INSIGHT Magazine Noble Street Festival Guide 2018 | Page 15

“The whole idea of an echelon is
to support and push those behind
you, forward.” Eric Hill, Project
Echelon Racing Team Director
explains the motivation of the
Domestic Elite Cycling Team, “To
use our talents to shine a positive
light on the veteran community.”
Project Echelon Racing was created in 2017 as
an effort of community outreach for the 501c3
non-profit Project Echelon, which is a “veterans
health advocacy organization that seeks
engage, educate, equip, and empower veterans
and their families through physical activity and
self discovery, while also seeking to bridge the
gap between veterans and community.”
Hill co-founded Project Echelon in 2016 with
Eric Beach, a veteran and friend who reached
out to him for help. “He was struggling with
addiction and had made plan for his third
suicide attempt,” Hill says. “And he just
reached out and said ‘Hey, I need help, and
the work that I’m doing with the VA is not
meeting my needs. What can we do?’. So we
brainstormed and found a common thread
in physical activity as a tool.” For Hill, he was
passionate about helping a friend in need and
shared that, “I can can’t relate to the things that
our veterans have experienced and are going
through, but I do know that when I’m stressed
and when I need time to reflect on my actions, I
go and ride a bike.”
Hill got his friend set up with a bike and the
equipment he needed, put together a training
program, and entered him into a triathlon. “Six
months later he had quit the hard drugs that he
was using, cocaine and alcohol, completely and
had opened himself up to seeking additional
help,” Hill says. “From there we decided we
needed to start this non-profit, share Eric’s
story, and empower other veterans through
physical activity.”
A year later, Project Echelon Racing was born.
“We thought that when we started the program
veterans would come to us and ask for help,
which wasn’t the case,” Hill says. “We needed
to do a better job of outreach and education,
and so that’s the role of the team.”
Project Echelon Racing began competing in
2017. None of the elite cyclists on the team
are veterans, which makes their commitment
to Project Echelon that much more special.
Every rider serves as a mentor to veteran
athletes. “There was a major disconnect
between veterans and their local communities.
They were able to connect with other veterans
but they weren’t able to connect with non-
veterans as easily,” Hill explains. “We are local
community members, just average civilians,
that are taking a vested interest in our veteran
community and wanting to help bridge that
gap and build those relationships.”
The Project Echelon Domestic Elite Team is
made up of nine riders: Tim Savre, USA; Cory