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American Legion Post 90 Riders work to help end veteran suicides

American Legion Post 90 Riders work to help end veteran suicides

Jack Fitzgerald, center, head of the Cape Coral Post 90 Legion Riders, presents a check for $6,000 to Mike Raymond, left, State of Florida Commander and Joseph Marcheggiani, Area Commander at Post 136, St. James City. PROVIDED

Cape Coral Breeze | By Staff | Jun 28, 2024

Local American Legion Riders recently joined a Florida statewide effort to help end veteran suicide. Called “PROJECT: VetRelief Suicide Prevention Initiative,” they raised over $330,000. Florida has almost a million veterans and more than 100,000 of them are American Legion members of which 15,000 are here in Southwest Florida.

From Marco Island to Punta Gorda, hundreds of local legionnaires rode their motorcycles for the cause. At local American Legion posts, thousands more donated and hosted rides, dinners and other activities. They also created fundraising pages to collect donations. Riders not only volunteer their time and pay for their own lodging and fuel but also make personal contributions.

Across the United States, about 22 veterans a day commit suicide (and many of them are here in Florida.) That is over 8,000 a year. The Florida American Legion Riders find this unacceptable. In 2019, they chose to do their part to eradicate this statistic and dedicate the funds raised through their annual In-State Unity Ride towards ending veteran suicides. Since then, they have raised over $520,000 for PROJECT: VetRelief’s Suicide Prevention Initiative. The funding sponsors veterans through existing programs and services focused on mental health. Detailed information on the program is available at www.projectvetrelief.org/spi.

The In-State Unity Ride is one of the largest multi-routes, multi-day, statewide motorcycle events, with many of the American Legion Riders traveling from across the state to join in unified support for this important cause.

PROJECT: VetRelief, established in 2014, is a program of The American Legion, Department of Florida. The program focuses on two services: emergency assistance and suicide prevention. When dealing with a life emergency, they support our service members and their families with immediate financial assistance. The suicide prevention initiative focuses on training or mentoring veterans through existing mental health treatments, programs, or processes to prevent suicide. Their mission is to keep food on the table or the lights on while a family works through a trying time and to decrease the suicide rate to zero.

Riders on the tour traveled in three different routes, East, West and Central, covering a total of 2,970 miles in the state of Florida. Chapter 90 Cape Coral American Legion Riders travelled 1,610 miles on their portion of the trip. There was a total of 160 motorcycles and 205 participants for the event. The Central District Riders, which Cape Coral Post 90 was part of, donated the most money of the three routes. Chapter 90 presented a check for $6,000 to PROJECT VetRelief suicide prevention initiative at Post 136 in St. James City on April 26. The 13th District contributed over $17,000 that day from the four legion families at their Post’s in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, St. James City and Bonita Springs.

The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of strong national security, veterans’ affairs, Americanism and youth programs. The Department of Florida Legionnaires support their communities through nearly 300 posts across Florida. Currently, more than 6,000 members are American Legion Riders.

To find out more about the American Legion, Department of Florida, please visit FloridaLegion.org. If you are a veteran and have not joined, please consider becoming part of a great organization.