Team Honor to ride in Zoo-De-Mack to support vets and military families

The annual Zoo-De-Mack will take place May 20-22 and for the sixth year, Team Honor will be taking part in the 51-mile bicycle ride, which starts at Boyne Highlands Resort and ends on Mackinac Island.

Team Honor is an organization dedicated to helping veterans and Gold and Blue Star families. The organization was founded by Joe Forlines, a former marine. In 2014, Forlines was visiting Harbor Springs with his wife and noticed a man sitting at the bar at The New York Restaurant with two drinks, a picture and a flag. The man was mourning the loss of his son, who was a Navy SEAL and had died in a helicopter crash three years earlier.

After getting to know the father and learning he was battling depression, Forlines invited him to take part in the Zoo-De-Mack as a way to get him out and active again.

“It made a difference for him,” Forlines said. “He basically told me that I really needed to keep doing that and bringing people like him out with me on those types of rides.”

Since then, Team Honor has grown into an official nonprofit taking part in events in order to engage veterans with their community and raise money to help military families.

“So what we typically do with the money that we raise, we go out and help those families and veterans in their darkest hours when they're having a financial situation,” Forlines said.

“And we'll try to come in and help provide some support and also turn them on to other organizations that can help them as well. And on top of Zoo-De-Mack, there's, in any given time, there's probably up to another six to 10 activities that we're currently participating in. So we're always looking for physical activities or good deeds that we can do up there as a group and I’ve currently got members in about 16 states.”

Last year and this year, Team Honor Treasurer Russell Coy-Burt will host a brunch for all of the participants and members of the community at his home in Harbor Springs.

Coy-Burt served in the Royal Air Force for 20 years. He comes from a family that has a tradition of serving in both the United Kingdom and United States. Now, his youngest son is serving in the military as well.

“I understand the stresses of military family life and someone who's not been associated with it doesn't understand it,” Coy-Burt said. “Twice when I was serving with the Royal Air Force, I had six week old children, I was sent away somewhere. And on both of those occasions, we had just been posted to a new station.”

Coy-Burt said a similar situation happened in Midland and Team Honor stepped in to help the family find an apartment and furniture so the family would be stable once the husband leaves for Syria.

“It’s sort of a silent epidemic,” Coy-Burt said. “It goes on, young people with young families, being put in the stress where they've got a situation where they've got virtually no family support. Your mother or your grandma doesn't live around the corner. Everywhere I got posted was in the middle of nowhere because that's where they put air force stations because they're very noisy. So you’re 2-3-400 miles or more from family support.”

Since its founding in 2014, Team Honor has helped around 20 families and veterans in need of financial support. Both Forlines and Coy-Burt said they hope to grow the organization in order to help more people and spread awareness of the struggles veterans and military families go through.

Forlines said most of the events the organization participates in are physical because he believes it helps people”find their true north” to be outside breathing fresh air and getting sunshine.

However, many veterans have physical limitations, so he and a friend designed and constructed a tricycle with space for a passenger so those who can’t do the ride themselves can still participate.

Last year, Forlines tested it during the Zoo-De-Mack, and this year he will be taking another marine who, after serving, developed epilepsy and had his frontal lobe severed.

“Even though he can technically ride a bike, he's the inspiration behind it. And since it's still a prototype, I feel more comfortable having somebody that's maybe disabled and mobility challenged, but still not fully disabled being a test pilot for the time being,” Forlines said.

“So that's a big deal this year. It's something that inspired me and you know, as I accomplish this with him, my goal is to take this thing to market and not just for veterans, but for anybody with a mobility challenge.”

More information about Team Honor can be found on their website, including donation links, contact information and social media.

Also on the website is a full schedule showing where Team Honor will be during the Zoo-De-Mack, including a 7 a.m. breakfast at Heather Highlands and a post-ride celebration at the keyhole bar in Mackinaw City.

For anyone who wishes to participate, but not ride, there is an alternate golf outing at the Donald Ross Memorial Course at Boyne Highlands Resort.

Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Team Honor to ride Zoo-De-Mack to support vets and military families