Meridian Community College students and staff, military families and veterans gathered Friday to bring awareness to veterans’ mental health with the second annual Honor Stride walk along the college’s green mile.

The event serves to both educate the public about high suicide rates among military veterans and introduce community resources and organizations that are available to help

 

“As we walk MCC’s green mile, we walk with a purpose, raising awareness about mental health, breaking the silence around suicide and ensuring no veteran or first responder feels alone,” said Shaquita Alfonso, associate director of military and veteran services at MCC.

 

Mental health is important for everyone regardless of military service, Alfonso said, and talking about struggles, finding healthy ways to deal with stress and being honest with oneself is important. Stress effects everyone, she said.

 

While mental health is a topic some tend to avoid, Alfonso said learning how to handle the stresses of life and address emotions is a skill everyone needs to have.

 

“So I think that’s why we’re here at this moment, just in general, not just for soldiers, but in general,” she said. “I think just expressing our feelings and learning how to cope and learning how to deal, knowing those triggers and all those things of that nature.”

 

Mike Couch, president and founder of the Stronger Together Foundation, said statistically 22 military veterans die by suicide each day. The Stronger Together Foundation, which was formally organized in 2021, has a mission to reduce that number and provide support to grieving families impacted by the losses.

The United States military isn’t as big as it once was, Couch said, but service members are still deployed to 197 countries across the globe. With fewer people to go around, that means service members face longer, more frequent deployments.

 

“So that puts a lot of stress on our military,” he said. “And it’s not all combat veterans that suffer from PTSD and stress.”

 

Deployments by themselves are stressful, Couch said, as being way puts strain on service members’ families, causes them to miss key moments and prevents them from being there to help their loved ones.

 

Anyone in a mental heath crisis or with thoughts of self harm can call or text the national crisis lifeline at 988 for help. Information about the Stronger Together Foundation and other community resources can be found at strongertogetherfoundation.org.