Peter and Kelley Guidry
With this month being Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, it seemed only fitting for us to honor two exceptional Veterans with our #NV Hero Award for September 2019.
Both Air Force Veterans and both Security Forces members, Peter and Kelley Guidry are the Co-Founders of Las Vegas based Forgotten Not Gone. Their organization, which encourages Veterans to #GetOutTheDamnHouse by using recumbent trikes as an alternative form of therapy riding around the city, was born in November 2013 after both Peter and Kelley faced their own mental and health challenges after separating from military service 10 years prior.
Peter and Kelley met in November 1997 while they were both stationed in Italy at Aviano Air Force Base and they married the following year in June 1998. Peter was medically discharged from Nellis Air Force Base in July 2002 and shortly thereafter Kelley left the Air Force in April 2003.
When asked to share her favorite memory since the creation of Forgotten Not Gone, Kelley said, "It was the turning point in 2015, with our good friend Mike and his daughter, who was 4 or 5 at the time. She and Mike, who is a Purple Heart recipient, didn't communicate. He didn't really communicate with anyone. When he rode with his daughter, she started riding the trike and there isn't a learning curve because of the three wheels. He was telling her to turn left and how good she was doing, she had a smile on her face because they were interacting, and she knew she was making him proud. My heart cracked open and I thought, no one could pay me enough to do this, it's priceless and there is nowhere I could get a job and feel like this."
After overcoming addiction, hospitalizations, treatment and achieving physical and mental healing through many avenues, including their faith, the Guidry's have developed a thriving non-profit organization, which includes a trike brigade of over 50 bikes. With a Mission of "Stomping Out Veteran Suicide", they embark on journeys of varying distances across the valley and have been able to see the direct, positive impact on the veteran community firsthand.
"In 5 years, I see Forgotten Not Gone with its own healing and wellness facility called Fort Forgotten Not Gone. We will have all our different healing and wellness components that Kelley and I personally use ourselves like sensory reduction float tanks, colonics, juicing components, all of those other things outside of the trikes. Massage therapy, acupuncture, Trauma Yoga, we want to have all of these at one property called Fort Forgotten Not Gone Healing and Wellness Center. Where we can expand and increase our capacity to help these veterans overcome the feelings of why they're depressed and why they want to take their own lives and the pain they're in. The more we can address those triggers, the better job we're going to be able to do at "Stomping Out Veteran suicide," said Peter.
Peter and Kelley are a tremendous asset to Nevada. Congressman Horsford and Quilts of Valor are proud to honor this incredible veteran couple for their service within the veteran community!
