For three years, the Stand At Attention competition has been held at La Palmera Mall. Corpus Christi is the third city in Texas to hold this competition, and it’s all to help spread the word about veteran suicides.
There are about 7,300 veteran suicides every year. Which comes down to 20 veteran suicides a day. The non-profit organization, Active Heroes, works on spreading the word and resources to preventing veteran suicides. At the Stand At Attention competitions, all of the money donated is given to Active Heroes.
Here in Corpus Christi, there has been a good response from the competition over the years. Jason Sanchez, who’s in the Army, has been competing since the first competition.
“They already served their country, they shouldn’t have to feel like there’s nothing that they can do to stop the pain,” says Sanchez. “We need to give them something or reassure them that we’re listening, we’ll do whatever it takes to help them and stop this trend.”
During the competition, a member from each branch will stand at attention beginning at 8 a.m. The goal is to see who can stand the longest. In Corpus Christi, there has never been a member that fell out from standing. After 12 hours, if all members are still standing, then the branch with the most money wins the competition.
Each member will get to rest after each hour for 5 minutes, and after 4 hours, they can rest for 30 minutes.
So far, the Army branch has won every competition in Corpus Christi.
Competition begins at 8 a.m. Saturday at La Palmera Mall.
For more information, you can contact competition leader, Ashley Winterrowd, mrs.winterrowd@yahoo.com or Active Heroes at info@activeheroes.org or 502-277-9280, or visit www.activeheroes.org.
