About Hopping for Heroes
Hopping for Heroes is a spin-off of Bounce to a Cure, with a focus on helping veterans. James' wife, Maura, is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran. ​Realizing the challenges veterans face after sacrificing their livelihood to protect our freedoms, James and Maura partnered with the South Boston Vietnam Memorial and the New England Center and Home for Veterans (NECHV) to help give back.
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About NECHV
The Mission of the New England Center and Home for Veterans (NECHV) is to equip Veterans who are facing or at-risk of homelessness with the tools for economic self-sufficiency and to provide them a path to achieve successful and dignified independent living.
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A service and care provider for former military service men and women, the NECHV offers a broad array of programs and services that enable success, reintegration, meaningful employment and independent living.
About SBVNM
The South Boston Vietnam Memorial (SBVNM) sits in the M Street Park in South Boston, Massachusetts. Everyone listed on the monument had come to the park sometime during their childhood. It is thought to be the first Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in the country.
The idea for building the monument came while some friends had gathered to remember three of their friends who had been killed in 1968 while serving in Vietnam. It was the tenth anniversary of their deaths.
The three were part of a group of six friends that joined the military together. The surviving friends began to reminisce about other members of their community that had given their lives in Vietnam. By the time they were done, they had counted 25 fallen friends. In remembrance to their friends, they decided to build a memorial.
History of the World Record
The world record for Most Consecutive Jumps on a Pogo Stick was first set in 1971 by Stephen Newman with a record of 11,052 bounces. Over the next several years, this record was broken 6 times culminating in 1976 with a record of 70,076 bounces by William Hanrahan​.
James Roumeliotis entered the pogo stick world record scene in 2007 by breaking the record for the Longest Marathon on a Pogo Stick. Unlike the consecutive jump record, James was able to take a 5-minute break for every hour of pogoing. In 2007, he set the record with 186,152 bounces. Eager to break the 200K mark, James attempted and broke this record in 2011 with a total of 206,864 bounces.
James then set his sights on breaking the consecutive jump world record. In 2013, 37 years after the consecutive record was set, James was able to break the record before slipping off. 70,271 bounces was the new number. Fast-forward two years to 2015 where James competed against fellow endurance pogoers, Jack Sexty and Casie Merza. While James was able to bounce faster than the others, when he stopped, he had given Jack a finish line. Jack was able to bounce for an additional 2 hours and claim the record with 88,047.
Eight years after that bounce-off in Philadelphia, the frustration of letting the record slip from his hands grew to be too much. While much has changed in James' life, the record remains at 88,047.
James' goal is to reclaim the title and hopefully push it out of reach once and for all.