Merchandise (supports RFTW's mission)
Click for Windows Media File Downloads:
Blogs by Individuals on the 2008 RFTW-CR:
David "Bounce" Talley's blog
www.havasufreedombridge.com.
(Corrected 5.31.08 - Scroll down a little
and on the right is the RFTW logo:
click on "Read Judy's Blog.")
2007 Route-specific web pages and photos
Americans Still Missing
(from the POW Network on 4.14.08) -
World War I: 4,452
World War II: 74, 384
Korea: 8,178
Vietnam: 1, 763
Cold War: 125
Desert Shield: 12
Desert Storm: 2
Iraq: 5: Fouty, Jimenez, Altarie, Speicher and
McDaniel
Ron "Hammer" Young
Central Route Coordinator
Russ "Sheepdog" Cockrum
Central Route
Assistant Coordinator
The photo above changes daily to reflect a variety of experiences on Run For The Wall.
Welcome to Run For The Wall
Central Route - 2008
May 14 - 25
"We ride for those who can't"
Posted May 11, 2008 - Lake Havasu City's soon-to-be-built second bridge to the island (the first is the famous London Bridge) will be called the Freedom Bridge, and will be dedicated to our veterans from all wars. [See posting below from 4/24.] It will include a memorial park and veterans plaza. I'm the Veterans Liaison for the Freedom Bridge Foundation, and the Foundation is very excited about Run For The Wall passing by Lake Havasu City. For the third year, we expect a huge crowd on the I-40 overpass when RFTW goes by Wednesday, May 14.
The Foundation is very interested in hearing about RFTW's journey to Washington D.C. this year, and they have set up a blog on the Freedom Bridge website for me to send in daily reports for the people of Lake Havasu to read. If you'd like to follow our progress across the U.S. for the 10 days beginning May 14, you can read it at: http://havasufreedombridge.com/blog/. - Judy Lacey
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Posted 4/24/08 - RFTW will be participating in a project called the “Freedom Bridge and Memorial Park.” Lake Havasu City, Arizona is building a second bridge to the island, because the famous London Bridge cannot handle the increased traffic. The new bridge will be called “The Freedom Bridge,” and the surrounding Memorial Park will be a tribute to all of our veterans from all wars.
The Foundation is inviting veterans, family members, and friends to honor their loved ones by purchasing bricks to be laid in the Freedom Memorial Park and the Memorial Walkway, which will extend along the Bridgewater Channel from the new Freedom Bridge to the London Bridge. As a participant in this project, RFTW will receive $5 for each brick ordered by anyone who designates RFTW as the organization they wish to donate to. This is a brand new project and will take several years to build out. The Foundation expects to eventually have monuments to each war; the Traveling Wall had indicated a strong interest in making the Memorial Park in Lake Havasu its permanent home in 2010 or thereabouts. One of the memorials will be in honor of veterans of the current war, perhaps the very first such memorial in the nation. Lake Havasu anticipates this being one of the largest Veterans Memorial in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C.
For more details, visit www.HavasuFreedomBridge.com, and watch a short video on the website.
Brochures will be available in the merchandise trailer for each route. Be sure to pick up a few to pass on to friends or co-workers. This project will bring in some additional revenue for RFTW. A special is being offered until September 11, 2008: buy four bricks and receive the fifth one free.
If you have any questions, contact Judy Lacey, Veterans Liaison to the Freedom Foundation at judylacey@aol.com.
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The following note was sent by Jim Stone on 11/26/08:
The note below is from the webmaster of the Queensland Chapter of the VVMC of Australia. He provides an update on Skip Eklom, a Vietnam Vet from Australia who was paralyzed after a bike wreck near Bakersfield, California and on his way to Rolling Thunder XXI.
The guys at qldvvmc have set up a raffle to raise money for Skip. For something less than $25 US you can buy five tickets to a drawing for a custom-built Harley. Whether you win or not, any help you can provide will be most appreciated. If you visit the club's website it will provide you a trail to another site where you can buy the tickets via paypal.
Take a look at the video on Youtube too.
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Chinese John <cj.qldvvmc@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 6:19:26 PM
Subject: Skip Update
G'day Folks
Just an update on the email I sent out last week about Bruce 'Skip' Eklom, our bloke who was rendered a quadriplegic after a bike accident in America earlier this year. I did ask you all to visit the You Tube site and view the video on Skip http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KvePlyhs9V8
I was hoping you would pass it onto your address books and contacts and hopefully they would do the same - with the aim of making this the most watched video on You Tube, thereby boosting visits to our website www.qldvvmc.com and helping with ticket sales in the bike raffle http://www.qldvvmc.info/raffle.html
Whilst nowhere near the most viewed on You Tube, the video is now the third most popular of the Brisbane 'Extra' stories, only eclipsed by two others that have been there for 6 months or more.
This has been reflected in visits to our website and ticket sales, so on behalf of Skip I thank you.
Thank you friends for your help
CJ
Webmaster
Vietnam Veterans MC, Queensland Chapter
Links to pages with photos from the 2008 RFTW-CR:
Here is a great website posted by Raven "Tread" Heart-Donham where each photographer can have a folder posted of his/her own photographs taken during the 2008 RFTW: http://community.webshots.com/user/RFTWphotos
Share Your Photos
Email them with your name & CR or SR to:
RFTWPhotos@gmail.com
Photos will be credited with your name and uploaded to the site above on WebShots.com.
Space on these pages is limited, but we need more photos representing the Central Route's experiences in 2008. Please consider sizing (approximately 4x6" or 6x4" at 72 resolution) your BEST photos and sending them to me to post. With each email, include the number of the specific photo, the date and where it was taken, as well as any additional important information you want posted. In the subject line, put your route taken and the date of photo (example: CR - 5.20.08 - day seven). If it was your mission to take something to The Wall, a short story about that would be appreciated by the rest of us. When pages are updated, it will be noted above. Thanks for your patience! Email photos here.
Information on the highly-visible Glo-Gloves which our Road Guards are using may be found at <www.gloglov.com>.
