Category: Veterans

 About 250 runners and riders participated in Sunday’s third annual Honor Ride and Run through the streets of Barrington, raising an estimated $40,000 to support life changing cycling programs that help our country’s wounded veterans continue in their recovery process.
Funds raised support Ride 2 Recovery, a nonprofit organization that equips wounded veterans with bikes customized to accommodate their injuries.  The organization also offers training and hosts rides for physical and mental benefits that impact veterans’ lives forever.
Participants in Sunday’s event chose between a 5 or 10K run or a 29.5 mile bike ride through Barrington.
The race started with a brief ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in downtown Barrington where participants paused for a few words from Ride 2 Recovery Chief Operating Officer and retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel David Haines.
David was in town for the race from his home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  He put the whole mission into new perspective when he shared more about his own personal recovery after he and four fellow soldiers were hit by a roadside bomb while serving our country.
“In 2006 I was assigned to an infantry unit in Baghdad, Iraq and was hurt by a roadside bomb.  I was on a mounted patrol in an up-armored Humvee and was hit on one of the main routes in Baghdad by a bomb that basically shoots molten shrapnel through the armor of the vehicle.”
“There were five people including myself on this vehicle.  One person was killed and all of the three other men who survived lost limbs so it was a very serious incident and I was fortunate enough that, though my injuries were very serious, I managed to keep all of my limbs.”
“But I was evacuated through the system and spent about four months as a patient at Walter Reed and then about two-and-a-half-years rehabilitating after that.  I had shattered my right hand, shrapnel damage to my left arm and shattered my right femur so for my life and for my military career, that was kind of a defining point.”
David says cycling has played a major role in his personal rehabilitation goals, allowing him to stay involved with the military and connect others with the cause, like Barrington Honor Ride & Run Founder and Chicago-based FOX News Channel Correspondent, Mike Tobin……