How one military father took on the responsibility of raising awareness of military suicide in his state
It was 2011 when Brian DiSabatino met Brian Kinsella, a recently retired Army captain who had just founded Stop Soldier Suicide with two other friends. The two got to know each other while loading out at trade shows. Their meeting would prove to have a powerful impact–not just on Brian’s life but on the life of his entire family.
DiSabatino’s son, Jacob, told him one day that he’d like to attend West Point, the esteemed U.S. military academy in New York.
“I said wow, that’s great but we don’t know anything about West Point,” DiSabatino says. “One of the many things we would need to think about was building his resume. So I suggested he reach out to Brian Kinsella to see how he could help the efforts at Stop Soldier Suicide.”
Kinsella offered Jacob the opportunity to organize a 5K to raise funds for the organization. So Jacob and Brian DiSabatino took on the task together, learning more about military suicide and coming up with a way to raise awareness of the issue. They created a brand called 22in22, with the idea of asking people in their area in Delaware to run 22 miles in 22 days (at the time, the United States was losing 22 veterans per day to suicide).
“So in this hokey, grassroots way, we created this effort, just me and my family,” DiSabatino says. “Next thing we know, it took off a little bit.”
They secured the involvement of the University of Delaware football team, the governor, a Delaware congressman, and a U.S. senator.
“When we went to speak to the football team, I asked the players if anybody had a member of their family in the military–and a majority of the team raised their hand,” DiSabatino remembers. “That was profound because I don’t. There’s a huge national guard base here in Delaware and the Dover Air Force Base, but they’re really like a parallel universe. The military experience was not familiar to me. When they raised their hands I thought, wow, maybe I have a responsibility here.”
Stop Soldier Suicide helped Brian and Jacob expand their 22in22 campaign beyond Delaware, with mini-campaigns all over the country.
Then, Jacob left for school. He didn’t end up at West Point after all; he attended The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. Brian continued on in his role as CEO of EDiS Company, a regional construction company in Delaware.
Several people encouraged Brian to keep the campaign going on his own and suggested growing it into a festival for veterans’ causes.
“(My cousin) put together a bunch of bands, and we branded it Vet Fest,” DiSabatino says. “This was about nine years ago. That first year, we didn’t know what we were doing. But you can’t let perfection get in the way of progress. You have to just start.”
Over the years, the festival morphed into what it is today, starting with a motorcycle run; at one time incorporating a walking parade; then eventually including a 5K run, a 10K ruck, a virtual component, and an exhibit featuring the photographs of Delaware veterans and service members who had died while in service–including those who had died by suicide.
Though Vet Fest is and always has been a fundraiser to benefit Stop Soldier Suicide–by the end of 2024 the event will have raised more than $1 million for our mission–the event has also become a platform for educating the civilian world about military suicide and a modality for healing among loss survivors.
“It really opened my eyes to the sacrifice of our volunteers and their families,” he says. “If 1% of our country is going to volunteer to stand between us and harm–and that harm is real, by the way–then 99% of us have to stand between them and harm. The only way that we survive as a republic is if we do our job to guard that 1% against harm.”
Fundraising is an easy way to rally around our mission and give hope to our nation’s veterans and service members. We can’t do it alone. Visit our DIY Fundraising page for ideas.
