‘Ride to Remember’ honors fallen Pennsylvania State Trooper

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — A national non-profit organization is traveling across the country to honor fallen law enforcement officers, and on Thursday, they made a stop in Blair County.

Beyond the Call of Duty does an ‘End of Watch: ‘Ride to Remember’ every year across America to honor the men and women of law enforcement who paid the ultimate price in serving their communities.

The ride to remember drove into the Hollidaysburg Pennsylvania State Police Troop G station on Thursday morning at 8 a.m.

“We leave out of Washington State on June 1st and we travel the entire nation this year for 73 days. It’s 23,000 miles, visiting 45 states with our memorial that has all the officers that were lost in the line of duty pictured on the sides of it from both 2022 and 2023,” Allison McCarter, Coordinator for Beyond the Call of Duty, said.

Thursday marked Day 41, and the memorial honored Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., who was killed in the line of duty on June 17, 2023, while assisting his fellow officers.

“Jay was just full of life. Jay loved life. He was so happy. He had everything,” Angela Gervasio, Trooper Rougeau’s, mom said.

She stood alongside her family as a memorial for him and his other fallen officers made their way into the barracks. Rougeau’s fellow officers stood by their side as his family placed a flower by his picture.

Two hundred and forty five fallen officers are being honored from 2022 and 135 fallen officers are being remembered for 2023.

“While the families and, you know, brothers and Blue don’t need a reminder to remember their loved one, we figured that the rest of the country needed to know about these men and women and not forget them either,” McCarter said.

A banner that Rougeau’s family signed is one of seven that will be on display to the public for a year, and then go on to be memorialized forever in Spokane, Washington.

“His dream job was this. He was just such a caring and wonderful man,” Gervasio said.

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The rolling memorial made four more stops in Pennsylvania on Thursday and will visit 14 additional states over the next few weeks before finishing the ride in Washington State on August 12.

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