KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Any time East Tennessean Dawn Crough laces up her running shoes for a race, she puts on a blue shirt in honor of her brother and every other service member who lost their life.
"I had always wanted to do something to remember my brother, and I didn't know how to go about doing this," Crough said. "'Wear Blue' was a very nice fit."
Crough's brother, Private First Class Philip Harvey, was one of 24 Army paratroopers killed during a 1994 training accident at Fort Bragg. She said she struggled with how to honor him until she came across an organization known as 'Wear Blue: Run to Remember' where volunteers sign up to run in honor of fallen service members.
"When you register for free, you'll get paired up with a fallen service member, and that's just a really cool opportunity to get to know someone that we've lost if you don't know someone personally and to get to know their story. Our mission is to honor those 65,502 service members that we've lost since the beginning of the Vietnam War," Program Director Jessica Alley said.
The program sparked a love of running in Crough and introduced her to families all over the country honoring their own loved ones.
"It's been very rewarding to meet other people who've lost family members. It's been very rewarding to get my brother's name out there and have him remembered," Crough said.
She hopes that with more people learning the stories and names of those we've lost, no veteran will be forgotten this Memorial Day.
If you're interested in signing up to run or walk in honor of a fallen hero, click here.