2017 UnitedHealthcare Florida Honor Ride Rolls into Tampa-St. Petersburg

Captions - Photo 1: Nearly 500 riders gather at Tropicana Field to ride along healing heroes for the 2017 UnitedHealthcare Florida Honor Ride. Photo 2: Veterans from Project HERO and Ride2Recovery return to Tropicana Field on their tandem cycle after completing the 20-mile route of the 2017 UnitedHealthcare Florida Honor Ride. Photos courtesy of David Mailey.

Hundreds of cyclists rode in honor of veterans and first responders at the 2017 UnitedHealthcare Florida Honor Ride on February 18. The event is a partnership between UnitedHealthcare and Project Hero to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury.

Starting and finishing at Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg, the UnitedHealthcare Florida Honor Ride featured riders using hand cycles, recumbent cycles, custom tandems and traditional road bikes. Raising funds for Project Hero, cyclists of all ability levels rode alongside America’s healing heroes in self-paced routes ranging from 20 to 60 miles, in addition to a special 7-mile family route. Local sponsors included Raytheon, Duke Energy and Ditek.

“UnitedHealthcare is honored to support this event for the men and women who serve our communities and our country,” said David Lewis, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Central and North Florida. “Project Hero provides exercise and rehabilitation services that are critically important to helping injured veterans and first responders return to the health and well-being they richly deserve.”

“The Honor Rides give cyclists of all levels the opportunity to ride and support America’s veterans and first responders in a meaningful way, and demonstrates the growing interest in this important cause,” said John Wordin, president and founder of Project Hero. “We’ve seen participants establish life-long relationships while achieving personal goals – a true demonstration of community support.”

Fifteen Project Hero Honor Rides are planned in cities throughout the United States in 2017, including Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., Houston and Nashville.

Founded in 2008 as Ride 2 Recovery, Project Hero is a nonprofit organization that has built more than 200 adaptive bikes for injured veteran riders. Project Hero has donated more than 2,500 bikes to veteran riders, who have logged more than 30,000 miles in 30 states and six countries to raise money in support of America’s healing heroes.

In addition to cycling events and bike projects, Project Hero oversees community centers and programs in more than 50 cities throughout the United States and works in partnership on PTSD research programs with Georgetown University Hospital.

About Project Hero

Founded in 2008, Project Hero is a groundbreaking national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Veterans and First Responders affected by PTSD, TBI and injury achieve rehabilitation, recovery and resilience in their daily lives and increasing awareness of the national mental health crisis posed by PTSD and TBI. Project Hero programs work by producing positive outcomes at lower costs and reducing drug-based therapies. Project Hero builds and provides adaptive bikes to physically-challenged and injured Veterans and First Responders and has helped tens of thousands of our Healing Heroes at no cost to participants through cycling events, community-based programs in more than 50 cities throughout the US and by supporting research. For information, visit www.projecthero.org.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.