Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:00 Thanks for tuning in to a Drive On Podcast where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community, whether you’re a Veteran active duty guard reserve, or a family member, this podcast we’ll share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let’s get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:22 Hey everybody. Today, my guest is George Fuller. George is the creator of Ruck N Run a nonprofit organization geared towards helping Veterans and the military community. So welcome to the show. George, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
George Fuller: 00:00:38 Well, it’s good to be here. Thank you for the invitation and excited to share the story about Ruck N Run. I joined the military in 1998 and am still serving. So what I do outside of uniform with Ruck N Run as a non-profit organization, just want to create that atmosphere to get the community and Veterans involved.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:59 Yeah, that’s great. You’re currently serving and you are doing this as a way of sort of giving back to the Veteran community, it seems like. Where did you come up with this idea for Ruck N Run?
George Fuller: 00:01:20 Yeah, definitely. Before I go into detail though, and I like how your question was stated because being in the military I know there’s different transitions within the military. I’ve been regular Army, Reserve, and have been deployed a couple of times. I’m now AGR, and I know there are different components. I also know the feeling of coming back from deployment. I also know the difference between civilian and military life. And so I believe that we all want to make an impact, and we also want to continue our mission. So with me, my impact would be to create an event where Veterans in the community can get together. And it really came out from a negative thing where I was tired of seeing commercials about the over commercialization of Veteran’s Day, like come buy a mattress on Veteran’s Day and I say this from the beginning, it’s not about a sale.
George Fuller: 00:02:25 It’s about our service members and Memorial Day has become the same way, Memorial Day sale, come buy a car. How about we honor those who died in uniform? How about that? So that’s more important to me and if I can create an event which I’m proud to say that me and my team has done so well, we created an event that really draws the public together that gives them something to do during Veteran’s Day weekend, they can return back to work and say, this is what I did specifically to honor Veterans during the Veteran’s Day weekend. And that’s something, I’m not saying we were the only ones doing it. I hope around our whole country that people do something similar like that, where they can have an event that draws the attention back to Veterans and away from the sale.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:03:14 Yeah, absolutely. I know this last year with COVID everyone has had their schedules screwed up a little bit. I know our kids used to go to a school that very Veteran’s Day they did a Veteran’s Day assembly. And they talked about what Veteran’s Day was. They brought in some local Veterans, parents who were in the community who were Veterans or currently serving, because we’re near an Air Force base. And they did a good job at talking about that; but this year was different, they didn’t have any in-person events or anything like that. I figured that probably a lot of schools around the country and a lot o...
