Families and friends gathered at Schryver Park in Manitou Springs Saturday morning for Twenty-Two Until None’s third annual Veterans Hike for Suicide, just one of the organization’s many chapters participating in the event around the world.

“It’s all about raising awareness for suicide,” event founder and program director of the Colorado Springs chapter, Chris Ruble said.

“This year, we’re remembering all the people we’ve lost to suicide over the years. I’m asking everyone to write names on their bags and shirts so that those people who did commit suicide are still hiking with us.

“It’s an important thing. Everyone out here has lost someone.”

Veterans, along with family and friends of, participated in Twenty-Two Until None’s 5-kilometer hike with organization chapters around the world to honor those lost to suicide and to raise awareness surrounding the issue.

The organization has been solely run by passionate veteran volunteers since its start in 2015, with the goal written in the name: to bring the average 22 vets who die of suicide every day to zero, according to the organization’s website. 

Forty-one locations across eight countries participated in Saturday’s event.

“We have guys who are deployed in Syria and Iraq who did the hike this morning,” Ruble said.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate of Veteran suicide was 57.3% higher than that of non-veteran adults. In 2020, suicide was the 13th-leading cause of death among veterans overall, with 6,146 recorded Veteran suicide deaths that year .

As a retired Army Veteran, Ruble said he found his work within the organization during a troubled time in his life to be a reason he’s still here today.

“After leaving the service, a lot of us end up trying to find that same purpose, that same family. I was one of those people. I was lost for years until I found this organization,” Ruble said. “Seeing all of these people come out, we’re just one big family. It literally saves people’s lives.”

In Saturday’s group, one family could be seen representing the late Cpl. James Hessel, who lost his life to suicide in 2015. Their presence dominated crowds, sporting their matching T-shirts representing their family.

“We’ll do whatever we can to support them (Twenty-two Until None), because they’ve always supported us,” said Kathy Newman, mother of James Hessel.

Pictures of James with hearts could be seen hanging from Newman’s backpack, a way for him to be with the family amidst today’s hike of remembrance.

“It’s a way to continue to support and honor James,” Newman said, wrapping her arms around one member of the family’s younger generation, 12-year-old Vivian Coen.

“I feel like it’s important to have a group of so many people that carry support for this kind of cause,” Coen said.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels really good to come out here to do this and see so many people coming to do the same thing.”

Ron Horton, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and veteran said he’s in attendance Saturday for a few reasons.

“Firstly, I want to remember the men and woman I served with but one in particular, who felt overcome and took his own life: a good friend of mine, Mark Dornette. … There’s a group like us they can turn to, there’s professional help we can turn to. We just don’t want to lose any more (people). It’s bad enough to lose someone in combat or in a training accident. It’s terrible to lose someone to their own hand.”