Event at Spokane Arena raises money to prevent suicide among veterans
SPOKANE, Wash. –A special Veterans Day event happened Friday at the Veterans Memorial Arena to honor a Navy Seal who lost his life to suicide.
Chad Wilkinson served in several deployments, experienced traumatic brain and blast wave injuries, and eventually PTSD before he took his life in 2018.
On Veterans Day, many gathered to raise money for the Step Up Foundation, which aims to bring awareness and resources to prevent suicide amongst veterans.
Volunteers also did a special exercise in honor of Wilkinson.
“This was his workout: to do 1,000, weighted step-ups,” said Keirsten Lyons with the Washington State Fallen Heroes Project. “That’s what he did as a workout, and so this Veterans Day is to honor him, to honor and remember every veteran lost to suicide, and to do something very positive for it.”
In addition to the “step-up” challenge, the first 150 veterans at the event received gifts for serving our country.
4 News Now’s Mark Peterson was there to emcee the event.
You can lean more about the Step Up Foundation here.
READ: Local principal, veteran teaches students the importance of Veterans Day
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