The Warrior 110 Nonprofit Helps Military Veterans in Need
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Brian Alvey is willing to go the extra mile for military veterans in need of help, which is why he started The Warrior 110 nonprofit organization.
Alvey, a former soldier with the United States Army who served in Afghanistan and retired in 2012, started The Warrior 110 nonprofit organization with his friend Adam Smith. They created the program to raise awareness and funds for veterans suffering from physical and emotional ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, suicide and traumatic brain injury.
Alvey and Smith raise funds through ruck marches – weighted walks often used in military training – that stretch for more than 100 miles. Their most recent ruck march started in New Albany on November 7 and concluded on November 11 (Veterans Day) at The Mint, a bourbon bar in Franklin that Alvey owns.
“Adam Smith and I talked about doing something to help veterans and we couldn’t come up with anything at first,” Alvey says. “After I thought about it for a while, I came up with this idea, and Adam loved it.”
During their first ruck march in July of 2019, Alvey and Smith raised $50,000. They walked about 115 miles from New Albany to Franklin.
The funds raised are allocated to the Brian Bill Foundation in Florida, the leaders of which endeavor to assist soldiers suffering from a variety of ailments.
“The Brian Bill Foundation is an equine therapy facility founded by Scott Bill, the father of Navy Seal Brian Bill,” Alvey says. “It’s a great program that really helps veterans. It’s a good facility that does a lot of positive work to help people who need it.”
Alvey served in the 151st Infantry doing long-range surveillance.
“I tell a lot of people that when we sprain our ankles, we go to a doctor for help,” Alvey says. “Well, when we sprain the most sensitive part of our body, the brain, some people just say, ‘Hey, it’s alright. I’ll just walk it off.’ It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t make sense. We have to talk to someone and have a dialogue. We’ve got to encourage people to go get some help.”
Alvey says The Warrior 110 conveys a message to veterans that there are positive ways to get help.
“Some veterans isolate themselves, and that’s not the way to go,” he says. “They can have professionals help them.”
Alvey says many veterans struggle with depression after they come home from serving in places like Afghanistan.
“The transition back to their old lives can really be rough for a lot of veterans,” he says. “We invited the public to go with us on our walk from November 7 through 11.”
Alvey is a busy man these days. Besides running The Mint and The Warrior 110 organization, he also serves as vice president of Festival Country Indiana, and works at The Warrior 110 fitness center in Franklin.
“The Warrior 110 gym is a full-combat gym with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing and other things,” Alvey says. “We have two amazing groups that have joined together to facilitate a majority of the training – the Franklin Jiu Jitsu Club, also known as Griz Cave, and Indy Combat Grappling. Our goal is to facilitate the opportunity for veterans to pick up a new mission in life through the study of jiu-jitsu, boxing, etcetera, and we will be offering such things as yoga as well.”
Alvey says the November ruck march was highly successful.
“We got it done again,” he says. “The hardest part was that I hurt my knee, and had some leg and shin issues, but we finished it. We persevered. We were able to accomplish what we set out to do, which was spread awareness about some important issues. It’s a shame we didn’t get more local television coverage, but hopefully we were able to inspire some war veterans to go get help if they need it. They need to know that people care about them, and acknowledge all of the great things they did.”
For more info on The Warrior 110 organization, visit facebook.com/pg/Warr110r.
