PORTSMOUTH — There are many ways to support your local veterans. You can attend a ceremony. You can write a check. Or you can lock hands with a stranger and attempt to slam their arm into a table while a small crowd cheers like it’s the Super Bowl of elbows.

Welcome to “Pulling for Veterans,” returning April 25 to VFW Post 5390, 822 Anthony Road.

“This is gonna be a fundraiser for the VFW again,” said organizer Rick North. “The VFW had to shut down for six weeks the first of the year, so they need to kind of catch back up. We’re gonna make some money for these guys.”

Also at stake: bragging rights. This year’s event doubles as the Rhode Island State Championships, which sounds official because it is. Expect 35 to 40 competitors — men and women, various weight classes, all united by the belief that forearms should be taken seriously.

They’ve been preparing weekly. Thursday nights. Seven o’clock. Same VFW hall. No fee, no pressure — just a professional art wrestling table and the understanding that someone’s hand is going down.

Among them is Ashley Moreira, who got her start arm-wrestling as a kid. She joined the group last year after meeting North and will not be the only woman competing this time, though she did have the distinction of being the lone female at a recent practice.

There are new T-shirts. New stickers. Possibly new grudges.

If you go, you’ll see technique, leverage, and the peculiar choreography of two people pretending to be immovable objects. You’ll also see something else: a roomful of people raising money the only way they know how — by gripping, pulling, and refusing to let go.

For more about the weekly practices and upcoming tournament, contact Rick North at 401/835-8034.