T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Army Veteran and 2025 Ohio County Teacher of the Year Tiffany Stephen continues her tradition of completing the annual Ogden Newspapers Wellness Weekend presented by WVU Medicine of being decked out in camouflage and carrying the American flag, and a backpack adorned with the photos of fallen comrades either killed in action or were victims of post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home.

WHEELING – Tiffany Stephen — a U.S. Army veteran, Wheeling Middle School special education teacher and the 2026 West Virginia Teacher of the Year — continued her tradition Saturday of completing the annual Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic while decked out in camouflage and carrying the American flag. Most notably, she wore a backpack adorned with the photos of fallen comrades she knew who were either killed in action or were victims of post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home.

Stephen said that she has been competing in the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic wearing the gear for the past 10 years.

“I spent two tours in Iraq, and I lost some friends and this is Memorial Day weekend, and it’s more than a barbecue,” she said, “so I like to make sure that I kind of show everybody their faces, and show everybody the reason why we have the weekend that we have.

“So it’s important to me to carry their honor,” Stephen added. “That’s what’s on my back is all of the names. It started as just my friends who have died, and then as the years have gone on, people have asked to add to it. So now it’s just kind of a collection of friends and family of local people, and my friends.”

She was still on the fence Saturday on if she would compete in Sunday’s Tough as Nails Urban Challenge presented by The Health Plan. But she was definitely competing in the Murph Challenge at Ohio Valley Barbell, which is an annual fundraiser of the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation, presented by Forged.

The Murph Challenge is a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run with a weighted vest strapped on.

In addition to the flag and bag, Stephen also carries a gas mask which has emerged as a symbol of service men and women who hide their struggles while putting on a very different public face – an unhealthy facade behind which a veteran may be too ashamed to seek the kind of help they need.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in 2012 released an alarming statistic showing that an average of 22 U.S. military veterans die by suicide every day. In 2013, the mission known as “22Kill” was started as a way to help raise awareness of this statistic.