GLENBURN, Pa. — From the first day of November through Veterans Day, dog tags are added to a tree outside the Church of the Epiphany in Glenburn, now dubbed the Witting Tree.
"To bring that witness out into the public so that the general population is more aware of some of the struggles that veterans have when they enter back into their communities," said Rev. Michele Causton.
Rev. Causton brought this new idea of a memorial to the church to give people a visual of how many veterans take their own lives. Causton works with veterans from many different war and conflict eras and knows suicide is not a comfortable subject to talk about.
"Because we're not in war on these grounds, it's very easy to forget. We continue on with our daily lives, and we don't realize how many veterans are struggling, and I think it's really important to keep that in the forefront as much as possible," Rev. Causton said.
Each day, 22 dog tags are hung, representing the average number of veterans who die by suicide every day.
"When you start hanging those up, and you start to see the accumulation day after day, by the time we get to November 11, we have 242 sets of dog tags, and that's 242 lives in a matter of 11 days," Causton said.
Rev. Causton says this memorial also aims to bring light to active-duty military members to encourage them to seek help and show them there's a community to support them.
"What they're experiencing in war is very different. And we also only have about one percent of our population serving right now, which means there's a lot of increase in number of deployments, also a shorter period of time in between those deployments," said Causton.
The tags will remain on the tree through the remainder of the month as a reminder of those veterans who lost their own battle.
There will also be a special service to honor veterans at the church on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. All are welcome to attend.
If you or someone you know needs help, assistance is available by dialing 988.