It’s time enter your pledge and join this fall’s “Keep Pushin’ 22” challenge! The 22×22 Veterans Suicide Prevention Challenge begins Nov. 1 and continues through Nov. 22.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the challenge, it was originally known as “Kill 22,” and was started in response to a horrific statistic released by the VA over a decade ago: An average of 22 military veterans commit suicide every day.
While the actual number of veteran suicides varies from year to year, the “22×22” tag has become the most recognized. In late summer of 2016, the awareness campaign — which involves participants doing 22 push-ups each day for 22 days and donating to foundations that provide veteran services — went viral.
Social media outlets like Instagram, Facebook and news feeds began to promote video posts of celebrities doing their 22 pushups and then challenging other celebrities, pro athletes, politicians and so forth to do the same.
It caught my attention because so many drivers are veterans, and several of my family members served in the military, including an uncle I never met who was killed in conflict. However, once celebrities stopped posting videos, the challenge seemed to lose momentum.
With the support of Women In Trucking, The Trucker Media Group and FIT DRIVERS, we are working to keep that awareness alive. Each day of the 22×22 Veterans Suicide Prevention Challenge (Nov. 1-22), thousands of participants post their videos daily on social media. We’re also grateful to sponsors Tenstreet, Estes, Spiritune and Trucker’s Body Shop.
I encourage you to take the pledge to help raise awareness of the challenges faced by military veterans after returning to civilian life.
It’s important to note that about 10% of the nation’s professional CDL holders are military veterans. It’s also important to note that the trucking industry loses about 300,000 drivers each year to poor health.
Because of this second fact, my goal is both to help reduce the number of veteran suicides and to improve drivers’ overall health.
This year, Veterans Day (Nov. 11) falls during Women In Trucking’s annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo. During the conference, we will be paying tribute to military veterans and veteran truck drivers.
Special guest Sarah Lee will share her journey as an Army OIF combat veteran. In 2004 she was deployed to Iraq with the 216th Combat Engineers under the 1st Infantry Division. In 2018, she completed a cycling journey of more than 4,000 miles across America. Her blog, A Vicious Cycle, chronicles her road to healing as she traveled across the land she had fought for as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.
The mission behind 22×22 is not about how many push-ups you do. It’s about bringing awareness to the number of our nation’s heroes who commit suicide, and about donating to reputable organizations that provide support for veterans. This year, I encourage you to donate to Sarah’s foundation, Waypoint Vets.
You can take the pledge and upload your videos here.
Bob Perry is a regular contributor to The Trucker. He has spent nearly the past four decades on a mission to educate professional drivers and share life-changing products and services to help them live healthier lives while on the road. Recognized throughout the transportation industry, from bus drivers to over-the-road professional drivers, Perry has played an important role in creating a paradigm shift helping regulatory agencies, private and public sector entities, and consumers understand the current health challenges of the professional driver. He has participated as a wellness advocate in several roundtable discussions, large audience groups and small forums as well as going “curbside” through a national truck stop tour.
Bob’s articles have been featured in The Trucker and a number of other national transportation industry publications and is the host of a weekly wellness call produced by Rolling Strong. Bob has been a regular guest on RedEye Radio and Land-Line Radio, and is often an invited guest on Sirius radio shows. He has been featured in the New York Times, Men’s Health Magazine, Drug Store News, American Road Magazine, WSJ, NPR, ABC National Radio, as well as hundreds of daily newspapers. He has appeared on television news shows across the nation, including a featured TV segment on ABC NightLine News.
