” Kane explained. “That’s kind of the idea of this thing is veterans helping veterans, but also giving back to the community and bringing the two closer to each other.”

Kane went on to say his passion was cooking, which is why he decided to host a cookout. Ultimately, he wants to hold more events just like this one. The five-hour event received overwhelmingly positive feedback from those who attended.

“I had so many reaching out in multiple ways, saying how they want to donate more or be a part of the next event,” Kane stated. “I absolutely can’t wait to plan the next event.”

In addition to hosting events like this, Kane stated he is in the process of getting a nonprofit started. He said that his years in the military established beliefs in the importance of having a strong community setting. The working name is Veterans Giving Back.

“Basically, any soldiers, active or finished with their time of service, reaching the surrounding communities to give back and do more events like today, and more,” Kane explained.