250+ Mile Warrior Ride Ends at Grosse Pointe War Memorial

GROSSE POINTE, MI — A Shelby Township girl will receive the 2016 Corporal Christopher Kelly Willis Foundation’s 2016 Scholarship in Grosse Pointe later this month at the conclusion of the 11th Annual Warrior Ride.

More than 30 retired U.S. Armed Services members and civilians have committed to the Sept.15-18 250+-mile ride, sponsored by the Cpl. Christopher Kelly Willis Foundation to raise college scholarship money for children of fallen and disabled soldiers. Willis, who grew up in Paw Paw, joined the Marines in 1999 and fought in Iraq, but was killed in a stateside car accident.

He is buried in Kalamazoo County at Fort Custer National Cemetery, a stop on the ride and also the final resting place of two other soldiers whose children have received scholarships: Marine Sgt. Anthony Matteoni, 22, of Union City, who killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010, and Army Staff Sgt. Mark H. Schoonhoven, 38, of Plainwell, who died in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan in 2013.

This year’s scholarship recipient is Shelby Township resident Madison Schultz, daughter of Jennifer Denhardt and Marine Sgt. David R. Denhardt, who was medically retired after sustaining a debilitating brain injury after he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. She will receive her scholarship at a ceremony at

One month into his tour, two rockets hit Denhardt’s company’s camp, and he was thrown into a shipping container from one of the blasts. He suffers with a traumatic brain injury, bulging discs in his neck, PTSD, seizures, nerve issues on his left side, and nerve damage to both middle ears. In 2014, Denhardt was medically discharged from the Michigan National Guard. He is rated 100 percent disabled by the Veterans Administration.

Here’s the ride schedule:
Day 1, Sept. 15: Kalamazoo to Battle Creek, including the stop at Fort Custer National Cemetery.
Day 2, Sept. 16: Battle Creek to East Lansing
Day 3, Sept. 17: East Lansing to Rochester
Day 4, Sept. 18: Rochester to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, where a reception and scholarship award ceremony will take place beginning at 11:30 a.m.

More information is found here.

Photo: Sgt. David R. and Jennifer Denhardt, and their daughter, Madison Schultz via the Cpl. Christopher Kelly Willis Foundation