American flags line the beach obstacle course during the inaugural StandUp4SEALS Beach Challenge in May 2013 in Ocean City, NJ.
The StandUp4SEALs Beach Challenge will return to Ocean City for its second year on Memorial Day Weekend, and registration is now open for its three events: a stand-up paddleboard race, a beach obstacle course race and a fun run for kids.
In its first year, the event attracted more than 600 competitors for the combined events and raised $46,515 to benefit the families of Navy SEALS killed in service. Event organizers have a fundraising goal of $150,000 this year, according to Mike Vaules.
The inaugural event last year filled a gap in Ocean City's special events calendar and provided a spectacle for visitors watching obstacle-course competitors run through a water-filled pit sprayed by a fire hose, crawl under the Ocean City Music Pier, carry sand-filled sacks, perform calisthenics, traverse balance beams, and climb walls. The stand-up paddleboard race includes a box course that starts and finishes on the beach and takes racers through the surf.
This year's event is set for 8 a.m. Saturday, May 24, on the beach at Eighth Street in Ocean City. Event organizers are offering a 10 percent discount off registration fees for any OCNJ Daily reader who follows the link below.
StandUp4SEALs benefits One Team One Fight, a partnership between the Navy SEAL Foundation and The 31 Heroes Project (named for the SEALS killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011).
This year, the event also will benefit the
Travis Manion Foundation. Manion was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and a Marine from Doylestown, Pa., who was killed in action in Iraq on April 29, 2007.
"If not me, then who?" Manion told his mother when she asked why he had to leave for his second deployment.
"That statement has become the backbone for the Travis Manion Foundation and inspires myself and the entire StandUp4 SEALs team to volunteer our time and raise as much funding as possible," Vaules said.
