A Helena man who dedicated himself to helping the mentally ill after his stepbrother committed suicide upon returning home from combat has been picked to be one of 18 “everyday Americans” to celebrate inauguration with President-Elect Barack Obama.

Matt Kuntz, a former Army officer and lawyer who is now head of the Montana office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, will fly to Philadelphia with his wife a few days before the Jan. 20 inauguration. He and the other “regular people” who have made “extraordinary contributions” to America, according to information from the Presidential Inaugural Committee, will take the train with Obama to Baltimore for a speech, then head off to Delaware to pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family for a final jaunt to Washington, D.C.

The group will attend the inaugural ball.

“I’m just blown away,” Kuntz said in an interview Tuesday.

Kuntz was working as a lawyer in Helena in the spring of 2007 when his step-brother Chris Dana, a Montana National Guard soldier, committed suicide after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following his tour of duty in Iraq.

That tragedy compelled Kuntz and Dana’s parents to begin working for better screening for returning soldiers. Eventually, the Montana National Guard adopted a screening program that leads the country when it comes to making sure returning soldiers don’t fall through the cracks.

Kuntz continued his legal career, but said he reached a point where he wanted to do mental health advocacy full-time.

It was in the capacity as director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness that Kuntz first met Obama. The future president met with Kuntz, his wife and their young daughter briefly early this fall while on a campaign stop in Billings.

Kuntz said he was impressed then that Obama seemed to really care about the issue of mental health help for returning soldiers. Obama told Kuntz he wanted to take the Montana Guard’s program nationwide.

Kuntz said the fact that Obama is including him in this celebration shows he hasn’t forgotten.

“The president-elect realizes that Montana is really leading the country on this issue,” Kuntz said. “This was done entirely by the people of Montana. They demanded better treatment.”

Kuntz said he got a voice mail from the inaugural team on New Year’s Day. At the time, Kuntz said, he thought the team meant only to offer him tickets to the ball.

“I was calling to tell them we couldn’t afford to go,” Kuntz said. Instead, he learned that he and his wife were getting the entire trip paid for. Kuntz said he was “shocked.”

He is renting his tuxedo from the same Helena shop where he rented his suits for high school formals.

Reporter Jennifer McKee: 447-4069 or jennifer.mckee@lee.net