Annual Wounded Vet Run to Take Place on April 27

More than 1,500 motorcycles will roar through the area on Saturday, April 27 as part of the Third Annual ‘Wounded Vet Run’ to raise money to for wounded war vet Marine Corporal James Crosby of Winthrop as well as First Lieutenant Jake Murphy and Marine Lance Corporal Nick Eufrazio.

The daylong event, founded by Winthrop resident and U.S. Marine Andrew Biggio, will follow a 40-mile route along the North Shore and end at Suffolk Downs Racetrack with a concert and barbeque.

Marine Corporal James Crosby of Winthrop served with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Al Asad, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2004 Crosby suffered from a spinal cord injury when an enemy rocket landed a few feet away from him.

First Lieutenant Jake Murphy, 25, of Wellesley, served the United States Army,10th Mounted Division in Kandahar, Afghanistan. On July 23, 2011, Lieutenant Murphy was injured by an improvised Explosive Device (IED)  resulting in the amputation of both legs. He is the recipient of the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and is a West Point graduate. He continues his rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda and is accompanied by his caregiver and fiancé, Lisa Morgan.

Marine Lance Corporal Nick Eufrazio, of Plymouth, served with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Helmand Province, Afghanistan when shrapnel from a grenade wounded him in 2010. Corporal Eufrazio has a traumatic brain injury and currently going through surgeries to replace parts of his skull. Corporal Eufrazio is currently in the Tampa VA Medical Center.

All money raised will go to support these three American war heroes in their recovery by making home modifications.

The annual Vet Run is sponsored in part by the East Boston Italian American Veterans (ITAM) Post 6 and was founded by Biggio, who spent six years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Biggio started the Vet Run three years ago after meeting a wounded veteran a few years ago at another fundraising event held annually at Fenway Park.

“There they were raising money for traumatic brain injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Biggio. “There I met a young veteran with a traumatic brain injury.”

That wounded veteran was Cpl. Vincent Mannion Brodeur, who was critically injured by an insurgent booby-trap in Iraq and was one of the most severely wounded veterans to come home alive.

Touched by Brodeur story and the fact that he was unable to get government help to modify his home to conform to his devastating injury, Biggio began the first Wounded Vet Run as Vinnie’s Run.

The first Vet Run raised money to build a handicapped accessible living space for Brodeur.

“Every year Boston’s Wounded Vet Run will be dedicated to a different veterans,” said Biggio. “The motto of the Vet Run is “They Fought, We Ride.”