Rising Stars: Meet Lisa Wysocky of West Nashville and Ashland City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Wysocky.

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My son Colby was the kind of child who used to come home without his shirt or his shoes because he found someone who needed them more. He befriended those who didn’t have friends and went out of his way to help others. Colby also had several mental illnesses, including depression and social anxiety, and when he was eighteen, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He did well, though, working part-time and going to Nashville Tech part-time to study music. until TennCare no longer chose to cover him. He was nineteen, and back in the 2000s, you could not get health care if you did not have health insurance and had pre-existing conditions. With the loss of TennCare, Colby lost access to his meds and turned to street drugs. He died of an overdose in 2009, when he was twenty-three. Colby was my only child, and I wasn’t sure how I could move forward or even if I could until friends encouraged me to keep up the good works that Colby had done all his life. That’s how Colby’s Army was founded. We started giving backpacks to those in homelessness in 2010 and have grown to having a food bank for the homeless and feeding up to 85 people each week, providing supplies and referrals that help individuals get housed, and providing peer support and post-housing supportive services. We have an organically grown garden that feeds the hungry and a therapeutic riding and equine-assisted learning program that teaches life skills to those with life challenges, including homelessness. Currently, Colby’s Army has 40+ active volunteers and several paid staff.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In the early days, there were many nights that I stayed up physically sick because we had, for example, insurance payment or an electric bill due the next day and didn’t have the funds. But somehow, we survived and are still here. Funding is still tight, but we are managing and growing our services. We also are a volunteer-driven organization, and COVID-19 hit us very hard in that area. We haven’t yet fully recovered the volunteer base that we had pre-COVID and are always looking for caring volunteers.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In addition to serving as executive director of Colby’s Army, I am an author and have been very fortunate to have won several awards. My Cat Enright cozy mystery series has been optioned for film/tv, and I am excited about the possibility of seeing the characters I created come to life. Another project I am very proud of is Front of the Class, co-authored with Brad Cohen. The book won many awards, and Hallmark picked it up for a movie. The Internet Movie Database named it the best Hallmark movie of all time. And my young adult adventure, The Mysterious Horse House, was recently chosen as Best Horse Book of 2021 by the American Horse Media awards. Finally, I have been a podcast host or co-host on the Horse Radio Network for some years and have a new celebrity-driven horse podcast debuting later this fall. My books are either about horses or tell a story of overcoming incredible odds, and I find the creative aspect of writing and podcasting balances the busy pace of helping others that we all do at Colby’s Army.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
Choose to do something you are passionate about, and find a way to make a living at it, be committed and work hard—network with everyone you can. Take every opportunity that comes your way and learn from it. Be responsible. Show up when you are supposed to and do your best job. I wish now that when I was younger that I had asked more questions of those who came before me. I am sure I could have learned much that would have been helpful.

Contact Info:

• Website: LisaWysocky.com and also ColbysArmy.org

Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Lisa Wysocky