Introduction

Mayia Warren (Host): Join me in congratulating Eric Beach, who has been selected to be the 2023 IDA Invisible Heroes Award recipient. He’s been chosen based upon his incredible leadership, passion, positive impact on the lives of veterans, and as the co-founder of Project Echelon. He also served as a veteran himself, operating both a professional cycling team and a nonprofit.

Project Echelon removes the barriers to healing by fostering relationships between veterans, their communities, and professional athletes through mentorship, structure and the promotion of long-term health and wellbeing through the endurance of the sport of cycling. Congratulations, Eric.

Eric Beach’s Acceptance Speech

When I received notification that I had won this award, I had to laugh because the previous week, up until the day before, it had not been good. I was going through a period of time of feeling doubt, of feeling like a failure, feeling like I wasn’t being successful or effective in any kind of leadership, or in any kind of influence that I might have in helping people because I didn’t feel in that moment that I was fully healed. And how could a not fully healed person help anybody? What kind of a hypocrite must that make me?

And then I get this award, in a moment of clarity, and feeling forgiveness for myself, and it hit me. The reality is that we’re always gonna struggle. Every one of us will struggle, but it’s those of us who continue to move forward through that struggle and continue to grow because it’s a lifelong pursuit.

The Origins of the Organization

That’s why I created Project Echelon with Eric Hill. ‘Cause I was tired of living so much so that I attempted suicide in 2008. Well, now I needed to find ways to chase after PTSD, to run towards it for the rest of my life so that it wasn’t something I ran away from to hide from.

I used sport to do that because it was consistent everyday activity or meditation, whatever you want to say about it. It was my way to connect with that healing energy and not hide from it.

Impact and Continuous Growth

And now we’ve helped hundreds of other veterans do the same thing. And I help myself to this day through jiu jitsu and different training methods. Because moving my mind and body makes me write the best life story possible. And that’s all we can do. But those of us who can continue to find ways to walk forward, those are the ones who are successful.

We call heroes, people who have survived something on the worst day of their life. But heroes can be everyday people who just get out of bed and keep trying. The hero doesn’t give up.

Commitments and Acknowledgments

And I promise you that I will not. And just like I promised my wife, I will not stop healing. I will not stop growing for the rest of my life. And that is my assurance to you and to all the veterans we serve at Project Echelon.

So thank you very much for this award. It was incredibly impactful and I love the synchronicity of the exact moment that I received notification was the realization that I don’t have to be perfect. I just have to keep trying.