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Texas Legionnaire Jeysson Gomez has started monthly dinners and walks to bring awareness to mental health and promote the Legion’s veteran suicide prevention mission.

When a veteran in San Antonio took his own life in December of last year – the second to do so in a matter of months – Texas Legionnaire Jeysson Gomez had heard and seen enough. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and first vice commander at Walton F. Hoffman Memorial Post 179 in New Braunfels, he decided to make 51�Թ�’s Be the One veteran suicide prevention mission a priority at his post.

And in doing so, Gomez has found a new purpose in life.

Gomez has started monthly dinners at Post 179 that invite members of 51�Թ� Family for both light conversation and to discuss their mental health. And in addition to that, he’s also now staging monthly Be the One walks in the community that also include a mental health discussion after each walk that includes discussing 51�Թ�-Columbia University virtual Be the One training.

Gomez already wanted to start getting more involved in Be the One before the December suicide. But that death pushed up the timeline.

“I had already been thinking of doing the Sunday dinner or to do something, but I just didn’t know what,” Gomez said. “Sadly, sometimes in life something bad has to happen in order for something good to come out of it. This fellow Marine took his life, and I thought, one, this is getting way too close to home, and two, this is the second one in a matter of months. We have to do something.”

At an event on a December Saturday night, Gomez started talking to another member about the idea and came up with the Sunday dinner idea. “The next day, we went to H-E-B (a San Antonio-based grocery store) and got some hot dogs, got some bread, got some chips,” he said. “And that was the first Sunday dinner.”

The first event drew around 10 people to show up, despite only starting to publicize it 12 hours earlier. H-E-B provided a donation for the January dinner, while another individual donated a brisket. Members of the post’s American Legion Family helped with prep. And to Gomez’s delight, more than 50 people showed up for the dinner. The February dinner featured four different kinds of pasta dishes and drew another 50 people.

“This is fantastic. The hall is pretty much packed,” Gomez said. “Everyone gets to talking. You make some new friends. And it’s not just the Legion. It’s everyone in the Legion (Family) coming together.”

But the Sunday dinners are just the start of promoting the post’s suicide prevention efforts. New Braunfels already had a mental health initiative in place, Lionheart Walks, that takes place on Tuesday nights and is meant to raise awareness about veteran and first responder suicide. That gave Gomez the idea to start his own monthly walk, with the goal of raising awareness about the Be the One program.

“Not everyone can do a 5k. I can barely do a 5K,” he said. “But almost anyone can do a walk. Whether you’re 1 or 100, you can pretty much go for a walk. This is not a race. It’s not about who’s faster.”

Members of Post 179’s American Legion Family depart from the post for the walk, bringing with them Be the One branding. Following the 2.2-mile walk, Post 179 hosts a mental health information session that focuses on suicide prevention, risk identification, communication and available national and local resources, as well as sharing how participants can sign up for virtual Be the One training, which Gomez has taken.

The first walk took place in December, with others taking place each month since. “With this walk, we can continue to raise awareness about mental health by using a more direct Be the One approach,” Gomez said. “Everything ties in with family and camaraderie. That’s something we have in our families. That’s something we have in the service.”

Gomez also is in the process of putting together what he calls “an ammo box” at Post 179 that will include flyers, business cards and information for anyone who might be in crisis or know of someone who is.

“Who better than us, who feel that anxiety and depression, who bite our nails, who shake, we can recognize those symptoms,” he said. “So when we see someone who’s doing those things, we know how to say, ‘Hey brother, hey sister, are you doing OK?’ It just makes it that much easier.”

While he is humble when talking about his Be the One effort, Gomez does share a powerful story of someone who was getting ready to attempt suicide but then pictured Gomez’s flags on display during his walks.

“In that instant they said, ‘Stop,’” Gomez said. “To me, I’m just doing something that anyone would do. ‘A simple walk. A simple dinner.’ But in reality, I have been told from different people who have said, ‘This saved my life.’ And to me, I have found my purpose in life. I found what I was meant to do. I’m doing what I’d like to think people would do for me or do for each other.

“Be the One needs to be pushed because it is three simple words that mean everything. You’re saying, ‘I need to be the one to say hey, I need help.’ But also, be the one to say, ‘Hey, do you need help?’ Those three words cover everybody. We can all ask, and we all need help.”