Gold Star 500 rides again to preserve memories of fallen service members
The 32 riders participating in the Gold Star 500 finish the endurance ride at the 1st Infantry Division Museum at Cantigny. The museum and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation hosted a ceremony honoring Illinois’ Fallen Warriors on Saturday, Sept. 28. The ceremony was sponsored by the nonprofit Gold Star Mission. Gold Star Mission’s president, David Helfrich, and vice president, Andrew Adamczyk, are Illinois National Guard officers and many of the organization’s staff and volunteers are active or retired Illinois National Guard troops or family members including some Gold Star Families. This year the organization raised about $100,000 to be awarded in honor of Fallen Warriors from Illinois. Gold Star Mission sponsors multiple events with the seminal event being an annual 500-mile, 5-day, endurance bicycle ride called the Gold Star 500, which ended Sept. 28. (Photo by Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton, Joint Force Headquarters – Illinois National Guard Public Affairs)
Gold Star Mission’s 510-mile Gold Star 500 endurance bicycle ride will pass through Central and Southern Illinois from Sept. 19 through 23, 2023, with the goal of ensuring we ‘Always Remember, Never Forget’ the sacrifices of our fallen Illinois service members and their families.
“We are so grateful for the support of the communities. Our mission of remembering our fallen and supporting our Gold Star families is important to the people of Illinois and they show their support at all of our stops,” said Barry Tobias, president of Gold Star Mission.
The ride is scheduled to end during Gold Star Family weekend just before Gold Star Mothers’ Day on Sunday, Sept. 24.
Gold Star Mission uses funds raised through the Gold Star 500 and other events throughout the year to award scholarships in honor of Illinois’ nearly 300 service members who have fallen since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In addition, they are producing professional videos as part of the Fallen Heroes History Project to remember each fallen service member. The seven videos produced so far can be found at this link: https://www.goldstarmission.org/fhhp.php.
“The Fallen Heroes History Project is a multi-year project because of the time and resources it takes to produce these videos. In the videos, the fallen service member’s family, friends, and those they served with give us great insights into who they were as people and how much they meant to their communities. It helps people to better understand the sacrifice of the fallen service member and the sacrifice of the fathers, mothers, spouses and children they left behind,” Tobias said. “Ultimately, we would like to have a video produced for each of Illinois’ fallen service members.”
This year the ride will start and end in Springfield. On Sept. 19, the riders will start at 7 a.m. at Scheels in Springfield bicycling to Jacksonville and then Carlinville before stopping for the night at Litchfield High School. On Sept. 20 they will ride from Litchfield to Lebanon and Scott Air Force Base then stopping for the night at the Illinois Army National Guard Readiness Center in Sparta. On Sept. 21, they will ride from Sparta to Steeleville to Chester to Carbondale before stopping for the night at Harrisburg High School, On Sept. 22, they will go from Harrisburg to Fairfield before stopping for the night at the Illinois Army National Guard Readiness Center in Effingham. On Sept. 23 they will travel from Effingham to Shelbyville to Taylorville before ending at the Springfield Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10302 on Stockyard Road. There will be an “end of mission” ceremony at VFW Post (A full itinerary with stops and approximate times appears below).
Many of those who volunteer with Gold Star Mission are active or retired members of the Armed Forces. A group of active and retired Illinois National Guard members started Gold Star Mission started in 2017 with the goal of creating awareness of the more than 300 Illinois military members killed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and awarding scholarships in their names through a rigorous 500-mile, 5-day bicycle ride – the Gold Star 500.
Each year the organization has grown. In March 2023, the nonprofit awarded $35,000 in scholarships and it has awarded $249,000 in scholarships since it started. Organizers have added the annual Run for the Fallen, the General Logan 200 bicycle ride, a presence at the State Fair’s Veterans Day, and virtual events in addition to its Scholarship Awards and Appreciation Dinner.
Last year the organization has also launched the Gold Star Mission Fallen Heroes History Project. The project completed two videos in 2022 and five more within the last year. More videos are being produced as funds become available.
For more information about the Gold Star Mission or how to get involved , visit https://goldstarmission.org/ or e-mail [email protected].
