Oyama Zipline Adventure Park teamed with a Lake Country’s bike riding team the ‘Okanagan Chain Gang’ to raise money for Wounded Warriors Canada (WWC) with the first annual ‘Wounded Warriors Day’ event Saturday.

“It’s our first year and we have had a great response from the community, we teamed up with the Okanagan Chain Gang when we were told about Wounded Warriors Canada and the amazing things they do for the people that help us everyday and we had to get involved. We intend to keep hosting Wounded Warriors day every year,” said owner of Oyama Zipline Adventure Park Jennifer Madsen.

READ MORE: Coming together in Lake Country for Wounded Warriors Day

The goal was to raise $25,000, with all proceeds from the event going to Wounded Warriors Canada.

Wounded Warriors Canada helps veterans, military, first responders and their families who suffer from mental disorders as a result of the work they do to protect their communities.

The community came together for the event seeing donations from RBC lunch, raffles, a 50-50 draw and games for kids. There will also be a $40 zip tour and all proceeds raised will be donated to the foundation.

Garry McCracken, a member of the Okanagan Chain Gang said Wounded Warriors has a motto ‘honour the fallen, help the living’ “We are kind of doing it backwards, we are helping the living with ‘Wounded Warriors Day’ now and then at the end of the month on May 28, we are heading to Dieppe France, the site of Operation Jubilee in 1942, the bloodiest day in Canadian military history and riding to Juno Beach, where Canadians went ashore as part of the 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy,” said McCracken.

READ MORE: Lake Country men cycling in France to fundraise for veterans

He will be joined by his three other riding team members, who all have a story which draws them to honour the fallen soldiers. “Wounded Warriors first came to light for me when I found out my father received an honourary fellowship from the president of France for his participation in D-Day,” Okanagan Chain Gang member Bob Harding. “This means a lot to me, I am a third generation Canadian Military engineer, my father and both my grandfathers, in fact, one of my grandfathers fought in the first world war, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and a bunch of other battles; he was never physically injured, but I remember seeing a picture of him in Paris taken after the war, before he was repatriated and his eyes looked dead, he suffered from what they called shell shock,” said McCracken.

McCracken said in 2017 over 70 retired first responder veterans took their own lives, these were people who had Post traumatic stress disorder.

To find out more about Wounded Warriors Canada and how to donate, visit woundedwarriors.ca

Here’s more on Wounded Warriors Day and the ‘Okanagan Chain Gang’ ride for the fallen soldiers.

@LarynGilmour

laryn.gilmour@blackpress.ca

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