SHELBYVILLE, IL. — Former Marine Corporal Scot King recently made a stop in Shelbyville.  With more than 3 million visitors to our area each year, you may be asking why King stands out.  King, 47, is a native of Portland Oregon and president and founder of “Remember the Wounded Ride” (RTWR).  King arrived in Shelbyville on his bicycle and is on the first leg of his 48 state bicycle trek.

“I am riding a bicycle with a trailer to every state capital in the United States,” said King.  “I am doing this for our combat wounded veterans and their families as well as three programs we have in our development stages within the Remember the Wounded Ride.”

King said the funds he raises during this ride will be used for the many expenses wounded veterans and their families face when convalescing.

“You know a lot of people don’t realize when somebody is wounded in combat and come home from theater with extensive injuries, many times they have extended hospital stays, sometimes involving huge expenses for their families,” said King.

He went on to say many times families have to travel to where their family member are in the hospital.  Then there are the expenses of staying in another city while their love one is healing.  He said often a family member will quit a job so they may be with the wounded veteran so there is a loss of income.

“They still have to pay for a place to stay when they get to where their love one is, there are still bills at home, so a lot of these families are really struggling to make ends meet,” continued King.

King said he is on the 16th day of trek  King spent the night at The Shelby Historic House and Inn on Wednesday, August 17. 

Shelby Historic House and Inn owner and operator Ken Fry spoke with King briefly.

“I thought he was a class act,” said Fry.  “He told me he has some book offers on this project he is involved with.”

Scot began this trek on May 7, 2011 on the steps of the Oregon State Capital to raise awareness and funds for our military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.  His goal is to raise $1 million dollars in the two years of the ride.

The trek will take two years to complete with the first leg (May-October 2011) covering approximately 8,165 miles and the second trek (May-October 2012) adding an additional 12,000 miles. 

As part of the ride, King will be interviewing combat wounded veterans and collecting their stories for a series of books that will chronicle their experiences.  In each state, a combat wounded veteran of that state will be selected to be honored for his/her service and to represent all veterans of that state.

He also travels to all the state capitals and asks for a state flag.

“The reason I do that is because in 2013 we are going to raise all the 50 state capital flags at our Veteran Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR during a hockey game.  We are going to ask the public and veterans from each state to join us to raise their state flag.”

King said he does have some sponsors and he has personally saved up money to help with the costs associated with this trip.  He said he also receives a great deal of help from the Elks Lodges.

“A lot of the hotel expenses are being picked up by Elk Lodges, I am a Elk and many of the Elk Lodges put me up in their homes,” King said.  “You know I have a hosting program on our website, and people can host me along my ride or feed me along my ride.”

Scot’s website is:www.rememberthewoundedride.com.  Contributions may be made through PayPal.

Remember The Wounded Ride, Inc (RTWR), is a 501c3 Federal Tax-Exempt/ Non-profit corporation whose vision is to help make life better for our combat wounded men and women and their families; educate the public as to the effects of war on the American family; hold events to promote patriotic education and honor the injured and their families from America's wars, most recently Operation Iraqi Freedom l & ll.

Finally Scot said he wanted to recognize Operation Military Embrace which is another organization Scot is riding for.