Preston Warrior Ride helps area veterans

Sep. 7—CLINTON — The 12th Annual Warrior Ride will be held Saturday, Sept. 9, beginning at Two Good Park on Anna Court in Preston.

"It's turning into one of the biggest rides in eastern Iowa," founder of the nonprofit Warrior Ride organization Josh Giddings says.

In 2012, Giddings first organized the event in memory of Marine Cpl. Zach Reiff.

Reiff, from Preston, died Nov. 21, 2011, at the age of 22 in a hospital in Germany after incurring injuries from an improvised explosive device, or IED, during his second combat tour in Afghanistan.

Giddings had for years been a friend of Reiff's family and, having served in the U.S. Marine Corp himself from 2000 to 2006, Giddings says Reiff had come to him to talk about joining the Marines. Throughout his training, Giddings acted as a mentor to Reiff.

"It hit a little hard when he passed," Giddings recalls.

Its first year, the ride was small, with 30 or 40 motorcycles at most, but it has grown exponentially every year since then.

Giddings estimates that last year brought about 300 bikes, with 75 to 80 vehicles that followed. In total, a minimum of 750 people attended.

"It just kind of exploded into something I had never expected it to," Giddings says.

About five years ago, Giddings began working with Cedar Rapids nonprofit Definitely Dogs, which receives applications from disabled veterans in the eastern Iowa ares for service dogs directly through Veterans Affairs. While Definitely Dogs receives the help of grants, applicants are asked to also contribute $10,000 toward a purchase.

"These dogs can cost up in excess of $25,000 by the time they're fully trained," Giddings says.

Donating all proceeds from the ride to Definitely Dogs, he says, "We, more or less, help the applicants come up with their share of the money."

Sign-up will start at the park at 10 a.m.

There, a $25 donation will include a shirt and meal ticket for the hog roast at the end of the ride, and raffle tickets to win firearms will be available for purchase all day.

Giddings has refused any vendors who have asked to operate in the park during sign-up, keeping the event completely not-for-profit. The lemonade stand run by local young girls that he did allow last year though will be present again this year. All proceeds they raise from selling their fresh-squeezed lemonade go to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

Before the ride leaves at 11:30 a.m., near where a memorial in the park stands in memory of Reiff, there will be an opening ceremony with a speech and the national anthem played through speakers.

This is also when Giddings says he makes it clear that there is to be absolutely no horseplay.

"No reckless driving," he says. "I've actually kicked people off the ride before for doing it, so I keep a pretty safe and secure environment."

Regardless, it's always an energetic event with a very positive atmosphere.

He usually keeps the ride to within 120 miles round-trip and will leave at 11:30 a.m. without police escorts through the small towns.

The first stop will be in Andrew where Stewart's and L.R.'s establishments sit across from each other. The street will be blocked off and the Boars Nest food truck there from which to buy lunch. A couple items will be auctioned off during the stay lasting about an hour before the ride moves on.

The next stop will be Hound Dogs in Monmouth, followed by the Tilted Silo in Goose Lake, and finally the Downtown Pub in Preston where the ride ends.

The hog roast will follow and more items auctioned off. Local band The Old School is planned to start playing at 7 p.m. or so.

Being a perfectionist, Giddings does most of the organizing of the event himself. He is assisted, however, by Bret Stalker as well as Pam and Loras Frost of Delmar who have been helping him for the last eight or nine years.

"They do a phenomenal job with the live auction," Giddings says, for which people are "overly generous" with purchases they've volunteered to be included.

The Home Depot and Harley Davidson store have also contributed to the auction this year, as have friends of Giddings who used their own person laser cutters on items like a fire pit now adorned with the cutout of an American flag.

But Giddings says it's for "an awesome cause."

"After seeing them again a year later after they received their dogs, they're an entirely different person. You would not believe how much these dogs will affect their lives," Giddings says. "It's giving them that next step to learn how to move on and live day-to-day dealing with what they've been through."

For more information about Definitely Dogs, visit their website at www.DefinitelyDogs.org. The Warrior Ride can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WarriorMemorialRide.