Members of American Legion Riders Chapter 21 in Minnesota spend 44 hours in tent during annual Freezing for a Good Reason event.
Temperatures along the North Dakota-Minnesota border outside of Fargo regularly can dip to below zero in late January and early February. But for the past four years, that hasn't stopped American Legion Riders Chapter 21 from bringing to light the issue of veteran homelessness, suicide and mental health.
From Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Moorhead, Minn. – less than two miles from Fargo – Post 21’s fourth annual “Freezing for a Reason” saw around a half dozen of Chapter 21’s Riders spend 44 hours inside of a tent outside of the post. The event, which is combined with inside activities taking place in the post to raise funds for local charities, is geared toward raising awareness about veterans who are battling post-traumatic stress disorder, living on the streets or taking their own lives.
Chapter 21 Director and Chaplain Marc Simonet, who also serves as chaplain for Sons of The American Legion Squadron 21, said when the issue of PTSD and the number of daily veteran suicides began to get national attention, “We wanted to get some awareness out in the community. That’s where we came up with the idea of ‘Freezing for a Reason.’ And now, the tent is kind of our symbol. That brings attention to what we have going on.”
For 44 hours, members of the chapter stayed in and slept overnight in the large tent in the post’s parking lot. The event is part of the larger nine-day Frostival, which takes place in both cities and in West Fargo and consists of various indoor and outdoor activities.
This year, temperatures dropped into the single digits overnight, while heavy winds and snow also were present. In past years, the wind chill has dropped to -40 degrees. A heating unit is inside the tent, but it only brings the temperature up to around 30 degrees.
The first year of “Freezing for a Reason”, both sheriffs from Cass County (N.D.) and Clay County (Minn.) stayed in the tent, as did members of the media and community. “Now it’s mostly Riders,” Simonet said. “We don’t want to force anybody to be in the tent if they don’t want to be. So, we came up with the idea of a tent challenge. People get nominated, and then they raise funds to basically not sleep in the tent.”
While the Riders braved the cold weather, the inside of Post 21 stayed busy all weekend. There was live music Friday and Saturday, a soup cookoff and cornhole tournament on Saturday, and a silent auction and ice cube bingo on Sunday. Money raised from the event will go toward Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota/Minnesota and Golden Drive Homeless Kids. The latter is a Fargo-based nonprofit whose goal is to raise awareness of the homeless crisis that some of the community’s children are experiencing.
“Every year, we pick two different charities that we split our funds to help,” Simonet said. “The money we raise goes to veterans’ programs and children’s programs. We want the money to go to where it helps immediately.”
Simonet said the post’s effort ties in with The American Legion’s Be the One veteran suicide prevention mission, noting that both homelessness and mental health can play a role in a veteran to contemplate suicide.
“I think they get to where they’re at a low point, and they feel there’s no way out or there’s no way up,” he said. “Especially up in this part of the world, because it’s so cold. We definitely want to bring awareness that (veterans) have served their country, and there’s no reason why they should have to suffer like this at all. There’s help out there, and we want to help them."
- Be the One