Bringing Home What Once Gave Me Hope

As a young person, Deven Wallace participated in Operation Orphans in Texas.

For Deven, it wasn't simply an opportunity to hunt.

It represented something much larger.

It was an opportunity to step away from difficult circumstances and experience the outdoors in an environment built around encouragement, responsibility, mentorship, and belonging.

The experience stayed with him.

It carried him into his next chapter: the United States Army.

In uniform, Deven came to understand something the outdoors had already taught him — that a single person willing to stand beside you, guide you, and believe in you can change the direction of a life.

It is the same lesson at the heart of Tennessee Outdoor Hope: mentorship, belonging, and a community that refuses to let a young person fall.

Deven carries that same spirit toward those he served with. The mission does not end when the uniform comes off. He is committed to ensuring his brothers and sisters in arms are taken care of too — that those who served have a place, a purpose, and a community here in Tennessee.

Years later, Deven began looking back on the people, experiences, and opportunities that had made an impact during difficult periods of his own life. Operation Orphans was one of them.

Now, his mission is to help create opportunities for other young people in Tennessee to experience what outdoor mentorship once provided him:

Deven's vision is not merely to recreate an outdoor program. It is to build a community around young people: landowners, mentors, veterans, first responders, conservationists, business leaders, outdoor professionals, families, volunteers, donors, and ordinary Tennesseans willing to say —

“You matter, and we're investing in your future.”