Fourth Annual Warrior Walk To Include Competitive Categories

This year’s Warrior Walk in Stillwater will be a little different than before, offering competitive categories.

In addition to the usual open category of walking around Boomer Lake, this year’s participants will have the choice of creating a team of 7 to compete in either a flag relay or a backpack relay of 22 miles. 

Depending on the category of competition chosen, the teams will be supplied with either a small U.S. flag or a ruck, which is a 40-pound back pack. After completing the 3.1-mile lap around Boomer Lake, the team member will pass either the flag or the ruck to the next member, until the 22 miles is completed.  

Teams competing in either the ruck or walk categories can enter in the Student Veterans Association (SVA) division or open division.  To register and compete in the SVA division all seven members of the team must be military veterans and be students, staff, or faculty members in good standing with their registering institution of higher learning. All other teams will compete in the open division.

The new competitive categories are designed to bring awareness and generate discussion about the high rate of suicides among military veterans in the U.S.

Rick Hansen, retired U.S. Marine captain and coordinator for Veteran Student Academic Services at OSU said, “We were very encouraged by the level of participation we received last year and really wanted to act on the feedback we heard to make this bigger and better for the veterans we’re trying to help.”

As before, the Red Dirt Military Moms will partner with Veteran Student Academic Services at OSU to coordinate the event. 

The event is set for Saturday, September 16th at 7:30 a.m. at Boomer Lake with registration costing $22 per person.

Proceeds from the event will be used to send care packages to military service members deployed overseas, provide needed items to homeless veterans, and assist in funding visits of veterans in Oklahoma State Veteran Homes. 

Once the monetary goals for those efforts have been reached, a portion of the funds will be used to send OSU Student Veteran Organization representatives to the Student Veterans of America National Conference next January.

To register for the event visit this site.

Contact Rick Hansen for more information: richard.hansen@okstate.edu or (405) 744-1390.