Help a Wounded Warrior With His Bike Ride Fundraising

As the Undefeated 2-Day Ride has grown over the last three years many inspiring stories have emerged. This year a young man came to the Canari Cycling Club – the lead organization in creating the Undefeated 2-Day Ride – asking for support. One year after he lost both legs to an IED.

Kevin Childre, Canari Club President shares the story:

We have been associated with the Wounded EOD Warrior Foundation (WEODWF) for the past few years and have raised over $250,000 in that time. We’ve had a huge impact on the wounded EOD Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines and their families.

John Kremer, a young Navy EOD Tech lost both his legs to an IED less than a year ago. As is keeping with Navy EOD’s practice, John has elected to stay in the Navy and to continue to serve.

Recently John approached me about endorsing his application to Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) for a bike and equipment. CAF is very supportive and will provide the training and support that will be needed by bringing a duel amputee vet to teach John how to ride and deal with the constraints and challenges of biking with prosthetics.

The cost of this will come out of club funds, and will have no effect on our WEODWF fundraising efforts. Each year excess club money from clothing, Train of Pain, equipment, and most importantly, the support of our club sponsors ClearedJobs.Net and RGP3 is sent to WEODWF as a club donation. This year we will use part of these funds for John’s equipment, beginning with his bike.”

John Kremer was outfitted on Saturday June 4 with his new bike and met many of the teammates from the Canari Cycling Club, including Carter Goodnough of ClearedJobs.Net. On Tuesday June 7, John went out on his first bike ride with members of the Canari Cycling Club.

“I wanted to get you guys a shot of John Kremer’s first foray on the bike. We spent a bit of time in the parking lot getting him in and out of his pedals. A couple laps with some stopping and starting and it was off to Harbor Island. He made it through 10-miles today. This week marks 9-months since John was hit. He’ll need a little more work on his cardio, but by the end of the first ride he was looking pretty smooth.”

John will be training with his trainer, another double amputee veteran, to prepare for this year’s Undefeated 2-Day ride in October. John has challenged himself to raise $3,000 for the WEODWF to help his brothers and sisters in arms. He has raised more than 75% of his goal already.

If you’d like to help John reach his goal, click here.