A Bike Ride to Help Our Wounded Warriors

I did this ride last year, about eight months after taking up cycling. While the views and the weather was great, what was most impressive was seeing our paralyzed warriors, amputees, and other injured vets pushing hard, riding all kinds of modified, recumbent, or regular bicycles on the approximately 100 miles from DC to Gettysburg. One soldier stood out. We met him at one of the early rest stops and at first glance, frankly, he didn’t seem too “wounded” to me. But after a little bit, we found out about his injuries. An IED just beat him up good, rattling his brain housing unit so much that he had to do lots of rehab just to do normal tasks again, even walk. The bike ride was another peak for him to summit on the road to "normalcy." What surprised me was he very much wanted to “stay Army.” Fortunately, the Army had initiated a program to take these wounded heroes and, instead of medically discharging them, find places for them to contribute while staying in the Army. This young man was going to re-train from infantry to intelligence and bring his front-line perspective and experience and perspectives into the intel field. He still wanted to give back to his country and Service, after so much had been thrown at him. I was impressed. What your donation does is allow these wounded warriors the chance to push their envelope in a controlled manner, maybe discover a new activity he or she can do for exercise, or just get outside of the four walls of confinement they've been living within and experience the great outdoors without having to worry about the massive logistics and other support they’d require if done alone or relying only on their family. If you are hard-pressed this year and can’t make a contribution, no problem. All I ask then is for your thoughts and prayers for these heroes as work their way along the 100 mile trek from DC to Gettysburg on 24-25 April 2010. That kind of support goes a long way, too. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you can do a little to help World TEAM Sports help our wounded warriors. Greg "Z" Zehner