Take On Life

Hi everyone,

Before you read another word, reserve Jan. 30 on your phone’s calendar. Or, for those of you like me who still like to rock it old school, grab a pen and mark Jan. 30 on your desk calendar.

That’s the day Help Our Military Heroes, a Greater Danbury-based charity, will hold its fifth annual spin-a-thon at the NY Sports Club on Mill Plain Road in Danbury. The event will run from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

A spin-a-thon is a cool term for stationary bike riding. For $15, you can spin for an hour and help raise money to buy handicapped-accessible vans for U.S. service men and women who suffer serious combat injuries.

Last March, Houston’s Ivonne Thompson received one of the seven vans Help Our Military Heroes has helped to raise money for over the last two years.

The vans are distributed by the Wheels for Warriors program conducted by Operation Support Our Troops. The vans are paid for with contributions from generous donors all across the world, including Help Our Military Heroes, which is hoping to raise $150,000 Saturday.

Thompson’s husband, Naval Petty Officer Anthony Thompson, was the victim of a suicide bomber attack that left him with a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury and a punctured right lung.

To read more about Help Our Military Heroes — and the enduring courage of Ivonne and Anthony Thompson — check out my “Take on Life” column Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.