13 JUNE 2009
TEAM WWP EVENT #3: 3rd PLACE OVERALL!! (79.3 MILES DOWN)
Hello Team Wounded Warrior Project – thank you so much for checking up on what Tom & I have been up to!
For starters, to paint the picture for you, I’m typing away at the computer from my new home in Carlisle, PA (part of the reason you haven’t heard from us in awhile). I’ve also just completed Team WWP Event #3: the Colon Cancer Prevention 5k in Harrisburg, PA. I finished 3rd overall…NOTE ~ “excuses” to follow for not winning: I was behind a recently graduated college All-American & a 2004 Olympic Marathon Trials participant…we got to know each other a bit post race and they’ll be showing me around some of the local runs this summer.
A side note – I was especially grateful to have gotten through this one without any residual pain. My right leg has healed from the 50 Miler, but recently I’ve been doing my best to hurt it again. I sort of extended my right hip a bit while at a yoga class recently, then the other day dove for a ball playing volleyball…but, again, I’m feeling good…nothing serious…so the fun continues…
Next note: we have a big push coming for 4 July weekend in the Twin Cities and hope you can be a part of our two core events. First, on Friday, 3 July, we’ll be at the Minnesota Twins game (versus the Detroit Tigers). We’ll meet just before the game, the Saint Paul Vulcans will be on hand…the Twins have given us the opportunity to take in donations on the concourse & we’re excited to take advantage of such a gift. So, if you can make it, we’d love to see you at the game. Just shoot myself or Tom a message ~ bring some friends, stop by, whatever you can do to get some folks to our Team WWP stand…
Then, on 4 July, Team WWP (myself and my TransRockies Run partner, Dr. Mary Kreis) will be racing at the Afton Trail Run 25k. I’ve included a link to the race, just in case you’d like to see us in action (although, you’ll get another shot on 4 October at the Twin Cities 10 Miler).
Even better though ~ we’ll be at the Afton 4th of July Parade! It starts at noon – the we’ll be a part of the Vulcans fire truck float! So if you’re going to be around that weekend…please come and hang out with us & bring a few friends that like to carry cash!
Where are we, dollar-wise & last thoughts…
Tom just followed through on a couple donations, matching contributions that will, by this coming week, put us over the $31,000 mark. Which is still a long ways from $50,000…and as we still haven’t seen any interest from the business community, we’re relying on your reach – friends, family members, organizations that you’re a part of…maybe you’ve sent out an email or two. Please consider sending out one more. Just refer people to the blog…hopefully that’ll be enough. Maybe tell them about why this is important to you…and, to get the ball rolling, briefly, I’ll tell you why this is important to me:
The school I’m in right now is wrapped up with fairly large issues about how the Army is run. One of the themes for discussion is, well, whether continuous combat rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan is “breaking” the Army (and Marine Corps). My friends from college are on their third combat tours; my brother and his wife are in Iraq right now on their second.
The anecdotal evidence is striking: this past month, I’m very sad to say, the Army sustained more deaths from suicide than combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The years of back and forth in two very different worlds are taking their toll, mentally, on the force.
The Army will always do what the Nation asks of it, without question. Soldiers, in their role as society’s guardians, truly are expendable. The hard fact is that the good of the many outweighs the needs of the few. This is something that we’ve chosen as a country and something that I believe in whole-heartedly. The challenge, though, is that we live in an era of a professional, all-volunteer force, in which the option to draft more soldiers does not exist. We must take care of the ones we have, as best we can.
The Wounded Warrior Project does just that – helps America’s most severely wounded patriots, volunteers, soldiers, heroes – get back to where they can contribute to the country that they were absolutely prepared to give their lives for. Please, help us make this possible…
Again, thank you for taking a step beyond the yellow ribbon. This is something you can feel proud to have done as we get ready to celebrate our Independence Day…and the sacrifices of those that risked everything for such an amazing country…
Yours, Very Respectfully & Keep Moving Forward,
Matt