{"id":199073,"date":"2025-11-02T21:34:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=199073"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:34:52","slug":"travis-howze-addresses-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/11\/02\/travis-howze-addresses-first-responders\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Howze addresses first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Internationally recognized speaker, author and former first responder Travis Howze was in Van Wert Saturday to address approximately 800 firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS professionals, dispatchers, military veterans and mental health advocates on topics such as trauma, burnout and resilience in public safety professions. The event was held at Lifehouse Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howze\u2019s appearance had been in the works for well over a year. Howze\u2019s appearance was secured by funds from Van Wert Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 681 and a number of local businesses and organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howze, a former firefighter, police officer and U.S. Marine brought his unique perspective to the issue of post-traumatic stress. After surviving career-ending injuries and the loss of several colleagues, Howze turned to comedy and public speaking as a way to cope and to help others heal. Now, he shares his journey across the country, encouraging those in uniform to speak up, seek help and reclaim their mental well being.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Travis-Howze-III-11-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-199074\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Travis Howze spoke to a packed house Saturday morning. <em>Bob Barnes\/VWFD photographer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe spend our entire careers saving others,\u201d Howze said. It\u2019s time we start saving ourselves. Mental health should be a priority, not a stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howze\u2019s mental health issues started in his childhood and culminated in June, 2007, while a member of the Charleston, South Carolina Fire Deparment. Nine firefighters perished during the Sofa Super Store fire and he was on the body recovery team. That event was what ultimately led him to develop his \u201cCreate Your Own Light\u201d book and podcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howze spoke for nearly three hours, then engaged in a meet and greet with photos with those in attendance, and signed copies of his book.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Travis-Howze-II-11-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-199075\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff Internationally recognized speaker, author and former first responder Travis Howze was in Van Wert Saturday to address approximately 800 firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS professionals, dispatchers, military veterans and mental health advocates on topics such as trauma, burnout and resilience in public safety professions. The event was held at Lifehouse Church. Howze\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-13 11:08:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199077,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199073\/revisions\/199077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}