MOUNT VERNON — Hundreds of bikers returned to Mt. Vernon Tuesday for the Annual Run for the Wall event.

The run takes three routes in its annual effort to promote healing among all veterans, their families, and their friends, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (POW/MIA), to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars, and to support our military personnel all over the world. Mt. Vernon is a traditional stop along the RFTW Central Route.

Arriving bikers staged in the Rural King parking lot and then paraded to the Mt. Vernon Outland Airport where a dedicated committee and a few student organizations from several area schools provided the travelers with a traditional meal and other amenities for the riders. Mt. Vernon is the only Illinois stop for RFTW each year. Funds are raised by the local volunteers to provide participants with lunch and help pay for their fuel.

Those who participate in the Run for the Wall can sign up to join the route at any point from California to Washington D.C. Many people ride the entire route, while others join the pack for a leg of the journey. Once they converge in D.C., riders are free to return to their homes via any route they choose. The motorcyclists hope to arrive in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.