A Silver Spring woman co-founded ’22 Too Many’ and carries photos of deceased veterans while running.
WASHINGTON — Among the thousands of participants competing in the St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series Washington D.C half marathon this weekend, a dozen or so will run carrying photos of military veterans lost to suicide.
They run with those photos pinned to their backs.
Marine Sergeant Chip Wicks’s photo will accompany Silver Spring’s Keri Jacobs on Saturday’s 13.1-mile journey through Washington.
“Any runner will attest it gives them strength,” said Jacobs.
Sgt. Wicks, in 2004, was among the 22 veterans every day who die by suicide, according to the V-A.
That statistic inspired ‘22 Too Many’; the group Jacobs co-founded right before the DC Rock n’ Roll event in 2013. Keri said her life changed after seeing a comment from Sergeant Wicks’ dad during a memorial video.
“No one cares about these dead heroes,” she remembers reading. “They’re forgotten and swept aside.”
Determined to change that, 11 years later members of the group have run all over the U.S. and even overseas carrying a memory and a mission.
“It’s very much about honoring the lost but it also raises awareness at the same time,’ said Jacobs. “A lot of times somebody will run up behind you and pat your back and say thank you. Ten years ago, I had a Marine vet run by and he saluted the Marine on my back and that was so special.”
The average number of veteran suicides has dropped since the group started to just under an average of seventeen per day.
’22 Too Many’ has honored more than 450 veterans and after each event, they send the family their race medals.
“You want to do so much more for them than just send a medal,” said Jacobs. “But it’s a way they know their loved one is remembered and carried and it seems to mean a lot to them and I’m humbled by that.”
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