We love watching good things happen in our community, so when we heard about Kroger’s Honoring Our Heroes 5K we knew we wanted to be a part of it.
The annual race supports active, reserve, and former military members and their families by raising funds for local, on-the-ground organizations that offer services to the men and women of the U.S. military both during and after their time in uniform.
This year Kestin along with Nancy, one of our sales reps, participated in the run. Not only did they have an amazing time, but they met some people we thought you should know about.
Warrior Homesteads is tackling the enormous problem of veteran homelessness. With over 47,000 veterans in our country currently homeless – and over one million more at risk of becoming so – their mission is to provide opportunities for these individuals to heal from the hidden wounds of war while retraining for their new life ahead and regaining their independence. They do this by providing veterans a single occupancy homestead on farmable land. For free.
We also met Bret Simon (and his service dog, Lincoln). Bret is the President of K9s for Warriors and, after suffering PTSD from a service-connected injury, was able to cope with life’s struggles with the help of his service dogs. He’s now committed to helping other veterans do the same.
K9s for Warriors is the nation’s largest provider of service dogs for disabled American military veterans. The canines can empower Warriors who battle PTSD, traumatic brain injury, or military sexual trauma as a result of military service post-9/11, and helps them return to civilian life with dignity and independence. The trained service dogs are actually rescue dogs, so both the dog and the veteran benefit from the partnership.
We loved the opportunity to be a part of this event, but we loved watching all the good happening in our community even more. We wanted to share this great work with you – and hopefully next year you’ll come out for the Kroger Honoring our Heroes 5K!
