A War Hero’s Legacy Lives on Through the Timonium-Based Catch a Lift Fund

Last fall, Army veteran Aaron Baca and a group of coaches with the Timonium-based Catch A Lift Fund nonprofit decided to make their annual retreat a visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

There, they visited the gravesite of Christopher J. Coffland, a Gilman alum killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009 at 44, and the man who inspired their organization. They spoke about Coffland’s big personality and free spirit, the military service he signed up for at a later age than most, his athletic career (captain of the Washington & Lee football and lacrosse teams, a pro football stint in Finland, then coaching in Australia and Germany), and his legacy.

“We reflected,” says Baca, Catch A Lift’s head coach. Then they signed a football as a team and placed it at Coffland’s white marble headstone.

Catch A Lift was founded in 2010 by Coffland’s grieving older sister, Lynn, and niece, Jess.

“I’m going to catch a lift,” Chris Coffland would famously say to his friends and family when he went to work out. Chris was dedicated to his physical fitness, knowing it led to strong mental health, wherever he was.

“He worked out because he believed it changed your life,” says Lynn, pictured above. And for the past 15 years, Catch A Lift has provided more than 15,000 combat-injured, post-9/11 veterans a chance to do just that.

Each year, more than a dozen coaches—all veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan deployments—lead eight-week virtual trainings with personalized fitness, wellness, and nutrition programming for hundreds of vets throughout the country. The participants can then have access to free at-home workout equipment or a one-year gym membership, as long as they log at least 180 minutes of movement weekly.

Some have lost limbs and are now competitive adaptive athletes, like double-amputee U.S. Army veteran Jason Smith, who won six gold medals at the 2025 Warrior Games in Colorado. Many have PTSD, anxiety, or depression, and others, like Baca, have shrapnel in their body from a long-ago mortar attack.

They face “holistic” needs, Lynn says, often unmet by the Department of Veterans Affairs, another reason for the organization’s creation. “We want them to be in charge of their health for the long term,” she says, adding that the average participant loses 25 to 100 pounds their first year, dropping two to 35 medications daily.

Catch A Lift operates through donations and corporate sponsorships. It employs six full-time and 18 part-time staff and hosts five fundraisers nationwide each year. This year’s local event was on October 5 at Onelife Fitness in Hunt Valley, where veterans led a family-friendly, boot-camp-style workout.

A good sweat for a life-changing cause, just as Chris Coffland believed possible.