I grew up in Wasilla, Alaska, where I joined the local fire department with my parents at 13. After high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served 14 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001, and two combat tours in Iraq before being medically retired due to combat injuries. I later earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and taught middle school math and science before moving to Texas, where I combined my military and teaching experience to become a firearm, personal safety, and private security instructor and an Adjunct Instructor at Texas A&M. In my free time, I volunteer with Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief, often riding one of my motorcycles, whether it's my Harley-Davidson, Honda, or Royal Enfield, to disaster response sites across the country.
The nonprofit I've chosen to support is Samaritans Purse. I first found the organization in 2013, during one of the hardest periods of my life, through its Operation Heal Our Patriots (OHOP) program. OHOP provides married military couples with a marriage retreat in Alaska and continues to support them long after they return home. Samaritan's Purse also responds to natural disasters across the United States and around the world. As part of the OHOP program, veterans and their families are encouraged to serve others by joining disaster relief deployments, with Samaritan's Purse covering their travel, lodging, and meals during their volunteer service. The funds I raise will help support both Operation Heal Our Patriots and Team Patriot, the veteran disaster relief program. If you ever see someone in an orange Samaritan's Purse shirt arriving at a disaster site on a motorcycle, there's a good chance it's me.
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