Comrade Brian Prewitt, the Sergeant at Arms for the International Western USA Zone will be participating in the “Ride to Fight Suicide” as a Team Captain for the “Royal Canadian Legion Riders.”

In the US, military veterans suicide is considered to be an epidemic with an average of 22 veterans dying by suicide every day.  In Canada, the federal government sponsored a study in 2019 entitled Veteran Suicide Mortality Study, which found based on data from 1976 to 2014 that:

• Over the entire 39-year observation period, the risk of suicide for both male and female Veterans was observed to be consistently higher than in the Canadian general population. The risk observed in the additional two years of data available (2013 and 2014) was similar to previous time periods. The observed risk of suicide has neither increased nor decreased over this 39 year period.
• Male Veterans overall had a 1.4 times higher risk of dying by suicide compared to the male Canadian general population, with the youngest group at highest risk.
• Female Veterans overall had a 1.9 times higher risk of dying by suicide compared to the female Canadian general population, and this risk was relatively consistent across age groups.

And the situation has only been getting worse in both countries.

The event will take place on Saturday morning, April 30th at Orange County Harley-Davidson in Irvine and will benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  You can donate to the Royal Canadian Legion Riders at:

https://supporting.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=289170

Below you can see a photo of Comrade Prewitt from December 2021, where he was making a gift donation to Operation Santa Claus/Senior Santa & Friends on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion Riders.