Submitted photo Patrick Romeo of Boardman, 55, is an Air Force veteran and former firefighter. He will be riding in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, assisting veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries on Aug. 9 from Panama City Beach, Fla., and hopes to complete the ride within 20 days or fewer.

Staff report

BOARDMAN — Riding in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, Patrick Romeo hopes to raise $10,000 for the Resurrecting Lives Foundation, assisting veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

The Air Force veteran and former firefighter said he won’t let a reconstructed knee, tricky shoulder and bad back stop him from raising money for injured veterans by riding 10,000 miles cross country on his motorcycle during a pandemic.

Romeo, 55, of Boardman, embarks on the Hoka Hey challenge on Aug. 9 from Panama City Beach, Fla., and hopes to complete the ride within 20 days or fewer. He’ll be one of just 100 riders making the trek, each raising money for a favorite charity.

His charity is the national Resurrecting Lives Foundation, a nonprofit veterans-support organization that works to help the more than 750,000 military veterans who suffer from traumatic brain injury. The Dublin, Ohio-based foundation coordinates and advocates for the successful transition to a post-military life for veterans with TBI.

“I want to do the ride for myself, but I always knew I’d also do it for Resurrecting Lives,” Romeo said. He hopes to raise $10,000 or more as he rides his 2013 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic on the challenge, which has been held periodically since 2010.

“We salute Patrick Romeo for his

service in our military, as a first responder and now as a champion for our cause and the thousands of heroic veterans we serve,” said Dr. Chrisanne Gordon, founder of the foundation. “If unrecognized and left untreated, the inner scars of traumatic brain injuries — whether sustained in military combat or from sports injuries and accidents — can have devastating consequences for victims and their families,” she said.

The rugged 10,000-mile Hoka Hey route will take riders across states as diverse as Arkansas, New Mexico and Vermont before ending back at Panama Beach in late August. Riders won’t know the full route in advance and are forbidden to use electronic navigation, so they learn the route piecemeal as they reach checkpoints along the way. The rules also prohibit sleeping in a regular bed — riders must sleep outside, next to their bikes.

Despite knee, back and shoulder problems suffered when he was fighting a fire in 2014, Romeo is eager to begin what Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge organizers call a grueling ride.

For more information about Resurrecting Lives, visit ResurrectingLives.org.

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