A Fateful Meeting: Connecting with an active-duty Marine Corps 1st Sgt.
By: Xiomara Spadafora, Founder & CEO.
Have you ever experienced a chain of extraordinary events that seems too much of a coincidence? It happened to my husband and me during the Christmas season of 2018. First, we met a 1st Sgt. active-duty member of the Marine Corps on December 3rd at the NMCRS (Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society) office at Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
I can't tell you his name, but he was from Virginia and had completed seven tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan for the operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn. He was also a father of four going through a painful divorce.
Our Values:
Integrity
Compassion
Discipline
Accountability
Perseverance
Inspiration Strikes: Founding The Zellner Foundation.
That day we realized the wounds of his sacrifice to defend our nation’s freedom were not only the ones he bared on his body but also the ones on his soul. We also realized that in a military family, everybody pays a price to keep our nation free from tyranny. He retired that following June after almost twenty-three years of service.
Two years and a few more veterans later, my husband and I realized God was giving us a mission and we decided to incorporate The Zellner Foundation for Military Vets in January 2020.
Adversity and Resilience: Overcoming Challenges
By August 2020, when everything seemed dead in the water due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, we organized our first charity golf tournament. Against all odds, eighty players joined us on October 9th, 2020, to celebrate our warriors at The Golf Club at South Hampton.
Among the attendees were more than thirty Military Veterans from different war eras who told us what golf meant to them. And so, our new mission was born:
Empowering disabled and PTSD-diagnosed Military Veterans and their children to improve their mental health through the beautiful game of golf on Florida’s First Coast.
Healing on the Fairways: Empowering Veterans Through Golf
Since then, we have provided golf equipment and private golf instruction to over 200 veterans, spouses, and children as a token of our gratitude for their courage, for wearing the uniform, knowing that it would take them away from their families, and for keeping our homeland safe.
In light of our growth, in February 2024, we decided to embrace the name of our genesis program, Will of Iron, to facilitate the understanding and promotion of our cause.
We have been recognized by THE PLAYERS Championship organization at the Military Appreciation Day ceremony in 2023 and 2024, and as their guest of honor at the Volunteer Leadership Party in 2023. We also received two of their grants in 2024: Red Coat Community and the Storytellers.
In June 2025 we were selected for a grant through the Make Golf Your Thing Grants Program administered by the American Golf Industry Coalition.
Following the words of The King Arnold Palmer: “Thank God for the game of golf,” we believe there is something exceptional about this game and we want to share our love of golf with as many military families as we can.
Thank you for your interest in our mission. Contact us if you want to become a sponsor info@willofironforvets.org
Xiomara Spadafora, Founder & CEO.
Direct: 904-832-1586
Embracing Growth: Introducing Will of Iron
In light of our growth, in 2024 we decided to embrace the name of our genesis program, Will of Iron, to facilitate the understanding and promotion of our cause.