Wright State to host march honoring military personnel and first responders

Wright State community members are invited to welcome Carry the Load walkers with a clap-in at 8 a.m. on May 16 at the Captain Sean L. English Champion Garden on the Dayton Campus.

Wright State University’s Department of Public Safety and the Veteran and Military Center will honor the nation’s fallen heroes during a special program at 8 a.m. on Thursday, May 16.

Wright State will host representatives of Carry the Load, which honors first responders and U.S. military personnel who have died in the line of duty.

Wright State community members are invited to welcome the Carry the Load relay team and walkers with a clap-in at 8 a.m. at the Captain Sean L. English Champion Garden outside Allyn Hall and the Veteran and Military Center on Wright State’s Dayton Campus.

As part of its Midwest Ruck to Remember tour, Carry The Load will march from Fairborn Fire Station 3 to the Champion Garden on May 16.

A brief program will follow before Carry The Load walkers depart for the Dayton National Cemetery.

Carry The Load organizes an annual national relay traveling 20,000 miles in all lower 48 states, culminating with a Memorial Day weekend march in Dallas. The relay is divided into five routes, with Wright State in the Midwest route.

The Captain Sean L. English Champion Garden celebrates those who support — or champion — veterans, including other veterans, family members, faculty, staff and those who work with them.

The garden is named in honor of Shawn English, a 1999 Wright State Army ROTC graduate who was killed in action in Iraq in 2006.

A bench in the garden memorializes Christopher Roche II, who worked in the Veteran and Military Center as a student and died in 2020. Roche majored in cyber security and served in the U.S. Navy before transferring to the Navy Reserves.

Carry The Load is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness of the meaning of Memorial Day and provides ways to honor and remember the sacrifices of military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families.