VEMA Jax's 3rd Annual Paws for a Cause Poker Run

About this event

The loop this one closes is tighter than most charity runs manage. The Veteran Enforcers Motorcycle Association is made up of military veterans and serving and retired law enforcement, and the money goes to K9s for Warriors, which takes rescue dogs and trains them as service dogs for veterans with PTSD. Shari Duval started that charity in 2011 after her son Brett came home from Iraq, where he had handled bomb dogs as a civilian contractor, and she noticed he was steadier with a dog beside him. She began pairing rescued dogs with veterans out of her own garage and funded it herself; the first class was eight men. More than twelve hundred veterans have been paired since, and more than two and a half thousand dogs taken out of shelters. Duval died of cancer in February 2021. The run itself is a short cross-town one, registration from half eight at Adamec Harley-Davidson on Baymeadows Road, out at eleven, finishing at the American Legion post on San Juan Avenue. Twenty dollars a rider and ten for a passenger. No distance commitment, and dog people are as welcome as riders.