BETHEL, CONN. \u2013 Kewon Potts was beaming broadly as he flung open the door to his \u201cfitting room\u201d and stepped out in a new suit that perfectly fit his broad torso.<\/p>\n
\u201cOOOOHs\u201d and \u201cAAAAHs\u201d greeted the Navy vet, who hopes to get back into the job market after some tough years since leaving the military. \u201cLooking sharp, man!\u201d someone called.<\/p>\n
The \u201cfitting room\u201d from which Potts stepped forth was actually an office of Save-a-Suit, a nonprofit foundation in Connecticut that was giving free suits, dress shirts and ties to more than 25 vets that morning.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the brainchild of Scott Sokolowski, talent acquisition manager for The Barnum Group, a division of MetLife. \u201cI want these people to walk into their job interviews with confidence and dressed for success because I know the importance of first impressions and that the first 30 seconds are critical,\u201d he explained later.<\/p>\n
Potts needed that confidence. Since he never had a father figure in his life, \u201cI relied on the military to teach me how to be a man. It was tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After four years of active duty, he left with a full-blown case of post-traumatic stress disorder. For the next two decades, he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppressed a lot of issues, and they caused a lot of trouble for me when they surfaced,\u201d said Potts. \u201cI\u2019d like to become a drug and alcohol counselor now because I hope I could help others alleviate some of the pain I went through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Sokolowski founded the nonprofit in 2009, it has given suits, shirts and ties to more than 2,200 vets, said Jessica F. Ewud, executive director of Save-a-Suit. Some are purchased with cash donations, while others had been gently used before being donated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hand-sort through all our donations to make sure everything is in mint condition before we give it to our vets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another vet receiving a suit that morning was Diana L. Brasselle, an Army vet who says she also developed PTSD after experiencing trauma on active duty. Nightmares and flashbacks have been all too common, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became harder and harder to be around people and harder and harder to work,\u201d said Brasselle, who has been a physical therapist in the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Now she wants to look professional when she begins orientation as a substitute teacher next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy No. 1 goal is to remain living independently in the community,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Save-a-Suit hosts up to five give-aways a year for vets who ask for help. You can learn more about the program at http:\/\/saveasuit.org\/<\/a>. But that help isn\u2019t limited to those who walked through its doors that crisp September morning.<\/p>\n \u201cOne man had been living in vet housing in Milford (Conn.) for three years with his daughter,\u201d remembered Ewud. \u201cHe called in a panic one night to tell us he had a job interview the next morning, and he needed appropriate clothing to wear. We got his clothing sizes and drove a suit, a shirt and a tie to his home that night.<\/p>\n \u201cHe called later to thank us and to tell us that he gotten the job as an administrator, I think,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n