From Dianne Villano – one woman triathlete making a difference for our troops

I have seen a lot of unusual cycling garb on group rides and have to say that Dianne Villano got my attention. She does triathlons in 22 lbs of military combat gear to raise awareness and support for our troops overseas. My only thoughts are, “This is a badass woman supporting badass troops!”

Dianne found me on Facebook and I encourage you to become her facebook friend. Additionally she has a Facebook Fan page called Team Tri ing to raise money for our grunts, which you may wish to add to your profile.

I asked Dianne to send me some information as I had never heard of such a thing and was most impressed. Here is her reply:

Subject: Moi ..

Over 3 years ago I began to support forward deployed Marines in harm’s way. After 2 years and nearly $20,000 out of pocket, “Support Our Marines, Inc” was formed so that I could expand the impact we would have on the lives of the most forward deployed Marines living in some of the most austere of locations in the Middle East.

3 years and 3700 packages to 80 Companies of Marines later …we continue on.

We ship out 60 plus packages a month to our heroes and our shipping expenses alone take up 1/2 of our relatively small $24,000 annual needs with the rest of money used for requested items not donated, pictures and cards. Support Our Marines typically receives supplies to fill 75 – 80 boxes a month but is limited to funds available for shipping.

Support Our Marines, Inc is an all volunteer organization with 95% of all donations going directly to our Marines. To see the impact we have made on our nation’s Heroes please visit www.supportourmarinesinc.org

In a sport where people pay thousands of dollars for the lightest gear and most hi tech equipment, I did my first triahtlon last August .. and did it with roughly 22 pounds of field gear including regulation combat boots, 4 pound flack helmet and 12 pound pack . It began as a way to honor our heroes in the Middle East and to thank them in my own pansy civilian sort of way. The response I received from our “Grunts” was so overwhelming, I have to continue and decided that if I am going to run hundreds of training miles in the sand in boots and gear, I might as well turn it into a fundraising adventure.

I am blessed to be able to combine my two greatest passions , supporting our Marines in harm’s way and fitness and hope that you will join me in this adventure

So basically, TTTRMFOG was set up like team in training.. instead of a minimum requirement on donations , an athlete would pay a $30 annual fee to be a member of the team which, right now includes a dri fit running shirt but I am working on a price to include tri suits and better running shirts … They would commit to pick one race a year (more if they want) to compete (in regular gear not field gear) to use as a fundraiser where the money goes to Support Our Marines, Inc . Everything is set up on active and eteamz

www.eteamz.com/TriingToRaiseMoneyForOurGrunts/

I will set up a link to your blog on our team page and look forward to getting to know you better

Semper Fi, Dianne

BTW pics from all of my races so far are on the team page

I work hard in cycling and we all work hard in our quest to master the Fountain of Youth in cycling but Dianne is really doing something here. I was really touched thank you for reading. Do you have any comments you can share?

Tagged as: Supporting our Troops