National Guard faith-based subcontractor "snared in scandal" after Bagwell inquiry

Dare Mighty Things president David Van Patten
 Photo: Daily Gazette,Schenectady NY, 7/2/10

From Portsmouth company snared in scandal; Candidate wants firm's finances public by Elizabeth Dinan, Portsmouth Herald, October 25, 2010

Tim Bagwell, an Illinois Democratic candidate for Congress, issued a public statement last Monday describing Portsmouth-based Dare Mighty Things as a funding source for a former nonprofit that raised millions of dollars by "making false claims." The organization, the Save-A-Life Foundation, claimed to have taught CPR and other lifesaving techniques to millions, then closed amid controversy in July 2009.

By all accounts, it was largely funded with public money, including at least $590,000 in federal funds through DMT for CPR training by the National Guard at 33 military bases in 27 states. 

...David Van Patten, DMT president and chief executive officer, told the Herald he's "aware there may be others with issues" regarding Save-A-Life, but not his company, despite Bagwell's public claim....Van Patten called the Chicago candidate's demand for his company's financial records "absurd" because DMT is a private company. 

Bagwell said the company may be private, but the funds he's questioning were federal, so the records should be publicly disclosed.

From Fides: Faith and Money in the Bush Administration by Rick Cohen, Nonprofit Quarterly, March 21, 2006

(Some) relatively unusual “secular” entities discovered funding opportunities in the Compassion Capital grants. Assigned the function as the resource center for HHS’s faith-based grant is “Dare Mighty Things,” founded by Dave Van Patten. DMT staff and consultants boast a bevy of major faith-based assignments, including Youth for Christ/USA, Promise Keepers, the Christian Management Association’s Executive Leadership Program, the Prison Fellowship, and the DeVos Family Foundation.

Portsmouth Guard Youth ChalleNge Program gets big boost from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Foster's Daily Democrat, September 9, 2009

From US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's FY2011 federal appropriations requests:

Dare Mighty Things, Inc./Portsmouth, NH
$2,500,000.00 National Guard Family Training Program

Media reports since November 2006 about the Save-A-Life Foundation.

Tim Bagwell asks Health and Human Services Inspector General to investigate $3+ million CDC funding of Save-A-Life Foundation and to review role of CDC executive who worked as Save-A-Life’s treasurer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          
                                                             
Bagwell for Congress

Contact: Tim Bagwell
Phone: 812 607-0721
tim@bagwellforcongress.com

Today US House candidate Tim Bagwell sent an eight-page letter of concern to Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. In his letter, Bagwell requested an investigation to determine if over $3 million awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was spent properly.

Save-A-Life Foundation is a Chicago-area nonprofit that since 2006 has been the subject of TV and print exposes around the country, one of which “uncovered a series of misleading claims and deceptive credentials that raise doubts about Save-A-Life's integrity, funding and training.”

Along with supporting documentation regarding those concerns, Bagwell’s letter asked Inspector General Levinson to review the role of an Atlanta-based CDC executive who, since 2004, also worked as Save-A-Life’s Corporate Treasurer.

Bagwell, who holds a PhD in Public Administration and Policy Analysis, has conducted studies of abuse of consumer rights in the student loan program, voting irregularities in Illinois’ Sangamon and Rock Island Counties, and conducted Internal Control Reviews while employed at the Department of Defense.

Reportedly the Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts Bureau is investigating Save-A-Life.

“Presumably that investigation will be concerned with state issues,” says Bagwell. “My letter to Mr. Levinson is intended to address concerns about the millions in federal dollars Save-A-Life received from the CDC.”

Copied on Bagwell’s letter are Attorney General Eric Holder and Patrick J. Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden.

Bagwell’s opponent, Republican Congressman John Shimkus, reportedly steered at least $1.5 million of the CDC funding to Save-A-Life (Edwardsville Intelligencer, 1/15/05). In a letter last month, Bagwell asked Rep. Shimkus if he knew how the money had been spent and if the congressman intended to investigate.

“I got a two-sentence brush-off e-mail from a staffer who ignored my questions,” says Bagwell, a Democrat. “Is this the due diligence Congressman Shimkus applies to all his funding requests and appropriations?

“In any event, he made it clear he isn’t going to do his job, so I’m doing it for him.”        

Bagwell’s letter may be downloaded from http://bit.ly/dEMbm5 or http://scr.bi/dzqYzs

10/11/10 Tim Bagwell to HHS requesting investigation of $3m+ CDC funding of Save-A-Life Foundation