A group that gives motorcycles to veterans to help them heal presented a motorcycle to a Kenosha man at a car show and street party in Twin Lakes Saturday afternoon.
Hogs for Heroes turned over the keys to a blue 2020 Harley-Davidson Tri Glide to Joshua Walker after a presentation on at the Main Street Tap-Village View Car Show & Street Party in downtown Twin Lakes.
“Thank you all for not giving up on me and giving me a chance,” Walker said at the end of an emotional remarks deliverd to the crowd.
Hogs for Heroes was founded 10 years ago by Kevin Thompson. Kevin’s wife, Audra, and his brother, Craig, and his wife, Michelle, Gormican Thompson serve on the group’s founding board. The group’s mission is described on its website as: “We are a nonprofit dedicated to healing the mental and physical wounds, suffered by Wisconsin Veterans during the course of active duty, through the therapeutic benefits of owning and riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. We will raise funds, purchase a motorcycle and gift it to a deserving Wisconsin Veteran Hero. One Bike at a time. One Hero at a time.”
The latest presentation came through Hogs for Heroes connection with the Wisconsin Tavern League, which has been a contributor to the group’s efforts, said Dawn Ornberg of Main Street Tap. The league donated $38,000 to the organization this spring.
When league officials learned that the next person to get a bike was from Kenosha, it was decided to do the ceremony at the Twin Lakes event, Ornberg said.
Walker grew up in the Kenosha area and joined the Army National Guard in the wake of 9/11, after having unsuccessfully tried to enlist before. In Nov. 2004, he was deployed to Iraq, stationed at a small base in the volatile Sunni Triangle. There he was in a Humvee when an IED detonated, tearing the vehicle apart and leaving Walker — at the time thought to be relatively uninjured — with an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury.
Upon returning home in Nov. 2025, Walker struggled with reassimilating into life. He eventually divorced the woman he married just before he deployed and dealt with drug and alcohol addiction.
Eventually, his PTSD and TBI began to be more effectively treated. At a high school reunion in 2016, Joshua met Krissy and they married in 2019, combining their families.
Along the way, Joshua also found himself wanting to get back to riding a motorcycle. Even that was not easy. He bought a bike in 2019, but totaled it in a wreck in 2023. Deciding a trike would be better for him given his changing health, the Walkers bought one, but the axle on that bike broke, a repair more expensive than the bike was worth.
Walker then applied to Hogs for Heroes and was selected.
Walker’s bike was the 61st bike presented to a veteran by Hogs for Heroes. Twenty of the previous veterans who received bikes were at the ceremony.
Audra Thompson said the original goal for the program was one motorcycle per year. She called it not a thank you for service, but an attempt to help these troubled veterans heal. She called it “throttle therapy.”
You can read more about Joshua Walker’s story in detail here.
