Remember Everyone Deployed Shirt
$25.00
- Sales of the RED Friday Shirt Helps Combat Wounded Veterans Recover and Rehabilitate Thru Physical Fitness
- All Proceeds Donated to the “Catch a Lift Fund“
- Next Level Tailored Fit Crew Neck
- 60% Combed Ringspun Cotton / 40% Polyester Lightweight Jersey
- Fabric Laundered for Reduced Shrinkage
A Letter From Todd Sullivan
30-Year U.S. Navy Veteran & Masters CrossFit Athlete
The Movement Remember Everyone Deployed
A movement has been building in America for nearly 17-years… the movement of wearing RED shirts on Friday. While wearing a specific colored shirt one day a week may seem like a trivial act, the meaning behind RED is the heart of the matter. You see, RED stands for Remember Everyone Deployed. This movement began mainly in military communities after 9/11. Spouses and family members would wear RED as a sign of supporting their loved ones while our military members were increasingly being deployed. The RED movement has grown – but still has room to get bigger.
Since 9/11, our military has been deployed at paces higher than ever. With America as the leading force in our world, we have born the largest burden of spreading freedom and democracy around the globe. This price has been paid in time away. Time away from family and loved ones. Time away missing anniversaries, holidays and kids graduations. Time away from taking college classes and working on personal goals.
This price has been shared with the families back home, doing without mom or dad for extended periods of time. I know this all well, I recently retired from the Navy with 30-years of service. Having support from my family, my friends, and, my fellow Americans have been very heartening.
Our service members are on call 24 hours a day, seven days per week, 52 weeks per year. They willingly ensure our safety and freedom. Last Friday, tens of thousands of American military were deployed globally providing us with the greatest way of life on the planet. This coming Friday will be the same, and the next one as well. Supporting those who so selflessly support us should be easy. RED is simple. Wearing RED isn’t a political statement. Wearing RED is a sign of solidarity – it shows our support for those who support and defend our great nation.
The fitness community has a track record of supporting our military veterans, especially those who have sacrificed everything. The CrossFit community for example does this by having “Hero” WODS (or workout of the day) named after our fallen members. The most widely known Hero WOD is “Murph”, named after Navy SEAL, Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan early in our war there. This brutal workout is done all across America on Memorial Day.
Fitness Therapy
I have been very blessed… I’ve had the honor and opportunity to serve our nation in the greatest Navy in the world for three decades. I have an amazing wife and kids who have been understanding of my time away, supporting my military career. And, at an “advanced” age, I have been blessed with a great supplement company supporting and sponsoring me. I believe when we are blessed, it is our social responsibility to bless others. In this spirit, I reached out to Dioxyme and asked about doing a RED Friday shirt, and (a bit boldly in retrospect) to donate the proceeds to a veteran non-profit. I wasn’t surprised at all that Team Dioxyme was instantly supportive!
Fitness is medicine to me. Throughout my life, I’ve found fitness and sports to be very therapeutic. I was a distance runner for many years… I’d get lost in the miles and was always able to work out problems. When deployed on a submarine for months at a time, the treadmill was my release… hours spent running and looking at a missile tube, just to remember who I really was. When deployed to Iraq, two-a-day lift sessions with friends, to both kill time and to be a real person. In Kabul, I relished the rain and snow, to go out and run in “clean” air.
Then I found CrossFit and was able to have community and fitness together again.
I’ve also seen first hand how fitness helps our returning veterans work through a host of issues. I know guys and gals who have exercised (vice exorcised) their demons away through fitness. And, I know several veterans who NEEDED someone to believe in them, to hold them accountable and get them back in to a gym, so exercise could be their therapy. Losing the sense of being on a team is a tough transition for many – having a gym “family” often helps the transition. And, fitness is medicine. Knowing this led me to connecting Dioxyme with a great veteran non-profit, Catch A Lift Fund.
I’ve personally worked with combat vets, training them to become certified personal trainers. Seeing fitness change and improve them and then paying it forward to others who need the same care, the same remedy, the knowing they have a support network. That is why this is so important to me… I love seeing veterans lives changed. I love seeing fitness take root and pry these vets away from the bar, to a better bar – the barbell!
Catch A Lift Fund
Our goal is to bring even broader awareness to this movement, and to give back to our veterans who have given each of us so much. Dioxyme has partnered with the fantastic Veteran Service non-profit, the Catch a Lift Fund.
The Catch A Lift Fund enables post 9/11 combat wounded veterans all over the U.S. to recover and rehabilitate both physically and mentally through physical fitness, nutrition programs, motivation, accountability and support.
Catch A Lift vets are seeing and feeling results including dramatic weight loss, reduction in medications, improved sleep patterns, and strengthened relationships with family and friends, thanks to their healthier lifestyle. The profit from Dioxyme RED Friday shirts will go to Catch a Lift. These profits will support the over 2,900 veterans being supported with gym memberships or home gym equipment and fitness coaching. Dioxyme also believes that when we are blessed, we have a responsibility to give back – to enrich the lives of others. We could think of no better way to do this that to partner with Catch A Lift and to support those veterans who sacrificed so much for us.
The Catch A Lift Fund was founded by Lynn Coffland in 2010, to honor her brother, U.S. Army soldier Chris Coffland who lost his life in Afghanistan while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, in November 2009. Coffland enlisted one month shy of 42, the enlistment cutoff age, as he felt the need to serve our country after the devastations of 9/11. Because of his lifelong dedication to fitness, Coffland, who was double the age of most enlisting, broke all PT records at Fort Meade. Once deployed to Afghanistan and assigned to a heavily targeted area, Coffland, knowing the risks of the impending missions, requested orders to trade places with a fellow soldier who had a wife and children back in the states. It was on that assignment he was killed. “Pain to purpose” are words Coffland lived by. His sister used those words and his motto “shake off any dust that may accumulate from stagnation of purpose” as the inspiration to start the Catch A Lift Fund.
Catch A Lift’s (CAL) mission is rooted in his lifelong belief that through fitness, one can reach their highest potential both mentally and physically. Catch A Lift works to provide veterans with fitness grants to any facility, gym or home equipment that they personally choose to rehabilitate and maintain a healthy life. Catch A Lift embodies the three pillars proven to help veterans maximize their wellness potential; motivation, accountability and peer support. It is Catch A Lift’s goal that every veteran in their program goes on to lead a rich and healthy future. Many of these veterans have gone on to be highly successful under the tenants of; healing minds, changing bodies and saving lives. Pain to purpose.
As, CrossFit has embraced the RED MOVEMENT, so have they named a Heroes WOD after Christopher Coffland released 11/13/2017, named COFFLAND. It appears as Coffland was, unassuming but once engaged- could kick your ass. Dioxyme and Catch A Lift challenge you to wear RED and do the COFFLAND WOD. Let us know what you’ve got in you… shake off that dust, find your purpose.
At Dioxyme, we do not know all of those deployed supporting us, but we know that we do owe them all. Please stand with us and help support those deployed, and those who have made a sacrifice. Please join us in wearing RED on Fridays! God bless.
– Todd Sullivan