Young, healthy and looking forward to college, Redmond High School (RHS) senior Rachael Rosen is training and fundraising for the Face of America bike ride to help other young people whose lives were forever changed because of injuries sustained in military service.

She’s calling her endeavor “Rachael Rosen’s Wounded Warrior Ride.”

Rosen, along with an uncle and aunt, will ride approximately 110 miles from Washington, D.C. to Gettysburg, Pa. on April 24-25. They’ll be part of an “inclusive” sports team featuring both able-bodied riders and others who were severely injured while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“It’s mainly amputees,” said Rosen. “The majority, if not all, are on hand-cranked bikes with wood posts on the back. The regular civilian riders get to help them up the hills.”

Her uncle Chris Rosen is captaining their team called Capital Punishment. He served 16 years in the United States Marine Corps and has been on the Face of America ride five times now.

Rachael recalled, “I remember my uncle saying to me, ‘Words can’t express the feeling you get when you help a 20-year-old kid, who lost his legs six months prior, strap into a hand-crank bike and crank his way to Gettysburg.'”

Rachael plans to become a physical therapist and sees herself working with injured veterans in the future. Taking part in this ride, “I’ll get to see how their experiences take a physical and emotional toll.”

She expects that the ride will be emotional for her, as well, because the disabled participants range in age from 18 or 20 to 30s or 40s.

“It really hits home,” said Rachael. “These are people my age, or just a little older. This is one way I can thank them for their service.”

Although she’s an avid volleyball player, has taken up Tai Kickboxing and is an assistant athletic trainer at RHS, Rachael admitted that she’s never been big on biking. She’s practicing for the “Wounded Warrior Ride” on Redmond-area trails, adding a few miles at a time.

Rachael had to raise a minimum of $400 to participate in the ride. At the time of our interview, she had raised more than $800 but is hoping to raise thousands of dollars for the organization World T.E.A.M. Sports, which helps injured veterans integrate back into society.

To learn more about the ride or make a donation, visit http://www.worldteamsports.org/foa/rachaelrosen.