Veterans Car Rally for Disabled Veterans

2020 VetsRally4Vets Moved to 2021

Welcome to the 2021 VetsRally4Vets, the inaugural edition of a car rally by veterans in support of our disabled brethren. 20 American Veterans commit suicide every day! Awareness and prevention are critical to saving these lives. The VetsRally4Vets mission is to raise awareness of veteran PTSD and suicide and to generate funds to provide companion dogs to veterans dealing with PTSD and depression. VetsRally4Vets is a program of the Disabled Veteran Empowerment Network (DVEN.org), which has the mission of supporting America’s 4.7 million veterans with service-connected disabilities.

It’s now April 21, 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic still is expanding across the United States. The situation remains fluid and unclear and many medical experts are predicting a resurgence of the virus in the fall. Given these uncertainties, we’ve elected to move our inaugural event to June 2021.

Please continue reading to learn why we created this event and the basic event details. We will have a standalone website ready by the end of May, 2020.

How Dogs Help with PTSD

15-20% of America’s military veterans suffer from PTSD and 20 American veterans commit suicide every day. We can’t let this continue to happen. Owning a dog lifts the owner’s spirit and helps reduce stress and depression. Dogs help people feel better by providing loyal companionship which reduces the overall mental anguish and depression of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While it costs over $30,000 to deliver a fully-trained service dog to a disabled veteran, we can provide veterans suffering from PTSD a basic-trained companion dog for roughly $2,500.00.  Each dog we provide gives a PTSD veteran these critical benefits:

• A way to express emotional love and compassion
• A loyal companion when depression and anxiety take over
• A good reason to get out of the house, spend time outdoors, meet new people, and
• A trusted companion for fun and stress reduction

Every dog we can provide benefits two lives: a rescued dog and an emotionally vulnerable veteran!

VetsRally4Vets Mission Statement

1. Raise awareness of veteran PTSD and veteran suicide
2. Generate enough funds to train and provide 10 companion dogs
3. Provide able-bodied veterans an opportunity to support our disabled bretheren

2021 VetsRally4Vets Venue and Schedule

• Location – Summit Point Raceway
  • Participants drive “rally” to Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, just 60 miles from Washington, DC
• Agenda
  • Morning parade laps so drivers [passengers are welcome on parade laps] can become familiar with the track – Summit Point parade lap video
  • Morning Track Cross [time trial, one car at a time] clockwise
  • Mid-day – skidpad fun [and lunch]
  • Afternoon – Track Cross Counter-clockwise

2021 VetsRally4Vet Event Date

The event currently is planned for June 26, 2021, subject to confirmation by Summit Point track officials.  Please take a minute to take a very short survey and choose your preferred date.

This is an Inter-Service Competition!

We’re going to have some fun with this event and see which Service will generate the greatest participation: Army? Air Force? Navy? Marine Corps? Coast Guard? National Guard? United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps? National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps? 

If you like having fun with your car, be sure and put the 2021 VetsRally4Vets on your calendar, and don’t forget to reach out to your Service colleagues. You do want the trophy sitting with your Service Chief. Right?

More Details About VetsRally4Vets 2021 at Summit Point Raceway

• The parade laps are non-competitive and passengers are allowed. You can drive the family car in the parade laps.
• You don’t need a race car for any of the events. You can use your daily driver or family car. It just needs to be in good mechanical condition and pass a basic safety check.
• You don’t need a race license for any of the events; just a valid state driver’s license.
• You don’t need a helmet for the parade laps or skidpad. You will need a helmet for the timed Track Cross and autocross events, but loaners will be available at the track.
• We will have music – maybe a battle of the bands – and lunch is included in your donation to participate.
• More questions? Send them to us through this link: 2021 VetsRally4Vets Event Question

You can learn about autocross at this SCCA webpage: https://www.scca.com/pages/autocross-faq

You can learn about Time Trials at this SCCA webpage: https://timetrials.scca.com/pages/classmycar