JACKSONVILLE, N.C.- (WNCT) The organization ‘Let’s Walk It Out’ is embarking on a 222-mile ruck march this week to break the stigmas around mental health for veterans and first responders.
“It was meant to be a suicide awareness and prevention event, just going around and starting the conversations with people along the route, but it turned into a program,” President JP Cervantes said. “Now, the core walkers that come here, they are in a program for resiliency, reminding them that they can push through pain and they can lean on the people to the left and right.”
Cervantes is an army veteran who started the group in 2021 based off of the statistic that nearly 22 veterans commit suicide daily, which continues to change over time.
“I decided 222 miles is going to be painful and mentally draining, which is mimicking what we go through with mental health,” Cervantes said.
The group walks 222 miles from Fayetteville to Camp Lejeune and back. This year they have 12 core walkers.
“In life you’re going to go through the pain just like this ruck march,” core walker Trinity Theno said. “We go through the pain each and every day, but then we get to the end of the day and you’re like, ‘Wow, I got through that. ‘”
Since 2021, ‘Let’s Walk it Out’ has donated $46,000 to organizations with suicide prevention programs and have supported veterans and first responders in crisis.
“Conversation saves lives,” core walker Anthony Peterson said. “It’s a level of normalization that needs to happen where not so much in front of the cameras, but these intimate moments where people can feel safe to put a piece of their vulnerability out there and then have somebody who has experience with that grab on to that and let them say, ‘I can relate to that,’ and then kind of let that grow in its own genuinely.”
To help support the group on their march and their mission visit: Donate — Let’s Walk It Out – 222 Mile Ruck March
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.
