Post 135 in Cookeville, Tenn., conducting training session Nov. 23 that will be led by Columbia Lighthouse Project instructor.
During his Commander’s Tour last summer, American Legion Department of Tennessee Commander John Davis challenged Legionnaires to conduct Be the One training at the district level.
When word of that got to American Legion Post 135 in Cookeville, the post took the challenge to heart. And on Nov. 23, Post 135 will bring in-person training for the Legion’s suicide prevention program to American Legion Family members and others in the Fourth District.
The training will take place at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cookeville and is open to the public, with an emphasis on veterans and their families, and first responders and their families. Members of local churches have been asked to attend.
Tennessee Fourth District Women Veterans Coordinator Jennifer Dupont, a member of Post 135, volunteered to set up the training after attending district meetings and hearing about Davis’s challenge from Tennessee Senior Vice Commander Todd McKinley.
Veteran suicide is personal for Dupont, a U.S. Navy veteran, which is why she volunteered to take the lead. “I can think of four veterans within one degree of separation from me that died by suicide,” she said. “Three years ago, my cousin’s husband did, and we have two friends who had sons commit suicide. And then the fourth one, my youngest cousin was supposed to be coming out to our wedding in 2016, and he had to cancel because of one his buddies committed suicide.
“So for me, I see – especially with the cousin three years ago – I see the effect it had on his children and everything. I think that it’s something that’s important and should be pushed in our communities on the local level.”
The training will be provided by Columbia Lighthouse Project’s Wendy Lakso, who has led multiple Be the One training sessions both virtually and in person (register for a virtual session here). Lakso has served as chief of the U.S. Army’s Suicide Prevention Program; deputy executive director of the Office of the U.S. President’s PREVENTS Task Force, which is a part of the National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide; and, more recently, director of Partnerships in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention from 2018-2020.
Dupont has taken the virtual training but believes an in-person session can be more impactful for participants.
“I did the online training, and it was great,” she said. “But with a subject like this, I feel the in-person training is a little more touchy-feely. It resonates a little bit different if it’s in-person.”
- Be the One