The Austin nonprofit was co-founded by Pflugerville fire Capt. Joshua Stubblefield to support first responders and veterans’ mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group planned to paddle 11 miles together using kayaks and paddleboards. Lightning ultimately forced participants off the water before they could complete the second half of the route.<\/p>\n
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Stubblefield said the challenge was designed to do more than remember the first responders who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to honor the sacrifice of everyone 25 years ago with action,\u201d Stubblefield said.<\/p>\n
Strong Secretary John Billasano said remembering those first responders also provided motivation to keep paddling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just imagine those firefighters that we lost and all the first responders we lost, going there and giving those people hope,” Billasano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Billasano became emotional as he discussed the lasting impact of the attacks and the mental health struggles some first responders continue to face.<\/p>\n
Strong focuses on building community around men who may otherwise struggle with mental health challenges alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not meant to do life alone,\u201d Stubblefield said. \u201cWe can all lean on each other, and we can all help each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stubblefield said first responders and veterans often face long hours, time away from their families and the emotional weight that can come with serving others.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou show up for us every day,\u201d Stubblefield said. \u201cThere\u2019s our community that\u2019s ready to show up for you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization set a goal of raising $11,000 through the challenge to support mental health programs for first responders, veterans and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of paddlers took to Lake Austin on the 25th anniversary of 9\/11 to honor first responders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-434023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}