The Balaton Vet Run has grown consistently in the last decade and has gotten a big boost from a Minnesota group with a common mission
The Balaton Vet Run had humble beginnings in someone’s front yard when a small group of friends gathered to serve a steak dinner to veterans as their way of thanking them for their service.
That was a decade ago. This past Saturday, 85 motorcycles lined Central Ave. S. St. in Balaton for the 10th annual event that is geared toward raising money to support veterans. The Vet Run has gotten so popular that there is now enough money raised for not only veteran support, but for the very community that hosts the event.
Dar Sherman has been organizing the Vet Run since its inception.
“It used to be right out of a friend’s yard,” Sherman said. “And it started to grow, so we had to go to the football field.”
Sherman said she help start the Vet Run to honor her late husband, Dale, who was a veteran. But there’s more to it than that. Since that first year, the Vet Run has donated $10,000 to the Eagle’s Healing Nest, a Minnesota organization geared toward healing veterans through five pillars of recovery: physical and mental health, building social relationships, spiritual healing, and promoting selfless service with volunteer work.
“Besides that, now we’re starting to give back to the community a little bit,” Sherman said. “Last year we donated for the flag pole, this year we did a picnic table. We do our $10,000 (to Eagle’s Helloing Nest), then we try to give something back locally.”
Fundraising takes place throughout the year outside of the Vet Run with three bake sales and a soup feed.
“We have four on the committee, then we have people that support us by doing the bake sales, and they help us with the soup feed,” Sherman said. “All the soup and bake sale stuff is donated by the community.”
The Vet Run received $1,300 in donations and collected more than $2,600 in registrations Saturday. Kelly’s Depot was called in to cater the event and served 150 smoked brisket sandwiches.
Jim Skarl is one of the founding members of the Vet Run. Like Sherman, he is motivated for personal reasons.
“Most of my family was military; I was not able to serve in the military, so I like to be able to do something,” he said. “This is my way of giving back. It’s getting bigger and bigger every year.”
And it’s never been bigger than this year, as the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association has officially merged with the Vet Run.
The CVMA is a nationwide non-profit group made up of veterans from all branches of the Armed Forces who share the goal of supporting veterans through motorcycle charity events.
“We believe in what they’re doing; we came last year and had an awesome time on the run,” said Jeff Olson from the local CVMA chapter. “We wanted to help them grow their cause. We just showed up last year to support the event, that’s all we did. Through our commander’s contact, we started talking to them and they kind of asked us if we’d want to partner with them.”
The CVMA takes part in a Cabin Fever Reliever event the week before Memorial Day, but wanted to do more. Last weekend, bikers took up camp in the City campground and at East Bay campground. They helped sell raffle tickets and brought in a dee-jay, who is also a CVMA member.
The local CVMA chapter’s coverage area is from Blue Earth to the South Dakota border, and from the Iowa border all the way up to Hutchinson. Its base of operations is in Fulda.
“We are vets helping vets,” said Olson, who is from Wabasso. “We have 30 members in our chapter — we’re one of the smaller chapters in Minnesota. We are quite spread out.”
