Ty Skarzynski of Waterbury, a U.S. Navy veteran who is completing a graduate degree in the interactive media program at Quinnipiac University, plans to ride his motorcycle across country next month to raise money and awareness for disabled veterans and their families.
From Aug. 15-22, the 39-year-old teacher at Hillhouse High School in New Haven will ride more than 3,100 miles from West Haven to San Francisco as part of the Ride to Honor and Enable, a project created to raise money and awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project. The trip also is part of the capstone project Skarzynski needs to complete to graduate.
“Scores of brave men and women are returning home from battlefields to face the challenge of adjusting to the lives they left prior to their service,” Skarzynski said. “Many return with physical and emotional disabilities that make it exceptionally hard for them to reenter life as they once knew it. Their service and everyday plight become less and less visible as the media and society’s attention shift to other issues. It is the objective of the Ride to Honor and Enable project to change that.”
By riding across the country, Skarzynski aims to honor disabled veterans for their service, bring attention to their everyday struggles and raise money for them. He and his classmate, Rafal Kowalczyk, have already built a Website for the ride, which includes a video to promote the project. Veterans can also post their stories onto Skarzynski and Kowalczyk’s site.
Kowalczyk will follow Skarzynski across county in his car to videotape highlights from the trip. They also have created a Facebook page and a Twitter handle to chronicle their trip.
Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,200 full-time undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students in 53 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine,School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges issue. The 2009 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with master’s programs in the Northern Region. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 376 Colleges.” For more information, please visit www.quinnipiac.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at www.facebook.com/quinnipiacuniversity and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.