Three individuals and one organization were recognized as heroes during the Murrieta Rotary’s Patriots Ball Saturday night, November 14. All were nominated for and won the honor for their work in helping others. The honorees were Warfighter Made, Ginger Greaves, John Hunneman, and Wallace Fanene.
The Hero of the Month program is new this year to the week-long Field of Honor event produced by the Murrieta Rotary Club in conjunction with the City of Murrieta. The Field of Honor was presented at Murrieta Town Park for the seventh year and the second-annual Patriots Ball was held on the Field as well.
Warfighter Made, a Murrieta organization that provides recreational therapy to ill, injured and combat wounded service members and veterans, was chosen as the Murrieta Rotary’s Hero of the Month for July. Warfighter Made is a non-profit organization that adapts and customizes cars, trucks, motorcycles and off-road vehicles. It also organizes recreational therapy events. It was founded three years ago by two veterans Robert Blanton and Brian Meyer and automotive veteran Butch Lynch. Their website is WarfighterMade.org
Ginger Greaves, executive director of the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation, was named Hero of the Month for August for her work with the Plateau and other nonprofit programs, and for rallying a congressional hearing and subsequent review of a federal education act that resulted in sustaining special state schools for the deaf, blind and orthopedically handicapped.
John Hunneman was Hero of the Month for September. As a U.S. Navy veteran, Hunneman covered events and news in Southwest Riverside County as a journalist and columnist for a quarter century. A great community activist, John has served on the Community Recreation Center Building Foundation and he and his wife are still active volunteers at the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival.
Army SSG Wallace Fanene, ret., was Hero of the Month for October. Fanene and his wife, Scarlet, are both graduates of Temecula Valley High School. He joined the Army in 2000 and was on his second deployment when he lost his right leg above the knee and his right arm below the elbow in an IED blast in Kirkuk, Iraq. The blast caused severe damage to his right eardrum and immediately engulfing the lower half of his body with a burning sensation which led to amputations of the two limbs.
After rehabilitation, Fanene became involved with the Homes For Our Troops organization and started meeting other amputee veterans. Homes For Our Troops built a specially equipped home for the Fanene family which they moved into in December 2013.
The Murrieta Rotary Club expresses its most sincere congratulations to these local heroes. Beginning in January, the Club will be looking for more monthly nominations. For more information, please visit the website at MurrietaRotary.com, or visit Facebook.com/rotaryclubofmurrieta.