Across the world, many Americans as well as its allies have been involved with the #22pushupchallenge. This challenge has taken the world by storm and has gone viral on many media sites. With each challenge comes an opportunity to call out someone. While some have completed the challenge as support to honor all our Veterans past and present - with the addition of being a small workout - others have made it a personal mission to spread awareness of veteran suicide.
The History.
In 2012, the Department of Veteran Affairs released a Suicide Data Report that collects data intensively and gathers it to create a system within the government to reduce the number of suicide among Veterans. Within that report, it stated that statistically the average number of suicides per day among Veterans was 22. Within the year, a nonprofit organization called Honor Courage Commitment, Inc. (HHC) started the movement to help educate the public on the epidemic that loses Veterans to mental health issues that leads to 22 suicides a day. Recently in 2015, HHC branched off into #22Kill that helps support veteran empowerment programs to rebuild the sense of purpose in veterans to use the talents they have accumulated throughout their time in the military, transition it into their civilian lives, and understand their importance to their friends, their family, the community, and themselves.
The Meaning.
The biggest challenge veterans face is transitioning from working all hours of the day with no breaks, difficult experiences, being part of a brotherhood/sisterhood/family, and having a sense of honor, duty, loyalty, and pride to the not-as-challenging civilian lifestyle once handed their discharge papers.. Veterans give it their all to attend support groups, find outlets, keep themselves busy, but sometimes a wave of darkness comes across to the point where they don’t feel a sense of purpose, a sense of importance, and this begins to cause mental health issues such as PTSD, depression, alcohol and drug abuse that ultimately leads them to end their life.
#22 Kill has made it their mission to bring a global movement amongst veterans, active servicemembers, and civilians alike to build a community of support and empowerment to help reduce and prevent veteran suicide by educating and raising awareness to each and every single one of us.
The Challenge.
Simple and easy.
Step 1: Record a video of yourself doing the push-ups and upload the video.
At the beginning of the video or when you have once uploaded the video, please state your name and why or who you are pushing for along with anyone who has nominated you to begin the challenge and nominate whoever you would like to challenge.
Step 2: Add #22Kill in your post
If you are starting on day one state “Day 1 of 22” along “#22pushups for #22Kill” on any social media site you choose to upload the video and post it on.
Step 3: Post.
Do the push-ups yourself. Get a group and knock them out. Be creative and find different ways for each day of your #22Kill push-up challenge. Don’t forget to spread the awareness of veteran suicide and get up, get out, and get involved to helping those in need.
Just a few of the many supporters that have accepted the challenge.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Monty The Police Dog and his partner Steve Hopwood of Avon and Somerset Police Department UK
Kai Greene and the 1st Precinct of the New York Police Department
Disturbed featuring John Moyer
Kim Wienches, American Ninja Warrior
Adam Arnold, American Ninja Warrior
Brittany Wallace, Business Owner, FloBe Life
Every push-up counts! #22Kill #GetSome #VeteranSuicideAwareness
