Project Courage Ruck Run,

About the event

INTRODUCTION

“Today's veterans often come home to find that, although they're willing to die for their country, they're not sure how to live for it.” 

― Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

THE PROBLEM

Today the U. S. military is gradually becoming a separate warrior class, increasingly distinct from the public it is sworn to protect. We've learned to separate the veteran/warrior from the war. Bridging the gap between the veteran/warrior and the civilian world is the role of the Courage Festival

A SOLUTION

The Project Courage Foundation has developed the Courage Festival, a three-prong approach to bridging the gap.

1. Courage Games 
   1. At four (4) locations in Florida: Southeast, Northwest, Northeast, Central
   2. Taking teamwork and selflessness that the veteran/warrior experienced on the battlefield, the Courage Games organizes well-structured team competitions on the playing field at four locations. By requiring all teams to have at least one veteran/warrior and one civilian on each team, will help bridge the gap between the veteran/warrior and 99% of our population who have no military connectivity. 
2. Vets As Refs 
   1. At four (4) locations in Florida: Southeast, Northwest, Northeast, Central
   2. Involvement with the youth of our country on the athletic fields will also help bridge that gap as well as provide a necessary service to high school athletics. 
3. Military Collegiate Athletic Combine 
   1. At four (4) locations in Florida: Southeast, Northwest, Northeast, Central
   2. Since only 50% of veterans use the GI Bill to further their education and that only 51.7% graduate, the MCAC uses athletic participation to increase the number of veterans enrolling in and graduating from colleges and universities thereby bridge the gap between veteran/warrior and the civilian population.

Why should you sponsor?

For those who fought in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan the common denominators are the grinding boredom giving way to bowel-emptying fear; followed sometimes by the strange pleasure of unleashing a .50-caliber machine gun on enemies who are doing the same to you.  

Coupled with these common denominators are the calming interludes of fixing one’s equipment; the improvised forms of social norms that emerge in a place far beyond the reach of law; more importantly the rude affection and deep love among your fellow “brothers in arms”.

About 1% of U. S. society has veteran/warrior connectivity either as a service member or as a direct relative of that service member.  For most of the remaining 99%, the veteran/warrior is an outsider and a victim with physical and post-combat psychological problems. 

For some of the 1%, the physical and psychological problems stem from the traumatic effects of combat. For most, if not all the problem is the lack of camaraderie, love, and friendship of the “brothers in arms” in our society.

Your sponsorship of the Courage Festival will bridge that gap between the 1% and the 99% 

• by bringing veteran/warrior and civilian together on the playing field in team competitions through the Courage Games.  
• by involving the veteran/warrior in his/her community by filling a much-needed role as referees for middle and high school athletics in the Vets As Refs program. 
• by using collegiate athletics for the veteran/warrior to take his/her leadership skills from the battlefield to the collegiate playing field via the Military Athletic Combine.

Bill Carney

• I have a rather long history of organizing multi-sport events after retiring from teaching and coaching from  St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • 1988 - 1992 Executive Director of the South Florida Sports Festival, which was part of the Sunshine State Games
  • 1992 - 1996 Senior Venue Planning Manager at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics
  • 1996 - 1998 Senior Venue Planning Manager at the 1998 New York Goodwill Games
  • 1998 - 1999 Chief Operating Officer for the ’99 Special Olympic World Summer Games in Raleigh, NC where we turned a $3.5 million dollar budgetary shortfall into a $2.5 million dollar cash surplus.
  • 1999 - 2002 Contracted with the Hood River, OR Gorge Games, the Millrose Games (NYC), the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships (NYC), Brisbane, Australia Goodwill Games and the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • 2002 - 2005 Chief Operating officer for the 2005 Pacific Rim Sports Summit in Seattle, WA. This event was to have 9 sports, 9 Pac Rim countries and 900 athletes. Instead, it wound up in binding arbitration where we were awarded $3.3 million dollars from the United States Olympic Committee for their breach of contract.
  • Presently I am serving on the Veteran Advisory Boards of Florida Atlantic University's Department of Veteran & Military Affairs, The Veterans Trust and the Veterans Business Development Center.

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