By Bruce Karnick

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Veteran’s groups of all kinds have similar goals, keeping their members active and engaging the community and keeping them safe. PTSD is a very real concern for military members that return home, as are the physical injuries. The depression caused by the situations of active duty, the physical and mental injuries these soldiers endure leads to issues on the home front that need our help. Project Hero is one such group that is fighting hard for the safety piece while utilizing the active community engagement piece to help these warriors survive.

Project Hero is a foundation that works with veterans using cycling as therapy for PTSD and other injuries. What they do is restore a sense of purpose, by creating a new mission but not necessarily a combat mission. They started the day up in Eagan, with the Vikings, and they are going to finish down in Madison, WI.

In all, the trip is over 400 miles. They expect to average over 80 miles a day over the fiveday period. The group is around 50 riders strong, and they have a team of support personnel with them. Two motorcycles lead the way as escorts and five support vehicles make up the rear. The support vehicles house a nurse, a bike mechanic, spare equipment, food, water and of course a spot where riders can hop in if they need a break.

“About every 20 miles we stop somewhere in the community, an American Legion or here we’re at the sheriff’s office just trying to engage with the community make them aware and really get them excited about what we’re doing. We also work with first responders, EMTs, law enforcement, those kinds of things,” Joseph Coddington of weareprojecthero.org explained.

The riders are from all over the globe, Minnesota, Las Vegas, North and South Carolina. Some grew up in Minnesota, others moved here. Many met through military service in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The cost of joining the ride varies depending on the rider’s service, each rider is asked to fundraise for a weeklong trip as explained by Coddington. “We ask that we make as much free as possible. We ask that each [rider] fundraise $400 to attend the event so that they have skin in the game so to speak.

What it really accomplishes is, a lot of these Vets tend to get homebound, they won’t go out. By making them go out to raise that $400 it’s another part of the therapy, because it gets them to engage with their community. That keeps them from sitting at home and drinking or doing other choices that lead to… you know, we lose 22 vets a day to suicide. And one of the things is because they get isolated and we’re not designed to go through problems alone, and these vets were not trained to accomplish missions alone we are trained to do it as a unit, and when they don’t have that unit, they just stay at home all day, bad things happen.”

22 Vets a day gone at their own hands, let that sink in for a moment.

How can you get involved? That’s simple according to Coddington. “You can say ‘thank you’ to a Vet, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but you don’t know what he’s going through that day, especially right now in the current political climate, a lot of our Afghan vets are very confused. Being told, thank you, is a big deal. Then go to the website ‘we are project hero.org’. Donate, volunteer, you know just get involved.”

For more information and to donate, visit www.weareprojecthero. org