OUR STORY
The Overwatch Foundation was born from Mark Turner’s boundless desire to help. As a former Marine, and combat veteran from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mark was called to use his skill to volunteer to offer humanitarian aid where needed.
The initial mission, even before the Overwatch Foundation was formed, occurred when Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana in late 2021. Then Mark and the team mobilized to assist with the Afghan refugees. This work planted the seed for a structured organization that could be called upon regularly to respond in times of natural disasters or humanitarian crises.
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The Overwatch Foundation was officially established when Mark Turner found himself being driven to help once more. This time the call was an international mission to Ukraine. Mark's good friend and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu student Yuri is a native of the now war torn country. A couple of days after the Russian invasion began in early 2022, Yuri was deeply concerned for his family back home. Yuri shared the news that he would be returning to Ukraine to ensure the safety of his family.
Within a matter of hours, Mark was accompanied by another highly trained military veteran and they were on an airplane headed to Ukraine. The mission was not only to accompany his good friend home safely, but also to provide humanitarian efforts where they could. After multiple trips to Ukraine using teams of different special operations veterans the team then mobilized to assist in relief efforts of Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Mark understands first-hand the everyday challenges that U.S Veterans in our country face. Through his experience, Mark decided to combine his passion of helping people and his love for his fellow U.S Military Veterans by creating a non-profit that would serve a dual purpose.
The Overwatch Foundation recruits, trains and deploys highly trained former Special Operations Military Veterans to areas of natural disaster to provide critical disaster relief and high value humanitarian support to those in times of crisis.
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At The Overwatch Foundation, our goal is to help our Veterans fulfill their purpose in life of helping while providing relief to victims of natural disasters and other crisis affected areas around the world.
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"This entire organization was started by helping strangers in need when we went to Louisiana. It was cemented by helping a friend get home to see his family. Who knows where we go and what we do in the future but we know we can and will help people whenever and wherever the need arises." -Mark Turner-
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The Overwatch Foundation is an Illinois based registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.