Carrying the football: Nebraska, Iowa student vets take 347-mile walk for suicide awareness

http://journalstar.com/news/local/military/carrying-the-football-nebraska-iowa-student-vets-take--mile/article_86298da0-6f30-5d71-a [login to see] d6446.html?platform=hootsuite
RP Members and Connections I really like these efforts to make sure that everyone across this country is aware of suicide! I salute these Nebraska, Iowa Student Vets!

By 9 a.m. Thursday, the Nebraska team had already carried their football a mile from Memorial Stadium.

Now they had just 346 more to go.

All the way down O Street, across the Platte River and then the Missouri and, finally, into Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa -- a nine-day, military-style march to draw attention to the number of military veterans who take their own lives.

They started their walk with a group of 19, some in combat boots, others in running shoes, all of them wearing rucksacks. They had a dog and a U.S. flag and plenty of early well-wishers.

Their primary goal? Shine a spotlight on the problem of veteran suicides. Veteran Affairs officials had long reported that an average of 22 vets were killing themselves daily, although earlier this year they lowered that estimate to 20 per day.