The Helping Hands for Freedom Walk Across America campaign — a 3,091-mile, coast-to-coast, two-person trek to raise awareness and funds for post-traumatic stress disorder and Gold Star military families — made its way through Topeka on Thursday afternoon.
Kevin Winton and David Roth, the men making the journey on foot, walked into Topeka about 11:15 a.m., accompanied by the Topeka Fire Department. The group entered the city at S.E. 6th Avenue and S.E. Rice Road and made its way to the Topeka Fallen Firefighter Memorial at the TFD administrative offices on S.E. Jefferson Street. The unit then traveled to the Topeka Police headquarters to honor law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Roth, Winton and followers then set out for LaRocca’s Pizza, 3100 S.W. Gage Blvd., for a meet-and-greet with the public and fundraiser for the organization. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go toward Helping Hands for Freedom to help build a PTSD center for military families.
Winton, a teacher from Indiana, said a great part of the cross-country trip is interacting with communities.
“You get to have multiple experiences like this. You can see for yourself, the support people have for the military,” he said.
The community support was evident, with more than 30 people showing up to welcome the two walkers to the capitol city.
“The military doesn’t get enough support, and they put their life on the line for us all the time,” said Ruthi Montecinos, a Topeka resident who attended the event. “So, if I can show support by standing here, then I’ll do it.”
Not only does Winton enjoy the support, he said the opportunity to raise awareness about an illness that affects 7.8 percent of all Americans is truly great.
“PTSD, it’s one of those things everybody knows somebody with it, but nobody wants to talk about it,” he said.
The “Route for the Brave” walking campaign was designed to aid Gold Star families, which are the surviving relatives of those killed in action, and military service members suffering from PTSD. The funds from the walk will be used to build a 46-acre PTSD center for military families that will include six suites, dog and horse therapy and more, said Communications Director for HHFF, Paul Gable.
Gable, who has been with HHFF for over a year, said the coast-to-coast trip has been nothing but a great experience and was eager to speak about plans for the future PTSD center.
The center, Gable said, will be a house of healing for nine months of the year. All military families will be welcome to stay while they “piece their lives back together,” he said.
For the other three months, the center will serve as a PTSD rehabilitation building, with various forms of nontraditional therapies available.
According to the Department for Veterans Affairs, the United States loses 22 soldiers a day to suicide.
Gable said the organization hopes to change that number.
“We’re losing more here at home than we are in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “You almost never hear of that, and that’s what this walk is designed to do. If we can save just one person through that PTSD center and help bring that number down, it’ll be a success.”
The “Route for the Brave” group travels with an RV, which supporters from across the country sign.
Gable said they plan to incorporate the RV notes into the center’s interior design.
“What we’re doing is we want these families to know that they’re never forgotten. So, the company who wrapped the RV, they’ve got some way where they’re going to scan it all and that will be the wallpaper inside the house,” he said. “So when you walk in, when those families walk in, they’ll see every signature and know that, you know, there’s a million people along the way who actually do care about them. Who honor and remember the sacrifice that their loved one made.”
Multiple states have shown interest in being the center’s home, Gable said, including Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas.
Vince Larocca, the owner of LaRocca’s Pizza and a former Air Force master sergeant, said he was contacted a month and a half ago by HHFF and was eager to help, coordinating the event with Topeka police and fire departments.
Country Legends 106.9 and the Big 94.5 Country were on site, broadcasting the fundraiser. The fundraiser ran until 9 p.m. Thursday.
Helping Hands for Freedom is a national nonprofit organization, founded in 2008 by Bronze Star and two-time Purple Heart recipient Patrick Shannon, that aids families of the fallen, wounded and deployed.
For more information on HHFF or to donate, visit www.helpinghandsforfreedom.org.
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