PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — After 51 days at sea, a Foar from Home team completed their mission to row across the Atlantic while raising awareness for PTSD and working to end veteran suicide.
Action News Jax was there Friday at the K9s for Warriors’ National headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach on Friday.
These veterans paddled 3,000 nautical miles to finish their mission.
On Friday K9s for Warriors dedicated one of its kennels at their new training facility called Courageous to thank them for their fundraising efforts.
Paul Lore and his team raised more than $600,000 for K9s for Warriors in their effort to combat veteran suicide.
“These are our sons, these are our daughters, these are our aunts and uncles, nephews, nieces, that we’re losing,” Paul Lore, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps said.
I was in Fernandina Beach back in August right before these veterans left for their journey.
The race started in the Canary Islands in December and ended at Nelson’s Dockyard English Harbor in Antigua.
They all returned earlier this month and they tell me rowing thousands of miles wasn’t an easy task
“You’re always tired, you’re always hungry,” A.M. ‘Hupp’ Huppmann, United States Navy Veteran said.
And once the new mega kennel is finished it will shorten the wait for veterans who need a service dog by 50%.
The waitlist is currently four years.
Lore said their mission to help an organization save lives is what kept them going.
“How do we build a second kennel? Even when we were out in the ocean, we all sparked in a sense how can we do more, like we know that the one kennel is not going to be enough,” Lore said.
K9s for warriors told us its new mega kennel should be up and running by April.
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