BUDDY CHECK WEEK NOT THE ONLY TIME TO REACH OUT TO FELLOW VETERANS

Many American Legion posts have created regular Buddy Check programs outside of VA’s Buddy Check Week. If your post has done so, share your efforts with us.

The American Legion considers one of its membership’s most sacred responsibilities to look out for each other and our fellow veterans. Since May 2019, by way of Resolution No. 18, Legionnaires have been urged to conduct Buddy Checks during the weeks of The American Legion’s birthday, March 15, and around Veterans Day. The result has been more than 1 million veterans getting a phone call, email, text message or in-person visit, just to see how each of them is doing.

This year’s U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Buddy Check Week – which became a VA program in 2023 following the passage of the Legion-supported The STRONG Veterans Act of 2022 – will take place Oct. 21-25. A Veteran Buddy Check Summit is scheduled for Oct. 22 in Washington, D.C., and will include representatives from The American Legion.

But Buddy Checks aren’t restricted to the two weeks suggested within Resolution 18. Many Legion posts have set up quarterly or even monthly Buddy Check programs, sometimes incorporating the Legion’s Be the One veteran suicide prevention program into the process.

For more than three years, Laramore-Osborne American Legion Post 100 in Royse City, Texas, has conducted regular Buddy Checks, first quarterly and then bi-monthly. Last March, the post began plans to bring Be the One into the mix.

“Suicide awareness … is probably our top program within the post,” said Post 100 First Vice Commander Jim Watson, who chairs the post’s Buddy Check Committee. “We’re working on getting people more trained in that area … where we can become more aware when we’re talking to a person, seeing signs of that, and bring our Buddy Checks along our suicide awareness program as well.”

And in Meridian, Idaho, a post member’s suicide prompted American Legion Post 113 to start its duty office program. On weekdays during a four-hour time period, a member volunteers to come to the post to make Buddy Check calls from a database of members.

“We’ve had one suicide that could have been prevented had we gotten to the guy in time,” Post 113 Chaplain and First Vice Commander Dan Pruett said. “It just kind of kicked us in the butt and said to us that this is really important. We really need to put an effort into this. Now it’s going really good.”

For American Legion posts wanting to take part in Buddy Check weeks or performing Buddy Checks at any time, here are some resources to assist those efforts:

• A Buddy Check Toolkit that explains the program, provides steps to conducting a successful Buddy Check, gives sample scripts and more.
• A Buddy Check doorhanger that is printer-friendly and can be customized as a leave-behind when Legion Family members visit a veteran who is not a home.
• Additional resources, including a media advisory and suggested press release.

If American Legion posts, districts or departments are planning a Buddy Check event, please remember to share your stories and photos from the event in the Buddy Check section of Legiontown.