Evans City memorial honors veteran who died by suicide
Downtown Evans City now bears a new memorial that raises awareness about veteran suicides and honors a local veteran who took his own life.
The memorial, a black granite bench placed along East Main Street near the NexTier Bank drive-through, is in honor of Andrew “A.J.” Smith, a former firefighter and veteran who served in Iraq and died by suicide in 2016.
A.J.'s mother, Evans City resident Deb Smith, and her husband Jim founded A.J.'s Stop 22, an organization dedicated to spreading awareness about the risk of suicide and PTSD in the veteran population. The organization's name references a Department of Veterans Affairs statistic that 22 veterans die from suicide every day.
While still a small organization, A.J.'s Stop 22 has raised $85,000 so far, mostly through an annual golf outing, to be donated to suicide prevention organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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