| Ride to the Intrepid |
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| Ride to the Intrepid |
| All proceeds to benefit The Fisher House |
TM
| 2009 event more information to follow |
| All New York Chapters of Rolling Thunder |
| Page is still under construction .. continue to check back for more info |
| NY Chapter 1 Ray Robertson www.RollingThunderNY1.org NY Chapter 2 Mike Garguilo www.RollingThunderNY2.com NY Chapter 3 Ron Orts www.RTNYCH3.com NY Chapter 4 Vincent Scotti geocities.com/RollingThunderNY4.com NY Chapter 5 Suzi Granger Suzi@RollingThunderNY5.org |
| Police Escorted Ride Vendors Honor Ceremony Military Hardware Display BBQ at The Intrepid "Patriot Run to The Intrepid" Event Tee Shirts |
| Rolling Thunder® Ride to Support Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. NY: March, 2008 -- On October 12th, 2008, all five New York State chapters of the nationally-organized military-veterans support group Rolling Thunder® Inc. will be hosting a benefit motorcycle ride to support The Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc., a charitable organization that provides cost-free nearby temporary housing for the relatives of current or veteran military personnel who have become hospitalized due to illness or injury. All proceeds of the event will go to the Foundation, which will use the funds to reimburse individual Fisher Houses™ operated by the Army, Navy, and Air Force for their costs of maintaining them. The Fisher House™ Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was begun in 1990 by the wealthy and patriotic Fisher family, who saw the need for a way to allow family members to visit and spend critical recovery-and-rehabilitation time with their ill or injured military veteran as they healed, often in a medical facility far from the family’s home. The first Fisher House™ (all of which are large-residence-like buildings able to sleep 16 to 42 people) was opened near the Navy’s Bethesda Medical Center in Maryland in 1991. In the 17 years since then, 38 additional Houses have opened at numerous Army, Air Force, Navy, and VA hospitals around the country and in Landstuhl, Germany, and 22 more Houses are either under construction or planned. With hospital stays that average anywhere from 12 days to 60 days for a combat-injured soldier, or up to 3 months for a WWII veteran who’s suffered a stroke, the availability of such temporary cost-free housing ensures that the Fisher House™ motto, “because a family’s love is good medicine”, is taken seriously as a successful rehabilitation tool for those who have served their country and sacrificed themselves in the process. When the Fisher Houses™ first opened, families used to pay between $7 to $10 a night for lodging at the Houses; as of October 2006, because of the fundraising done by The Fisher House™ Foundation, no family now pays to stay at a Fisher House™. Volunteers staff the facilities, and three complete meals a day are prepared in each building’s fully- equipped kitchen. With a library, laundry facilities, large dining and living rooms, and toys for small children, each Fisher House™ strives to become a “home away from home” in support of this country’s military families. For more about Fisher Houses™, and The Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc., go to their website at www.fisherhouse.org . The October 12th benefit ride is planned to begin at the first Fisher House™ in the nation supporting a Veterans Administration facility, the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York, and travel down the New York State Thruway, fully police-escorted, across the Tappan Zee Bridge and into New York City. It’s scheduled to end at one of the most recognizable sights along Manhattan’s Hudson River shoreline, the USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Commissioned in August of 1943, the Intrepid, US Naval Number CV-11, one of the many ‘Essex-class’ aircraft carriers built during World War 2, saw extensive service in the Pacific theater of operations, and ended the war as one of the most battle-damaged ships still in the Navy’s fleet. It sustained numerous hits from Japanese torpedos and ‘kamikaze’ suicide aircraft, but it was always repaired and returned to action. Significant refitting and rebuilding was a part of it’s long life, until it was finally retired in 1974 after 31 years of service. Saved from the scrapyard in 1978 by the Fisher family for it’s historic legacy, it was opened to the public as a museum in 1982, and is considered the world’s largest naval museum. It was closed in 2006 and sent to New Jersey for a much-needed overhaul, and it’s scheduled to return to it’s Manhattan pier on October 3rd of this year. The Fisher family will be providing a cost-free barbecue on the decks of the Intrepid for all of the ride’s participants, and T-shirts commemorating the event will be available then, also. For further information and updates, go to the appropriate link on the Foundation’s website, or the site for Rolling Thunder Chapter 3 NY, www.rtnych3.com , or Rolling Thunder Chapter 5 NY, www.rollingthunderny5.org . |
