Ruck for Our Veterans

Vero Beach, FL: On Saturday, June 29th, the Next Generation Veterans of Indian River County (NGVIRC) is hosting a Ruck March to raise funds for local Veterans and for the WORDS FROM WAR monument that will be build near Veterans’ Memorial Island Sanctuary in Vero Beach, Florida. A Ruck March in the military is way to move personnel, and their gear, from point A to point B in an expeditious fashion. The Ruck for our Veterans event is a 5-mile brisk walk with weighted backpacks. The NGVIRC is asking the community to bring non-perishable food items to wear in their rucks for the march. Afterwards, those food items will be collected and donated to the Indian River Charitable Trust Pantry Downtown.

“This is our 4th Ruck March for Indian River. These marches are our way of sharing in a military pastime while also doing something good for the community. We pick a different charity each time and collect food for a local food pantry. Folks really seem to enjoy doing this with us and challenging themselves in this way. It’s a great event.,” says NGVIRC Commander, Jason Patzer.

Ruck for Our Veterans begins at 8:00am on Saturday June 29th. NGVIRC is requesting a $20 donation to register at the event. Water and food will be provided to all participants. More event details are on the Next Generation Veterans of Indian River County's Facebook page.

About Next Generation Veterans of Indian River County is a local group of Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars whose mission statement is to create a network of Next Generation of Veterans, provide a venue for social support, combat misconceptions about returning veterans and represent our generation by positively engaging the community. We are working with a local non-profit, Next Generation Veterans, Inc., to build the WORDS FROM WAR monument.

WORD FROM WAR is a monument being created by renowned sculptor Ross Power and stands more than 9 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter. Over 44,000 pounds of precision cast concrete is being used to replicate T-Walls, the symbol of safety known by all desert combat veterans. Forty-eight words are boldly cast into the three monolithic walls, words that come directly from the Iraq/Afghanistan combat veterans who have engaged in deeply personal interviews with the artist. (WORDSFROMWAR.org)