LAURINBURG — The Golden Knights jumped for a special cause on Monday afternoon at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport.
The U.S. Army Parachute team had a tandem parachute jump with representatives from the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Centerstone in Fayetteville along with Team Unbroken from Amazon Prime’s World’s Toughest Race.
The jump was to bring awareness to veterans, service members and military family mental health.
“Team Unbroken has partnered with Cohen Clinic at Centerstone to help us raise awareness that anyone can overcome any kind of adversities and that resilience is the key,” said Outreach Director for Cohen Clinic at Centerstone Sharjuan Burgos. “The stigma around mental health with want to make sure that we break down those barriers because seeking treatment for mental health is actually a strength not a weakness. That’s where Team Unbroken comes in because if you watch them on World’s Toughest Race you would see what they stood for and they basically wanted to get out there and show people you can overcome anything.”
The Cohen Clinic at Centerstone is a not-for-profit health system providing mental health and substance use disorder treatments. Services are available nationally through the operation of outpatient clinics, residential programs, the use of telehealth and an inpatient hospital.
The clinic is currently not seeing clients for in-person treatment but telehealth videos are being provided for treatment from the privacy and comfort of their homes.
“It’s about breaking down barriers — a lot of the time there is a stigma around PTSD, anxiety and depression,” Burgos said. “That can be worked through and partnering with Team Unbroken is a big deal because they’re the perfect example to show that anyone can work through odds.”
Team Unbroken was created in 2018 by CMS Gretchen Evans as a team of veterans and civilians competing against the odds. In 2019, the team competed in Amazon Prime’s World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. Also participating in the jump on Monday was team captain Anne Lord Bailey and Jon Bailey, the team assistant crew.
“We’re all about bringing inspiration and motivation and hope to those of us who have incurred injuries or illnesses or trauma in our lives to not let it define who we are,” Evans said. “
Evans began the team when she heard about the Eco-Challenge and initially got turned down because of fears of their injuries.
“I’m totally deaf, have a traumatic brain injury, PTS and some other injuries,” Evans said. “Each one of us brought something we had to overcome and that was the whole purpose of Team Unbroken. People looked at us and saw physical injuries and saw something they thought was broken, but we’re not broken we’re a team of mixed mobilities.”
Evans added the jump with the Golden Knights was a way to get the word out to not let a disability define who you are and to promoting getting help for your mental health along with letting people no one is alone.
“Once you meet Gretchen your life is never the same again,” Lord Bailey said. “We joke she has fantastically bad ideas but really she just gets us into some exciting opportunities that as she said highlight that you don’t have to be defined by your disability or your different ability and the importance of civilians and veterans working together and that’s how we approached the Worlds Greatest Race in Fiji … “
‘We wear these initials on our shirts and those are actually the initials of our oldest brother who was a veteran who died by suicide just over a year ago so we added that too,” Lord Bailey continued. “It’s not just civilians and veterans supporting each other, it’s not just about continuing to address challenges and not allowing your disabilities or mixed abilities to define you but it’s also about getting the word out that you’re not alone and there is support and help which is a lot of our collaboration with the Cohen Clinic.”
The Cohen Veterans Network is a nonprofit philanthropic organization that launched in April 2016. Currently, there are 19 clinics across the country with two in North Carolina and has served more than 25,000.
For information on the Cohen Clinic contact them at 910-500-1800 or [email protected].
Check out the Golden Knights on social media at gktandem or armygoldenknights.
Find Team Unbroken on social media at teamunbrokenusa.
Reach Katelin Gandee at [email protected]. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe
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