L.B. Waterfront Warriors to welcome wounded soldiers

The Long Beach Waterfront Warriors will hold its eighth annual 5K race and welcome parade on Sunday for recuperating soldiers and their families.

This year, the city will welcome approximately 15 soldiers, all of who suffer from injuries and conditions garnered in combat, including lost limbs, traumatic brain injuries, gunshot wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to John McLaughlin, a retired firefighter who co-founded the organization with Jerry Snell in 2009.

By fundraising year-round, the organization helps provide a much-needed vacation for servicemen and women, many of whom are undergoing treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., McLaughlin said. Some have been discharged from care and are living at home, he added, like John Hayes, a double amputee, who is flying to Long Beach from Jacksonville, Fla., with the help of Waterfront Warriors.

“Most of them don’t expect anything,” McLaughlin said. “I think sometimes they may feel that now that they’re home, people have kind of forgotten about them…and they feel a little bit thrown by the wayside. When they come here, they don’t feel that way at all.”

The men and women will arrive in Long Beach on Sunday with their families for the 5K race and the welcome parade, and will stay in the area until Thursday, according to McLaughlin. The five-day retreat includes a trip into Manhattan to visit the World Trade Center, fishing and surfing, a girls’ night out and a Long Island Ducks game.

“When they’re in the hospital, they’re treated as a patient,” McLaughlin said. “…This is a nice break for them all.”

The 5K will take place on Sunday on the boardwalk at New York Avenue at 8 a.m. The welcome parade to honor the soldiers begins at 3 p.m. along West Beech Street, from Ohio Avenue to New York Avenue, followed by a barbecue at Long Beach Catholic Regional School.

In addition to bringing the servicemen and women to the city by the sea each year, Long Beach Waterfront Warriors has provided the wounded or ill soldiers and veterans with emergency medical evaluations, educational support and other important services. It has also sent hundreds of holiday care packages to soldiers overseas each December.

The Warriors held its final fundraiser last Saturday at the Inn, where volunteers joined residents — and State Sen. Todd Kaminsky — to support the cause. McLaughlin said that without help from people in Long Beach — including the volunteers who help fundraise, the lifeguards who are hosting a barbecue for the soldiers next week, the police department and the city administration — the annual event would not be possible.

“I think [we] felt that this was the kind of community that could do it,” McLaughlin said of his decision to start the effort in 2009. “It just seemed like a perfect fit…and everybody was on board right away.”