Raising veteran suicide awareness
Dog tags placed on trees for 11 days leading up to Veterans Day
About 20 veterans per day commit suicide, according to Department of Veterans Affairs statistics.
“The numbers keep changing,” said Glen Miller, a Harleysville resident who was an Army Ranger in the Vietnam War and is part of the Veterans Community Coalition-Delaware Valley, “but the important thing is that it’s way above the norm of our nation, way above.”
Veterans made up 8 percent of the country’s population in 2016, but accounted for 14 percent of the adult suicide deaths, the Veteran’s Administration said.
The Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report dated September 2019, using 2017 statistics, says the suicide rate for veterans ages 18 through 34 increased by 76 percent from 2005 to 2017. The report also says the 2017 suicide rate was 2.2 times higher for female veterans than female non-veterans and 1.3 times higher for male veterans than male non-veterans.
As a nation and community, there’s a need for more awareness, Miller said.
Miller is among the organizers of the Witting Trees movement in Bucks and Montgomery counties which acknowledges veterans who have committed suicide by placing dog tags on a tree, each day at a different participating location in the 11 days leading up to Veterans Day on Nov. 11. The tree name comes from the definition of “witting,” as a purposeful and deliberate act, emphasizing awareness.
“When are we gonna stop tracking the statistics and actually talk about what’s happening and what’s the issue and what can we change,” said Mary Miller, Glen’s wife, who is also a Veteran’s Community Coalition participant.
“I believe we have some responsibility for our military. I don’t think they just serve us. I think we have to support them,” Glen Miller said.
“I just think people almost abdicate their responsibility around war and the effects of that on people,” he said.
People have told him soldiers are just doing their job, he said.
“Well, it’s a pretty unique job to be out in foreign lands fighting for your life with weapons of destruction,” he said.
The community has a responsibility to veterans and has to talk about it, Mary Miller said.
“We’re responsible for war,” she said. “Whether we think we voted for it or whatever religion we are or whatever, it still happens.”
To help raise awareness of the veteran suicide rate, Witting Trees are again being held in the area, the Millers said.
During Witting Tree presentations, dog tags are hung on a tree to represent the lives lost to veteran suicide.
“The ceremony is a ritual of putting those dog tags on a tree, basically standing in silence and often somebody says a few words about why we’re doing this or reads a poem or something like that that’s reverent, respectful and concerned,” Glen Miller said.
“It’s not a very long ceremony and it’s not meant to be,” Mary Miller said. “There’s not political speeches.”
There are eight more groups doing Witting Trees this year than last, she said. The area in which the Witting Trees take place has also expanded, she said.
A United Church of Christ grant to St. Andrew’s UCC Pastor Scott Hutchinson and St. Peter’s Tohickon UCC Pastor Steve Hamilton for veteran’s support programs helped provide training for the programs, which include support groups and the Witting Trees, she said.
Locally, the Witting Trees began at St. Andrew’s which also hosts the Touchstone Veterans group.
This is the schedule for this year’s Witting Trees, with the possibility of more being added, the Millers said.
• St. Andrew’s UCC, 615 E. Walnut St., Perkasie, holds a Witting Tree 7:30 a.m. each day through Nov. 11.
• On Nov. 3, Witting Trees will be held after the 10 a.m. service at Tinicum UCC, 310 Dark Hollow Road, Pipersville, and at 11 a.m. at Trinity UCC, 1990 Route 212, Quakertown.
• On Nov. 7, a Witting Tree will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Wallace Willard American Legion Post, 610 E. Broad St., Quakertown.
• On Nov. 10, there will be Witting Trees at 11 a.m. at Christ Church UCC, 101 N. Main St., Trumbauersville; 10:30 a.m. at First UCC, 151 S. 4th St., Quakertown; 11:30 a.m. hosted by St. John’s UCC at the Borough Hall on North Main Street in Coopersburg; 10 a.m. at St. Paul’s ELCA, 837 Old Bethlehem Pike, Quakertown; 11:45 a.m. at St. Peter’s Tohickon UCC, 1071 Old Bethlehem Pike, Perkasie; 11 a.m. at Perkasie Mennonite Church, 320 W. Chestnut St., Perkasie; 11:30 a.m. at Salford Mennonite Church, 480 Groffs Mill Road, Harleysville; and 10:45 a.m. at Spring Mount Mennonite Church, 20 Perkiomen Ave., Spring Mount.
• On Nov. 11, there will be Witting Trees 11 a.m. at Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville; noontime at Penn Foundation, 807 Lawn Ave., Sellersville; 12:30 p.m. at Generations of Indian Valley, 259 N. 2nd St., Souderton; and 6 p.m. at Trinity ECLA, 102 N. Hellertown Ave., Quakertown.
• On Nov. 13, there will be a Witting Tree at 10 a.m. at Miles Park Pavilion in Whitemarsh Township, 308 E. Germantown Pike, Lafayette Hill.
• The Indian Valley Public Library, 100 E. Church St., Telford, will have a Witting Tree display with children’s and adult books to borrow during the entire month of November.
• All the Witting Tree events are open to the public except a Nov. 12 one for members only at Bucks Mont Collaborative’s monthly meeting.