Travis Mills Foundation Board Member Sean Perseo first met U.S. Army SSG (Ret.) Travis Mills when the Gary Sinise Foundation built Travis’s house in Maine in 2014. Sean was working with Sunbelt Rentals, a corporate sponsor for the build. Sean is still at Sunbelt and serves as Ambassador of Outreach Program“I was in disbelief when I met Travis,” Sean said. “If it had been me, I never could have had his outlook on life.”
Sean again met Travis at a speaking event for the Gary Sinise Foundation and continued to follow Travis’s story.
“It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard him speak, I’m inspired that his story always goes back to his wife, children and his family values,” he said.
Sean and his wife, Sara, have eight children, and it was Travis’s values and mission for the Travis Mills Foundation that made Sean’s decision to join the board easy.
“I’m 100 percent in for what Travis stands for,” he said, when invited by Chairman Jim Shubert to join the board.
Sean, an Erie, Pennsylvania resident, is eager to bring out-of-the-box thinking to the Travis Mills Foundation, along with his experience in outreach and fundraising. In his role at Sunbelt, he’s dedicated to advancing Sunbelt’s commitment to supporting the veteran community, enhancing partnerships by raising awareness and guiding fundraising efforts that serve and honor our nation’s heroes.
Sean is a veteran; he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1990 to 1994. During his service, he was deployed overseas multiple times, including to Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
Post-911 veterans and the Foundation’s service to these heroes is significant to Sean.
“What they went through during their time of service was far worse than what we experienced in Desert Shield and Desert Storm,” Sean said.
“(Improvised Explosive Devices) weren’t prevalent when I served,” he added. “At that time, mine fields were a danger. I had the benefit of seeing the enemy four miles away across a desert vs. post-911 veterans who experienced close combat and IEDs meant to debilitate and kill.”
“While the combat was different, the sense of brotherhood is the same,” he added.
The highlight of Sean’s military career was having dinner while deployed to Somalia with U.S. Army General Colin Powell, who at the time, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He sees his position at the Foundation as a continuance of his service to our country.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to serve with the Travis Mills Foundation,” he said.