About Us

Homeless and Wounded Warriors-MN was created by 3 veteran motorcyclists in 2005. Their idea was to raise funds to help homeless veterans living on the street find adequate housing with supportive services. To accomplish their goals that year they were able to get 21 motorcyclists to ask friends to donate money for the first motorcycle ride. They were able to raise a little over $2000 which they used to help veterans with their housing needs. This was done in the St. Cloud area for the first few years.

As the group moved ahead they got more people involved in the effort to raise money with the motorcycle ride. In 2010 the decision was made to move our group to the Crosslake, MN area where we also set up our office. We promoted this as a ride through the beautiful lakes and pines country of central Minnesota. We began asking for business sponsors to help us raise funds for our efforts to help Minnesota veterans and their families. We were able to enlist more than 60 businesses and organizations to help us in our mission. This included banks, real estate companies, local businesses, and veterans organizations who were willing to help us in our mission. At the end of our ride that first year we held a silent auction with donated items and the final result from donations as well as the sale of auction items was very successful.

As we continue forward in 2013 we began selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, in order to make more people aware of our organization’s efforts. We took part in a number of community events to share who we are and sell our apparel to help raise more funds.

In 2016 we held our 12th Anniversary Motorcycle ride and Crosslake American Legion Post 500 provided a meal at the end along with a very successful silent auction. We counted a total of 134 sponsors who helped us have the most successful ride to date. We applied for 501c3 non-profit status in 2016 and are now registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office as a charity.

We operate with a 5 member Board of Directors and are working hard to continue to grow in our efforts to provide assistance to Minnesota veterans and their families. We work with the different County Veteran Service officers and with a number of other veterans groups to find ways to do even better.

We remain an all-volunteer organization with no paid employees and very minimal administrative expenses so that over 90% of the funds we raise truly go to Minnesota veterans and their families.