A tour supporting first responders and members of the military is about to roll through Prince George.
The Tour of Honour, a fundraising and awareness campaign for Honour House and Honour Ranch, which both provide support for those in uniform will stop at Inland Kenworth at 7337 Boundary Rd. at noon today.
Honour House is a home away from home for those who are in need of medical assistance in the Lower Mainland and Honour Ranch is a retreat in Ashcroft for those who suffer from PTSD.
“The house is here for anybody in uniform, so police, fire, paramedics, serving military veterans, and their families. If they get hurt, or they're sick and they need to travel down to Metro Vancouver for any specialized medical treatment,” explained executive director Craig Longstaff.
They can stay at the 11-bedroom heritage house in New Westminster completely free of charge while receiving medical treatment.
“We might have a veteran from Prince George and he's got to come down to Vancouver to bring his child to Children's Hospital for cancer treatment or something like that. They're here for three months, and they get to stay for that entire time for no charge.”
Honour Ranch is a 10-cabin retreat in a quiet and remote location near Ashcroft to support mental health.
“It's military veterans and first responders who are struggling with their mental health, operational stress injuries, like PTSD, so they can attend the ranch and take part in programs that help them with what they're struggling with mentally.”
The Tour of Honour is a fundraising and awareness tour for both properties that will see volunteers driving around B.C. and the Yukon. The tour is stopping in various fire halls, RCMP detachments, military bases and Canadian Rangers armies and its sponsor’s Inland Kenworth locations throughout the region.
The event in Prince George will see many emergency service members, fire trucks, police and ambulance cars on location for a meet and greet.
“It's an opportunity to speak with all the local first responders and veterans in the community about things that are important to them with their mental health and physical health and how people uniform do what they do every day to keep us safe and look after us.”
As it’s also a fundraiser, the tour is raffling off the military grade camouflage Humvee that it's currently driving around the province.
“So somebody somewhere is going to win a giant military grade camouflage Humvee for 20 bucks at some point,” said Longstaff.
“We just hope as many folks will come out and attend as possible. That people come out and recognize the difficult and dangerous job that all our people in uniform do every day, as a lot of the time it goes unnoticed.”
Tickets for the Humvee and a 50/50 draw, both separate purchases, are available at www.honourhouse.rafflenexus.com and general donations can be given at honourhouse.ca.
