OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Growing up in Connecticut, Jason White’s life was anything but ordinary. “I was a foster kid,” he said. “But I was raised by a military family. I was adopted by a Marine and he and my mother really just instilled that warrior spirit in me.”
White says that the family moved to Florida the summer after his sophomore year of high school. He immediately enlisted in the Marine Corps, just like his father, and was shipped off to Parris Island, North Carolina, for training.
White nearly completed two deployments. “I got struck by an anti-tank mine, an IED (improvised explosive device),” he recalled. “I’m blessed, you know. I’ve got all my limbs, but it was a major struggle physically and really psychologically after the military because after that, I didn’t get much treatment until two years later.”
White had also been married at the time of his injury and subsequent discharge.
Transitioning to civilian life had its challenges, he admits, because in the military you know who you are. “I went through some very severe struggles; family issues, divorce, and stuff like that when I came out,” he said. “I wouldn’t change those things, though, because it led me to being in a position where I got to grow from that, get my own healing, and I’ve ended up being a part of that healing very specifically.”
White had gone to Texas to meet with a fellow Marine who would eventually help him through his struggles. It was there that he says he decided to advocate for fellow veterans who were grappling with the consequences of their military service.
“Originally, there was no goal,” said White. “I was working for an organization doing some business consulting across the country, but I was doing stuff for an organization growing their treatment center in Texas running crisis intervention.”
While working in Texas, he remembers taking a call from a veteran named Terry. It’s a call White never forgot. Terry lost his battle with his demons.
“Terry was a big vehicle enthusiast,” White shared. “His friends and family wanted to give away a motorcycle in his name.”
Out of that, White says the Warrior Wheels Foundation was born. The nonprofit takes donated vehicles and monetary contributions and turns them into essential services for veterans and first responders.
“You know, we are in a way the wheels,” White reasons. “We are driving to them. If I get a phone call right now, I’m out of [here] and I’m getting to their location. I’m going to go there, and I’ll probably be there before the police because I might get that call before they do, and then we coordinate.”
White continues to provide life-saving resources for veterans and first responders in crisis while funding a variety of services through Warrior Wheels, emphasizing that the foundation’s primary program is crisis intervention.
While the Warrior Wheels Foundation provides vehicles to veterans and first responders, helping them maintain their independence and stay connected to their communities, it does so much more; it helps heal the heroes behind those wheels.
The Warrior Wheels Foundation is hosting a fundraiser on Sunday, June 30. The Bikinis, Bikes and Bands Bash is from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at War Horse Harley-Davidson at 5331 North U.S. Highway 441 in Ocala. For more information call 352-732-2488. To make a donation of a vehicle or a monetary donation to the Warrior Wheels Foundation, click here.