Sept. 10, 2025, is National Suicide Awareness Day. On this day, cities, counties and states across our nation pause to make sure everyone knows where they can turn if they are struggling with suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know needs help, please reach out by calling or texting 988. Trained counselors are available 24 hours a day, in multiple languages.

Suicide affects people from every background across all ethnicities, cultures, workplaces, genders and life situations. But one group is hit especially hard – our veterans. Every day, an average of 22 U.S. veterans take their own lives. That means nearly every hour, one of our nation’s heroes, someone who has given their time, skills and sacrifice to protect our freedoms, dies by their own hand. 

While help is becoming more accessible, we must do more for these veterans and the families who love them. 

The Columbia Basin Veterans Center and Mission 22 are calling on every citizen in the Tri-Cities region to find a way to get involved. While professional care, such as case managers, therapies and treatment plans can make a difference, the best safety net is still a community of people who genuinely care. 

Here are some practical ways you, your family or your business can make a difference: 

• Slow down and listen – not just to words, but to what is left unsaid. 
• If a veteran comes to mind, reach out. 
• Simply be there. Sometimes presence matters more than answers. 
• Remember a veteran’s family also needs care and support. 
• Learn who in your community is a veteran. They may carry invisible burdens. 
• Invite veterans to participate. Everyone needs a mission and a purpose. 
• Watch for signs of depression or emotional numbness. 
• Support veteran organizations that know how to create a strong safety net. 

One way we are working to show community support is through a yard sign campaign this November. Citizens and veterans can place a sign in their yard to let our veterans know that the Tri-Cities is not just “veteran friendly,” but that we also actively honor and value those who have served and their families who have sacrificed. 

We have applied for a grant to help cover the cost of these signs, but whether funded or not, we will make them available.  

If you would like to join us, please email [email protected] or call 509-545-6558 to reserve a sign for November.  

Signs will be ready for pickup starting Monday, Oct. 20 at 1020 S. Seventh Ave., Pasco. Businesses can request delivery by volunteers. If you want to learn more about Mission 22, go to: Mission22.org. 

Let us take this stand together because our veterans stood for us. 

In the words of President Ronald Reagan from his Nov. 5, 1983, radio address: 

“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us. That is our duty. They have never let America down. We will not let them down.”