YARMOUTH – Cape Cod Police and Fire will participate in the 3rd Annual Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride Cape Cod this year.
During the ride, approximately 50 wounded young American service men and women from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will arrive in the Town of Yarmouth to take part in a rehabilitative bicycling ride on Cape Cod.
The ride is part of the national Wounded Warrior Project’s National Soldier Ride.
On Wednesday, September 24th, 2014 between 12 noon and 5PM, approximately 50 wounded
The participants will be staying at the Red Jacket Beach Resort on Nantucket Sound on South Shore Drive in South Yarmouth.
They will be riding specially adapted bicycles on the Shining Sea Bikeway on Thursday, Sept. 25 from North Falmouth to Woods Hole starting at 9:30 a.m. and in Provincetown on Friday, September 26 starting at 10 a.m.
The public is invited and highly encouraged to cheer on the participants at the beginning of each ride, as well as show their support along the trails.
The riders will be fitted for upright, recumbent or hand crank cycles to suit their injuries before setting out on the 3-day trip, which will take them from Cape Cod to Boston.
After Friday’s ride, they will be transported by ferry from Provincetown to Boston for a Red Sox game at Fenway Park on Friday night and their Soldier Ride in Boston on Saturday.
Members of the Yarmouth Police Department including Deputy Chief of Police Steven Xiarhos, whose son U.S. Marine Corporal Nicholas G. Xiarhos was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009, and Patrol Officer Albert Sprague, whose son U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Sprague was severely wounded in combat in Afghanistan in 2011, as well as police officers and firefighters from all across the Cape and Islands are committed to establishing Soldier Ride as an annual event on Cape Cod.
They have joined together with members of the Baker-Xiarhos AMVETS Post 333, the Falmouth Military Support Group, and some citizen volunteers including Ginny Ross of Provincetown, Diane Parslow of South Yarmouth, Jerrell Williams of Yarmouthport, and Carole Kenney of Falmouth.
“A country is judged on how it treats its Veterans and it critical that these young American Warriors know that Cape Codders appreciate them and welcome them with open arms,” said Xiarhos.
The mission of the Wounded Warrior Project is to honor and empower wounded warriors. Its purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured men and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs.
The goal of Soldier Ride is to help wounded war veterans gain confidence as they make the transition from rehabilitation back to civilian life.
For more information visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org
