Multiple North Carolina American Legion Riders will take part in the ride, which also includes a car show and drew more than 700 people a year ago.
Five years ago, North Carolina Legionnaire Valerie Rayner was attending the department’s Mid-Winter Conference when she received a devastating call from a former fellow servicemember.
That call – along with her own post-service mental health issues – made veteran suicide, and later The American Legion’s Be the One prevention mission, a priority for Rayner.
“One of my battle buddies called me to let me know that one of our former soldiers took her life,” Rayner said. “She was 30 years old, and she left behind two small children: six months and 3 years old. So I wanted to do something.
“Everybody’s always talking about suicide awareness, but suicide awareness always comes after the fact. I was trying to come up with a way that we could bring awareness and get resources before (veterans) make that final decision for a temporary problem.”
One way is the fourth annual “Be The One” Suicide Prevention Charity Ride, which will take place April 11 over a six-county area, starting in Fayetteville, N.C., and finishing up on the former grounds of Burton-Cowell American Legion Post 265 in Jacksonville, with American Legion Riders from multiple chapters taking part in the ride.
The event is continuing on despite recent tornado damage that destroyed Post 265’s building. At the conclusion of the ride, there will be a car, truck, jeep and bike show at the Onslow County Fairgrounds behind where Post 265 previously stood.
“A tornado took out our building on March 12,” Burton-Cowell Post 265 Commander Steven Shortt said. “We decided we were going to just keep going forward with this event and just use our field in the back of our building.”
The importance of the cause factored in the decision to continue with the event. “Suicide is such a big thing in the United States, and it’s huge with veterans,” said Shortt, who deployed to Iraq during a 26-year career in the Marine Corps. “To get that awareness out that suicide is a real thing and people think about suicide a lot of times before people act on it … hopefully people can get involved and help them through the process so they don’t commit suicide. I think that’s one of the biggest goals of this event: to stop as many suicides as possible and help our community – not just our veterans, but our firefighters, our police officers, anybody that needs support. Helping them through that is a great thing.”
Rayner, a member of Hair & Matthews Post 32 in Hope Mills and vice chair of the Department of North Carolina’s Be the One Prevention of Suicide Committee, spent more than 23 combined years on U.S. Army active duty and in the National Guard. That service included being deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn, which led to her own post-traumatic stress disorder. She’s also seen one of her family members deal with PTSD as a result of his service in Vietnam.
“A lot of people, they have a problem reaching out for help because they don’t want to be labeled as weak. They don’t want to be stereotyped,” Rayner said. “I have to be transparent with my own struggles with mental health and depression and PTSD. My family … at one time looked at it as an embarrassment that I was telling people I had PTSD. They basically told me, ‘Stop telling people something’s wrong with you before they think something’s wrong with you.’ There is something wrong with me. I went to Iraq. I’m not the same person I was (before that).”
Funds raised from the ride and car show will benefit the North Carolina chapter of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a nonprofit that focuses on eliminating the loss of life from suicide by delivering innovative prevention programs, educating the public about risk factors and warning signs, raising funds for suicide research and programs, and reaching out to those individuals who have been affected by suicide.
Last year’s ride drew 75 participants in motorcycles, cars and trucks. More than 700 people attended the car show throughout the day.
Law enforcement from all six counties the ride will traverse will provide an escort throughout the ride. “They have been very helpful and generous with the outpouring of support they provide,” Rayner said. “This is not only just for veterans. It’s a community thing that we’re trying to combat.”
- Be the One