Behind the Smile Memorial 5K Run/Walk
On a Sarasota morning, the still waters of Nathan Benderson Park can make the world feel unusually quiet.
By Edit Sarasota Staff
On a Sarasota morning, the still waters of Nathan Benderson Park can make the world feel unusually quiet. On October 17, that quiet will carry a different kind of weight as runners and walkers gather to remember SPC Jonathan Bryant and bring greater attention to a crisis that often remains out of sight: military suicide.
The inaugural Behind the Smile Memorial 5K Run/Walk is designed as both a tribute and an act of community care. Participants will move through the park in Bryant’s memory, while proceeds benefit 22TOOMANY.org, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring those lost to suicide, raising awareness of military suicide, and supporting people living with grief.
The event’s title speaks to the distance that can exist between appearance and experience. A smile may suggest that everything is fine; it may also conceal pain that friends, family, and even fellow service members have not recognized. By bringing people together in a public, purposeful setting, the run/walk creates room for remembrance and conversation—two essential steps in challenging the stigma that can keep people from seeking help.
For Sarasota, a community with a strong tradition of gathering around causes that affect veterans, families, and neighbors, the event offers a meaningful way to show support without reducing grief to a single day of ceremony. A 5K is accessible by design: some participants will run, others will walk, and many will come simply to stand alongside people who understand the importance of Bryant’s memory. The shared movement matters, but so does what happens around it—the conversations, the names remembered, and the knowledge that no one should have to carry loss alone.
Nathan Benderson Park, the sprawling rowing and outdoor recreation destination beside University Parkway, provides an especially fitting setting. Its paths and open views have long made it a place for competition, exercise, and public celebration. On this occasion, the park will become a gathering place for reflection as well as motion, connecting Sarasota’s everyday outdoor life with a cause that reaches far beyond the finish line.
The Behind the Smile Memorial 5K Run/Walk takes place Saturday, October 17, 2026, at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, with proceeds supporting 22TOOMANY.org and its work on behalf of those affected by military suicide.