Gen Re Marks a Decade of Helping Wounded Warriors at San Antonio Event

For the past 10 years the Gen Re office in Dallas has been hosting a successful fundraising event in San Antonio for the Wounded Warriors organization.

Soldiers who have been seriously wounded while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have had the opportunity to take a break from their rehabilitation and participate in shooting sporting clays at one of the finest training facilities in the country.

San Antonio’s National Shooting Complex has hosted Gen Re’s Wounded Warriors Annual Sporting Clay Shoot since 2008. The soldiers have been coming from the city’s Brooke Army Medical Center, which houses the Warrior and Family Support Center (WFSC). The event has raised more than $40,000, which has gone toward providing Christmas gifts, additions and improvements to the center’s activities, and helping with holiday travel costs for injured soldiers and/or their families.

The WFSC operates mostly from private funding and provides an outlet for soldiers to take breaks from their medical surroundings and some normalcy for the young veterans. More than a hundred soldiers have had the opportunity to participate in the Sporting Clay Shoot.

Chief Warrant Officer Dave Ware of Lavista, Nebraska, was one of 10 Army soldiers who got the chance to participate in this year’s event. Ware had served seven combat duties before becoming injured in Afghanistan. He needs three more surgeries before being discharged after 29 years of service.

“This is an awesome experience because it has allowed us to get away from all of the medical appointments, the stress and conflict,” said Ware. “This has given us a chance to meet and mingle with good civilians, relax, relate and power down away from the hustle and bustle of combat environment.”

Each soldier joined four of Gen Re’s clients and their company representatives and each group traveled to the Shooting Complex’s different sites that offered a new and challenging clay to shoot. The Complex provided volunteer shooting instructors who offered shooting tips and encouragement.

Gen Re’s Vice President Lonnie Van Houten said a lot of people help make this a great event. “We owe the folks at the National Shooting Complex, Royce Graff and his staff, a debt of gratitude for allowing us to use their first-class facilities, for arranging the professional instructors who donate their time and share their expertise and helping make this a great event,” Van Houten said.

Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is one of the largest reinsurance companies in the world with $13 billion in capital assets and $6 billion in premium.

Hanna is public relations and membership manager for the Insurance Council of Texas.