People affected by suicide gathered in Joplin on an early November morning to participate in the Out of the Darkness Walk.
The walk is a fundraising event hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention volunteers across the country. Friends, family, supporters and survivors come together to tell their stories and provide a community for one another.
“I don’t think it’s about the walking so much as it is about the gathering,” said Arkansas Area Director Jacqueline Sharp.
The event committee plans multiple activities to occur throughout the event. Sharp said a majority of these are specifically tailored to the community, but one, in particular, is present at every walk: the bead ceremony.
Each bead color represents a personal connection to the fight against suicide.
Other activities that may occur alongside the walk could be raffles, memory blankets, and resource fairs. All of which are made to contribute to AFSP’s goal of education and awareness.
This goal is what attracted volunteers and employees like Sharp to the organization.
Volunteer Sarah Willoughby, like Sharp, experienced that the foundation fostered a community that is open to talking about mental health issues. At the Joplin walk, she stood in front of a crowd and told her story of losing her father to suicide. Willoughby wasn’t the only one to step up to the mic.
Stories like hers are told at every event. Missouri Area Director Phyllis Blackwell said hearing those motivates her to fight.
Blackwell said, “a few years ago a young lady came up to me and said ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but three years ago I was struggling and I met you and you told me to come to an event and that it was for me, too, because I struggled. It’s because of you that I’m still here.’ That’s why I keep fighting. Every life I save. Every life we save.”
The AFSP has set a goal to reduce the amount of death by suicide 20% by 2025.
Sharp said that there is an Out of the Darkness walk for the University of Arkansas in the works. It will occur during the next spring semester, and she said she hopes to provide resources that many college students need.
“Come and be part of our campus walk,” said Sharp. “You can sign up to be a volunteer, you can be a field advocate. There’s lots of ways you can get involved with AFSP in Arkansas.”
