Six members of Idaho Post 143 now will be able to provide Columbia Protocol Be the One training to fellow members.
Idaho Legionnaire Daniel Sweet knows what it’s like to lose someone close to him to suicide. That’s why he’s taken on the position as Be the One chairman at Steven H. Nipp Post 143 in Post Falls.
And not only has Sweet gone through the Be the One training conducted by the Columbia Lighthouse Project, he’s brought that training in-person to his own post. But along with providing the training to others, he also wants to be able to conduct that training himself.
That’s why on April 13, Sweet led organizing three Be the One training sessions – one in the morning, one at lunch and one in the early evening. There were 80 attendees, including Post 143 American Legion Family members, local first responders and others from the community.
And on the following day, he and five other members of the post, along with a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs suicide prevention coordinator, went through a Columbia Train the Trainer session, a pilot program. All seven individuals can now conduct Be the One training on their own.
The training was provided by Columbia Lighthouse Project’s Brad Lanta and Adam Walsh.
“The training was outstanding,” Sweet said. “And when you are dealing with American Legion and volunteers, you want to get them as comfortable as you can. You have to do (the training) on their schedule. We want the flexibility to be able to say, ‘OK, our post is doing a training this week.’ It’s not predicated by how many people are going to come. We believe we’re going to be able to get, in a smaller setting, more people trained.”
Sweet said training provided by Legionnaires for Legionnaires establishes what he feels is a higher comfort level. “There’s a lot of preconceived things about suicide from the senior generation,” he said. “One of the things we talked about when we started the (Be the One) committee was about participation. How are you going to get people to participate and have them comfortable discussing it?
“It’s about being open in conversations. Small groups. Easier to share. And become friends with the person sitting across from you. So we’re going to put on this training for six to 10 people. We’ll make them feel comfortable. We’ll get to know them, and then we’ll put the training on. And we think we can get more participation.”
Sweet said he believes providing the training at the grassroots level by members of the organization will lead to more American Legion Family members undergoing the training.
“The goal is to have every person in The American Legion trained in the Columbia Protocol. That’s a huge ask,” he said. “Although I don’t think it’s unachievable, I think the best way to achieve it is to have flexibility in time and flexibility in the schedule. And as certified, qualified trainers, we’ll be able to do that.”
Sweet, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has lost four close friends and family to suicide, two of which he talked to the day before they took their own lives. Among the four was an uncle who served in Vietnam and a friend who killed himself just months after the pair had gone to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally together.
“I didn’t know how to talk to somebody in crisis,” Sweet said. “I wish I had known at that time. I don’t know if I could have saved his life, but I think I could have done something.”
Those experiences have been a reason he’s so driven by the Legion’s veteran suicide mission. “When I retired, I wanted to give back,” he said. “I’ve been a member of The American Legion for, I think, 46 years. When they asked me to be chairman of the Be the One Committee, I said, ‘Hell yeah.’ If I can save one life, I think that would be fantastic.
“And that’s really my pitch to anybody: Take 90 minutes of training and you’ll be able to recognize when a person’s in a crisis. You’ll be able to do something.”
- Be the One