How It All Started: Tour De Force began in 2002 when a group of NYPD cops in the Bronx decided to complete an endurance event to remember the victims of 9/11. Nine participants, with the assistance of a four man support team, cycled from the Pentagon to Ground Zero. They completed the ride in four days, riding to the finish through the somber first anniversary gathering at Ground Zero. Since then the Tour de Force has grown to three hundred participants and forty support team members who feel strongly about the cause and believe it’s a very worthwhile endeavor. We have also incorporated and gained status as a 501(c)3 charity. The mission is to raise funds for the families of Police Officers killed in the line of duty nationwide. Our participants, volunteer support team along with family and friends have bonded together and raised more than $2.5 million since the group’s inception.
Posts
- Get link
- Other Apps
How Jon got involved: I joined Tour De Force in 2008 as a truck driver on the support team. Immediately, in that year, I realized that this organization is very special. Throughout the ride that year, we made stops along the way so that we could present checks to the families of officers killed in the line of duty. One in particular was that of the widow of Perth Amboy Officer Thomas Raji. The route that year was modified so that we could make the presentation at his grave side. This tragedy was still fresh on our minds as it had just occurred weeks before the ride. It also very much hit home to me while I witnessed the presentation as I lived and worked not too far from Perth Amboy. It was at that moment I decided that I needed to continue to help carry on the mission of this organization. And, each year since then I have made every effort to attend the rides. I have met many wonderful people from around the world, many of whom I have become close personal friends with. In the