(Republished from www.MarkCurtisMedia.com)

(San Francisco, California)

It is a long, tough journey, but it is for a great cause. A dozen bicyclists—at least one of whom is a wounded military veteran—left San Francisco early this morning on a 544 mile journey to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.

The group gathered at the Marine’s Memorial building in downtown San Francisco this morning with a cadre of friends, family, the Patriot Guard Riders and a San Francisco Police motorcycle escort (see photo above).

The bikers are raising money for the Sentinels of Freedom; a San Ramon based foundation that is helping wounded military veterans transition back into society. Sentinels find jobs, transportation and housing for the vets, and provides a college scholarship. A team of volunteers and civic leaders act as the “guardian angels” support group for these Sentinels. It’s now a nationwide program, having placed 51 wounded vets in a variety of communities across the country. Eventually Sentinels of Freedom would like to have 100 injured veterans join the program each year. www.SentinelsOfFreedom.org.

“It’s pretty darn special to us,” said Mike Conklin, CEO of the Sentinels of Freedom, who attended this morning’s kick-off rally. “We can’t thank you enough. It creates awareness of our mission,” Conklin added.

The bike ride is being led by Maj. Mike Hudson of Concord. “What I wanted to do was organize a group of volunteers to do a bicycle ride from San Francisco to San Diego to raise awareness and funds for his organization,” said Hudson, who is riding with the bikers to San Diego. (For Major Hudson’s complete interview, just click on the video).

I will post video of the bikers’ departure at a later date. They are set to arrive in Oceanside on Saturday October 3. I will update their progress throughout the week.

If you want more information, or would like to donate. Go to: www.SentinelsOfFreedom.org. If you want to see where the team will be riding and camping along the way, go to www.TheCaliforniaTour.org.