Members of A.J. 22 Too Many plant flags Friday at St. Peter's Reformed Church in Zelienople, to represent the estimated number of veterans who die of suicide each month.

Deb Smith of Evans City lost her son, Army veteran A.J. Smith, to suicide in 2016. On Thursday morning, she gathered with a group of about a dozen people outside St. Peter’s Reformed Church in Zelienople to plant 660 American flags in the ground to represent the estimated number of veterans who die each month because of suicide.

According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 20 to 22 military veterans end their own lives each day.

The volunteers are part of Smith’s organization, A.J. 22 Too Many, which is named in memory of her son and a reference to the daily veteran suicide count.

With the morning sun hitting the flags, Smith said she hoped that events like the flag planting would help shed light on the struggles of veterans and active duty members of the country’s military.

For many service members, the fighting doesn’t stop when they come home. Issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, struggling to reintegrate into civilian life and long-term injuries can all push veterans to suicide, experts say. Both male and female veterans committed suicide at a higher rate than the general population between 2005 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“My son was in crisis and no one helped,” Smith said. “They fought for us; now we need to fight for them.”

The flags will stand in the church’s grass for the month of September, which is also Suicide Awareness Month. The church also holds a support group meeting for survivors of suicide on the third Wednesday of every month.

Over the years, the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention has kicked off initiatives to address the problem. These resources can be found at www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention hotline is 800-273-8255.

Read the full story in Sunday’s Butler Eagle.