Team RWB staged an 11-mile walk this morning that extended from the Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville to the Harry Hamm Flag Pole at Heritage Port in downtown Wheeling.
The annual walk attracted more than 50 team members and paid tribute to the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, and since during the plethora of operations during the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many members of Team RWB are American veterans while others are parents, spouses, children, and supporters.
A few times each week, team members gather for runs, walks, bike rides, and volleyball and spinning during the colder months. The local Team RWB is an official chapter in the national organization, and at this time, there are more than 300 chapters across the country with two of them located in West Virginia and six in Ohio.
“We were all very excited for this event, and we could not have had a better day,” said event organizer and American veteran Miguel Encinas. “I just really appreciate how many team members participated. We really did have a great turnout, and I appreciated that very much.”
The Course
The course traveled U.S. 40 East into Blaine, Wolfhurst, Brookside, and Bridgeport with escorts from each community protecting the participants, and then the walkers continued over the Bridgeport Bridge into the state of West Virginia. Once on Wheeling Island, they navigated to Virginia Street, and then Team RWB trekked over the historical Wheeling Suspension Bridge. From there, it was the final half-mile to Heritage Port.
That is where local vocalist Jan L’Ecuyer performed the National Anthem with the Wheeling Post 1 Color Guard presenting the colors. Following L’Ecuyer, a member of the Color Guard played “Taps.” The event attracted reporters from both television stations in the Upper Ohio Valley, including Andrea Gump from WTOV TV9. Gump, in fact, is a military veteran herself who recently completed a deployment in the Middle East.
Membership
Team RWB can be found online at https://www.teamrwb.org/landing-page/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=TeamRWB+Participation&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj7zj7ZHk6wIViuezCh0BIACuEAAYASAAEgLWzfD_BwE. Anyone who supports American veterans can become a member and begin participating with a local chapter immediately. Encinas encouraged those who were present at the post-walk gathering to look into becoming active with the local chapter.
“We do a lot of different things all year long, and when more people participate, those events are even more fun,” he said. “We’re a group of good people who have come together for all the right reasons.”
