The American Red Cross, USO, and Djibouti 22 Organization hosted Camp Lemonnier's first ever Operation Desert Stroll event, July 22, to both promote mental health awareness and highlight the services those particular organizations provide to personnel mobilized to Djibouti, Africa.

The event consisted of a walk that began at the camp's chapel, and ended with a barbecue at the camp USO office. Along the way, participants stopped at three water points where they did push ups, jumping jacks and squats as part of Djibouti 22's efforts to raise suicide awareness.

"I wanted to do a walk commemorating the start of the International Red Cross, so we decided to have one here," said Amber O'Steen, the camp's American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces regional program manager. "We partnered with the USO and Djibouti 22 to make it one big, joint event, [and] that's when it became Operation Desert Stroll."

"The reason we wanted to do Operation Desert Stroll was to highlight what the USO, [expeditionary medical facility], and Red Cross do every day to support Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and the camp," said Cmdr. Erick Bacho, another of the event's organizers, who works as the behavioral health director at Camp Lemonnier's expeditionary medical facility. "What the Red Cross and the USO offer is morale and resiliency services that are all kind of the same [as] what we offer at EMF, so it just makes sense to work together."

Founded in May 2016 as part of Suicide Awareness Month, Djibouti 22 seeks to hold events monthly with the intent of raising suicide awareness, according to Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Sherlyn Martin, Camp Lemonnier's behavioral health outreach director.

"It became a goal to hold an event on the 22nd of every month to help not only raise awareness [of] the 22 veterans that commit suicide every day, but mental health awareness in its entirety," Martin said.

All told, the event drew in more than 150 participants and 30 volunteers from the Red Cross and USO.

"Operation Desert Stroll definitely succeeded in raising awareness," said Camp Lemmonier USO Duty Manager Rachel Syverson, who coordinated the logistics of the event with help from the volunteers. "We had a lot of people ask us the day after when are we doing an event like that again."

Camp Lemonnier provides, operates and sustains superior service in support of combat readiness, along with security of ships and aircraft detachments and personnel for regional and combat command requirements, enabling operations for the Horn of Africa while fostering positive U.S.-African nation relations. Camp Lemonnier enables the forward operations and responsiveness of U.S. and allied forces in support of Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia's mission to provide services to the fleet, fighter and family.

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For more news from Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, visit www.navy.mil/.