About Project WIN (Warrior Intern Network)          

Chamber CEO Tom Gleason and Chamber President Wendy King present the first $1.00 contribution to Project WIN (Warrior Intern Network) CEO Cheryl Lyn Higgins.

Project WIN & Welcome Home to Heroes Foundation

In December 2007, two Junction City, Kansas businessmen, inspired by a speech about Fort Riley’s newly forming Warriors Transition Battalion (WTB) delivered by then Commanding General Robert Durbin, conceived the idea of an Army-Community partnership to provide internship opportunities for wounded soldiers.

Developer Jeff Burton and banker Gary Drake presented the concept to CG Durbin on December 26, 2007.

A Memorandum of Agreement outlining the partnership between the WTB and the private foundation Welcome Home to Heroes was signed by both parties in a special ceremony January 23, 2008. The Army-Community partnership later became known as Project WIN (Warrior Intern Network).

In February 2008, former Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Cheryl Lyn Higgins was named Executive Director of Project WIN.

Soldier placement in Project WIN (Warrior Intern Network) began February 1 with Silver Star recipient SGT Victor Thibeault.