Challenge coins do a lot of things - they honor recipients, celebrate special accomplishments, and represent shared vision and team camaraderie. But no matter what form a challenge coin takes, odds are it’s designed to be shared.
Whether awarding a coin, trading a coin, or simply sharing a coin with someone you meet, it helps spread its message, creating a lasting legacy for every design. Never has this been so apparent than with an incredibly important coin we helped design for the state of Montana. These 988+1 suicide prevention coins were actually designed by a student at Montana State University, and the goal is to have them distributed to veterans around Montana.
Montana has one of the highest suicide rates in the country among its veteran population, but these coins are part of a movement to change that. Veterans through the state don’t just get one coin, they get two: one to keep, and one to pass along to a veteran they meet. Todd Bucher, a Marine and the current director of MSU Veteran Services said, “We think of these challenge coins as a reminder that you are not alone and that there is someone there for you.”
The MSU student who came up with the design is Jo Brown. The two clasped hands are a symbol of confidence and strength. The phrase, “I will never leave a fellow veteran,” and the “988+1 Montana Veteran Lifeline,” are both reminders of the help that is just one phone call away. Brown said, “It’s a symbol of one veteran pulling another out from the mud, metaphorically. It was really important for me that the motif of the coin was the moment of help from when that coin is given from one person to the next.”
Bruce Barnhart, an instructor at MSU, ran the class where students helped design the suicide prevention coins. When asked about coins and the program, he said, “If it makes a connection with one person, that makes it all worth it for me.”
Montana’s Department of Health and Human Services lists environmental factors that increase the risk of depression, high firearm ownership rates, social isolation, and a lack of adequate mental health and crisis services as reasons why the state is in such dire need of a program like this one. The more people know that help is available, the better off those people will be.
Here at All About Challenge Coins, we’re honored to have played a small part in this journey by refining the design and manufacturing the coins for the state of Montana. If you have a message to share or a story to tell, we’re here to help. Just share your ideas, and we’ll take care of the rest.
