WASHINGTON COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- It's a quiet day at Washington County Golf Course. But don’t mistake quiet for common.
"This is not what you think it's going to be," Next 18 founder and executive director Matt McDonell says.
This isn't a story about golfers, it's one about heroes.
"This is very clearly my purpose," Matt says. "This is definitely my passion."
Matt served five years as an airborne infantryman in the U.S. Army. Now he's running Next 18, a series of four-day camps that use golf as a catalyst to help educate veterans and first responders on mental health wellness.
"We teach yoga, breath work, meditation, journaling. We're not treating, we're not diagnosing. You think it's golf, you think yeah, I'm going to do yoga, maybe I've heard of it, but we're getting you into the root causes of what is affecting you fundamentally, as a human."
When we first introduced you to Matt four years ago Next 18 was just getting started, with him running everything. Now he has a staff, a board and a waitlist of more than 900.
We asked him just how proud he is of what he has built.
"When you stop me to think about it, I tear up because I don't ever think about it. it's a lot. It's a lot."
Casey Sauter is a police officer in Watertown who went to a Next 18 camp.
"I definitely thought it was going to be one of those, here's your brochures, let's do some breathing...okay, let's play golf," Casey admits.
A few years ago, one of Casey's fellow officers was involved in a shooting. He struggled to talk about how he was feeling to anyone, from his parents to his fiancé.
"She does her best to help, but at the same time, I don't let her help just because, 'I'm a man, I don't need help.'"
Casey says that will change after his time at Next 18.
"I realize that stigma is extremely unhealthy and by not allowing her, and not allowing other people to help me, is only hurting myself and hurting everyone around me. I think instead of shutting down and saying, 'I'm fine, don’t want to talk about it,' just pushing myself to be better. Just being able to trust other people. I want to be able to open up to my family about some of the things we deal with."
"When I have alumni coming up to me and all of their wives are hugging me and they're talking to me about how the husband is sitting in the bedroom with the kid every night, teaching them box breathing to help with their anxiety, that's breaking generational stigmas and generational trauma. That's the type of stuff you don't see everywhere. That's the impact," McDonell says.
Next 18 has grown exponentially since Matt started it. Recently recognized by the PGA tour, there will be 11 camps this year, in eight states.
There'll be 13 camps next year, and hopefully 20 shortly after that.