On November 11, 2012, USMC veteran Sergeant Brendan O'Toole set out on a 3,600 mile run across the U.S. in honor of the selfless men and women who have served in Operations Iraqi and Afghanistan. The Run for Veterans' goal is to raise $2 million to support the United States Armed Forces veterans, combat veterans, disabled veterans, and their families. The Run for Veterans started in Oceanside, CA, and will end in Portland, ME.
The Run for Veterans will engage local communities, collaborate with existing organizations, and work with local veteran non-profit groups to connect civilian and military personnel.
I asked Brendon to give us updates on his progress as he crosses the U.S. The following is the first of his Situation Reports.
From Brendon:
Sending off another update from the road.
Currently, we are about 116 miles from crossing the Texas state line. We are very excited as we are preparing our first full state agenda schedule since our start. And as for timing, our schedule has us crossing the state line on Feb 11. This is exactly 3 months on the road for us.
USMC boot camp was exactly 3 months long. I like to look back on our boot camp lessons learned since Veterans Day with the run and best make the necessary changes forward.
We have done a great deal of data research for our project and outreach within the community during our first three states. Each new journey taught us either a lesson in success or failure. Now that we have just been about through all the growing pains, it is time to execute our "master" support plan all the way to Portland.
Much of this upgrading preparation is still undergoing some changes. Check out our new home page at www.therunforveterans.org to see our improvements. We have now allowed the opportunity for folks who don't have Facebook or twitter the opportunity to see live updates with our new programming. We've added a new gps tracker as well as added an electronic email list to send out our agenda for whatever our current state of travel may be. Step two, of this project begins next week with more multimedia organization.
I had the chance to meet many veterans all across my travel in NM, including Secretary Tim Hale of VA affairs delegated
Other then that, the usual routine continues as we prepare to move forward. Getting really excited for all the events we are currently in the process of completing. http://www.dvs.state.nm.us/jan23_run4vets.html
Hope all is well my friend!
The Run for Veterans invites any and all warriors, veterans, and civilians to run alongside Sgt. O'Toole throughout the route, as a show of support for our servicemen and women.
