JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Wounded Warrior Project is bringing together military members from around the country for a 1,000-mile cycling journey \u2014 the first leg of which started in Jacksonville. The event is called Soldier Ride 250. <\/p>\n
To the beat of drums, a bus carrying Wounded Warriors from their hotel arrived at Wounded Warrior Project headquarters in Jacksonville Thursday morning. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Amid much fanfare, the crowd held posters showing support for the military members. And with that, Soldier Ride 250 began. This year, the annual event will commemorate America\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cOur nation wouldn\u2019t be 250 years old this year if it wasn\u2019t for the military being 251,\u2033 Walt Piatt, CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, said.<\/p>\n Eighty wounded warriors from around the country will combine to participate in Soldier Ride 250, WWP said. The Wounded Warrior Project adaptive cycling event will feature 4 groups of 20 warriors riding 250 miles each to combine for the 1,000-mile trip between Jacksonville to Ground Zero in Manhattan. <\/p>\n The organization said much of today\u2019s injured veterans stem from post 9\/11 wars. Thursday\u2019s ride is from Jacksonville to Fernandina Beach. Piatt said there\u2019s a purpose to this. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the mental wellness about it all. It shouldn\u2019t be harder to come home for more than it is to go to war. But it is,\u201d Piatt said. <\/p>\n Among these riders is Air Force Veteran Chris Wolff, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012. <\/p>\n We recently told you<\/b><\/a> that Wolff said a military flu vaccine left him with a spinal cord virus leaving him quadriplegic for over two years. WWP connected Wolff to services that help him walk again through the help of an exoskeleton. <\/p>\n \u201cSo where would you be without the Wounded Warrior Project today?\u201d Action News Jax\u2019s Zion Decoteau asked Wolff. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cHonestly sadly, I would probably not be here anymore,\u201d Wolff said. <\/p>\n The event tries to be inclusive of everyone. <\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what your injury is, your illness, visible, or invisible \u2026 we can get you on a bike and guarantee a smile,” Bill Hayes, Manager of WWP Soldier Ride 250, said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n For Wolff, cycling takes him on his healing journey. <\/p>\n \u201cYes, because whatever I\u2019m dealing with is gonna be left here and I\u2019m gonna be able to put it out on the road, push my limitations and push through things. I\u2019ve never done it before. But I understand I\u2019m not gonna do it by myself. I have a group of other veterans doing it as well,\u201d Wolff said. <\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s ride continues to Mayport then ends in Fernandina Beach with the ultimate destination of a fire house near the World Trade Center site in New York City. <\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Wounded Warrior Project is bringing together military members from around the country for a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[79462,7574,326210,5229,14336,326211,219151,3188,723,326208,4785,259143,7310,425,5249,50,464,8744,326207,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,326209,98285,7201,9570,180143,33221,326206,326212,177391],"class_list":["post-800629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-9-11","tag-afghanistan","tag-air_force","tag-america","tag-ceo","tag-chris_wolf","tag-fernandina_beach","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-ground_zero","tag-iraq","tag-jack_zion_dekoto","tag-jacksonville","tag-local","tag-manhattan","tag-news","tag-post","tag-project","tag-soldier_ride_250","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-walt_pyatt","tag-warrior","tag-warriors","tag-wolf","tag-wolff","tag-wounded","tag-wounded_warrior_project","tag-wwp","tag-zion"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}