A Kalispell Navy veteran with a heart for wounded service members is going the distance to help raise money that will make life a little easier for those veterans.

Brad Huff has founded Coast2Coast Ride for Veterans — a cross-country bicycling trek — to raise at least $10,000 by the end of July for the nonprofit Homes For Our Troops.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 2 million service members have been deployed in support of the War on Terror. More than 46,000 have been wounded, with more than 1,500 suffering major limb amputation, traumatic brain or spinal injuries or blindness.

The group hopes to raise money by donations to and sponsorships of a cross-country bicycle trek from San Francisco to Yorktown, Va. Coast2Coast hopes to raise a minimum of $10,000 by the end of July for the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops.

Homes for Our Troops helps severely wounded veterans (from recent conflicts) and their families obtain specialized houses that make living with those disabilities a little easier.

With a swim for multiple sclerosis under his belt already, Huff is no stranger to fundraising for worthy causes and he said he is likely to continue championing causes in the future.

“I’ve been into biking for a while with mountain biking,” Huff said. “But the idea to ride across the country really came to me when I was doing research for my Swim for MS Fundraiser. I saw there were people swimming across the entire ocean, and I saw that people were biking across the United States. I thought, ‘I can do that and not drown in the process.’”

The trek will take cyclists 3,800 miles through nine states with several promotional events in towns along the way.  Huff said he hopes to start the first week in June and has budgeted two months maximum travel time.

“I figured we’d be going about 60 miles a day, depending on weather, so it could take as much as 60 days to do it,” Huff said. “We’re doing a lot of training already to get in shape for it.”

Huff, who was honorably discharged, is studying molecular and cellular biology at Flathead Valley Community College with an eye on medical school, and is a pharmacy technician at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. The idea of helping fellow veterans with medical- and physical-care needs is one that is close to his heart.

“I really wanted to give back because I have a lot of friends that were discharged from the military because of combat-related injuries,” Huff said. “Something as simple as a house can be such a great blessing, and it’s a major reason we decided to put together a team for this.”

Currently, the Coast2Coast team has four members: Huff, fellow veterans Nolan Ferger of Phoenix and Whitnie Vigil of San Diego and Huff’s high school friend and former Kalispell resident, Scott Schmechel, who lives in Billings.

Huff, Ferger and Vigil deployed to Afghanistan together in 2009 and have served as Navy corpsmen.

For now, Huff and Ferger are the only two cyclists, with Vigil and Schmechel acting as support staff for the organization. However, Huff said he would welcome anyone else who wants to participate.

“We still need more sponsors and more people involved,” Huff said. “We want this to be a community-involved thing. We’re setting out to raise as much money as we can and have an adventure while we’re at it. If people are willing to sacrifice the time and get on board with the team, we’re not opposed to other riders, either.”

Huff said they haven’t sought out much in the way of sponsors yet, but the response so far has been good.

“We’re saving the big push for about a month before we go, but Hammer Nutrition was one of the first companies we contacted, and they were really enthusiastic about it,” Huff said. “We’ve got bike shops who want to help, too, and we’re hoping that we can have a really big push just before we go.”

For more information or to donate, visit Coast2Coast online at ride4veterans.org.