Chapter 8 Supports HopeFest 2026 in Chandler to help bring awareness to suicide prevention and available resources
February 20, 2026
On the evening of February 20th, Chapter 8 Commander Lynn Burnett and First Lady Diane Burnett represented Disabled American Veterans (DAV) at the annual HopeFest in Chandler. HopeFest 2026 presented speakers and resources to assist the community in understanding the challenge of suicide prevention and ways to recognize and help our neighbors who are in mental health distress or crisis.
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We lose at least one Veteran each hour and one active-duty service member each day to suicide. Our most at-risk Veteran community are the Veterans who transitioned out of the service from the post-9/11 era, who left a structured and resource-rich environment only to find a civilian world they don't understand; they lose their job, their government housing and meals, their medical care and insurance coverage (if not a retiree), many of their friends, and their mission. Many employers do not understand what Veterans bring to their company and some are reluctant to hire Veterans because of the inaccurate hyperbole about the prevalence of PTSD and mental health issues often errantly attributed to Veterans.
They are followed in risk by our Vietnam Veterans, many of whom have never approached the VA for either health care or earned benefits, mostly because of the way Americans dishonored them in the 1960's and 1970's. To us, they are heroes who stepped up--whether volunteer or draftee--to do the mission that the President of the United States directed. They served with honor and deserve to receive honor in return!
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DAV East Valley Chapter 8 has resources to help Veterans acquire the benefits they earned through their service. The Chapter Service Officers represent every military department and are all disabled Veterans themselves. In other words, they get it! We also have a psychologist on our Chapter 8 staff who can assist Veterans who are having PTSD, Moral Injury, Loneliness, suicidal thoughts, or other mental health distress.
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HopeFest is put on each year by the SemiColon Society, an organization that specializes in working with populations at-risk for suicide to help them realize and embrace the value they bring to their communities. Why the SemiColon Society? In grammar, the semicolon puts an end to a thought and then users in a new beginning--they want the same for those in mental health distress or crisis.