Phoenix Legacy Foundation’s Jason Bressler presents a donation check to Tom Sheets, Carl Ulbrich, Sheldon David Linhart, Leo DeLangis and the team at Southwest Veterans Foundation on Feb. 11, 2025. [submitted]
The Southwest Veterans Chamber of Commerce and its Foundation have welcomed new directors in recent months.
“Ideally, about half your directors would rotate one year, the other half the next year,” said SWCC Executive Director Tom Sheets, a retired marine colonel. “That way, you maintain continuity and don’t lose all of the corporate knowledge on any given election year.
The SWVCC in November elected three members for the 2025-2026 term: American Veterans Magazine Publisher Scott Bartle, Leonard Curto with WIN Home Inspection and Ronald Trifari with Nationwide Insurance. It also elected John McCombs with AZ Perfect Comfort as the chamber’s treasurer.
“I am honored to have been asked and selected to serve on the Southwest Veterans Chamber board. Col. Sheets and the Chamber have been strong advocates for American Veterans Magazine since Day 1, and I am excited to contribute to them and the entire Arizona veteran business community in this role,” Bartle said.
A diversity of background makes the chamber stronger, Sheets said: “All of those directors bring a different area of expertise and experience to the board, which makes it very healthy.”
Sheets also acts as the executive director for the Southwest Veterans Foundation Board of Directors, which recently welcomed its own new president, Eric Snelz.
The Foundation works to raise money to found higher education for veterans or disabled veterans’ dependents, as well as granting funds to local non-profit organizations that assist veterans with social service needs.
Snelz, CEO of Helping Hands For Freedom, began working with the chamber in 2016 and has been with the Foundation since 2020, with a special focus on mental health and suicide awareness in the veteran community. Yesterday, he received a $1,000 donation for suicide prevention from the Phoenix Legacy Foundation.
“I got involved when my son returned from Afghanistan with PTSD, a brain injury, and wanted to take his own life,” Snelz said. “I got involved with the chamber because it’s a great group, and they support a lot of the things I believe in.”
Snelz said the opportunity to serve as president of the Southwest Veterans Foundation fell into his lap — and it was the happiest accident.
“The board president said, ‘You know what, I’m so busy with my job. I really can’t do this anymore’,” Snelz said. “Well, my job is to help military, so it’s a natural segue because that’s what I do for a living.
“It’s very fulfilling and I’m looking forward to it.”
