Our organization is committed to honoring veterans and active duty military who have died by suicide or due to a PTS (post traumatic stress) related tragedy. Whether you would like your loved one to be remembered or whether you would like to participate in honoring these fallen veterans, please read on.

 

 

• All are invited to participate through the athletic event of their choosing: running, walking, swimming, cycling, performing in a triathlon, etc.   

 

• No fundraising required.

 

• Find an event (i.e., race) for you or for a group of your friends. Give yourself plenty of time if recruiting others to join your efforts. Please see our Events page for upcoming races, race calendars and links to training programs.

 

• You can either honor someone you know by selecting someone from the “Our Heroes” album on our Facebook page, or be matched with a fallen soldier, Marine, airman or sailor of our choosing.

 

• We will email you a 22 Too Many sign (Word file) with the hero’s name and picture and a link to his or her story.  Print the picture, put it in a page protector, trim and tape the edges and pin it on! 

 

• Race day – Take pictures! Before, after, group pictures, individual pictures with race medals and bibs and the pictures of your hero. These pictures can be shared with the families and kept by you: they are a nice remembrance of the event. If you can’t get any shots together, get the athletes to have their pictures taken at some point before, during, or after the event. Share your pictures with us and we will make an album to share with the public. We understand if on race day getting these pictures is difficult, but they become precious mementoes honoring the hero, the family, and the runner.

 

• Finisher medals – the medal is to be given to the family. Sometimes event volunteers will let you collect an extra medal, but that is not guaranteed. If there is not a medal involved, any other tokens from the race (bib, patch, t-shirt) may be shared with the family. 

 

• Write a note to the family and include it with your medal or tokens. Mailing instructions will vary depending on the veteran’s family. We can provide sample letters which do not have to be long. 

 

• You will be amazed at the responses you receive with ‘your hero’ on your back from other athletes and spectators. This not only honors the veteran, but it changes us, as we run for them and think of their sacrifice and service.

 

• You may want to write a story about your event and share it with local media outlets (share it with us too)!

 

• Keep us posted  - let us know how your event went.

 

We want to make sure this experience honors the memory of the fallen hero

and the loved ones who miss them.