Join Us, Walk 'Out of the Darkness' for Suicide Prevention

By Lauren Traut

Maybe it was your neighbor. Or a family friend. Or your child’s classmate. Or a celebrity whose work you cherished deeply.

Suicide seeps into the fabric of our lives in various ways, shaking us to our core, deeply and completely disrupting life as we know it. As recent events bring the culmination of self-doubt and misery into public light, Patch teams up with Hope and Friendship Foundation of Lemont in an effort to raise money for suicide prevention in Chicago’s American Foundation for Suicide Prevention ”Out of the Darkness” walk on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Foundation director Terri O’Neill-Borders and I have our personal reasons—just as you do—and we hope you’ll join us in honor of the person in your life who took their own.

You can join us, and become part of our team. Each person who walks alongside us will receive a Patch T-shirt and bag of goodies. Or you can donate and help us reach our $1,000 goal. All funds raised go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which conducts research, education and prevention initiatives designed to reduce loss of life from suicide — 38,000 take their own lives each year in the United States; 1 million worldwide.

WALK INFORMATION

SATURDAY, SEPT. 20

• Grant Park, Chicago
• Check-in: 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Start time: 10 a.m.
• Finish time: 1 p.m.
• Registration Cutoff: Sept. 19, 1 p.m.

BE A PART OF Team #Walkon #Bethelight

Take a photo of yourself holding the hashtag sign of your choosing: #walkon, #bethelight. Email the photo with as little or as much information as you’d like to include (share what you’re comfortable with) to lauren.traut@patch.com. We’ll compile a gallery of all your photos for inspiration for those wading through their own pools of darkness.

WHY WE WALK

Lauren’s Story

It’s the story I wish I would never have to write.

The teen who staggered under the weight of bullying; the teacher who suffered silently and steadily for years; the person on the fringe who never felt capable of finding his or her way into any other world; the one who wanted to erase his or her own existence.

In the four years I’ve been with Patch, I’ve reported on many instances of public suicides—each one more heartbreaking than the last. I’ve watched from the outside as families grappled for reasons and answers. So often I wish I had any to give them. Though strangers to me, I play what most would consider an unwelcome role in their then-imploded worlds—the messenger who carries the story to the outside. While their hearts ache, and as I type the words, my heart screams for them.

I am not unscathed by suicide, as a dear friend years ago could not see the light through his own darkness.

For each of those I’ve written about—and those who acted privately, alone—I walk. And I urge you to #walkon, for those who couldn’t find the strength to do so themselves.

#walkon

Terri’s Story

My first Chaplain call was a death notification. A suicide. The son of my friend.

Ministry of presence was all I could offer to their pain, to sit, listen and love with all I had within me.

I learned at every opportunity, and every future call, to offer comfort, counsel, and conduit help, trying to shine as much love and light into what was the most painful darkness.

Then one morning I too received “that” call; suddenly I found myself on the other side of “why”.

Sometimes one cannot pull themselves from the darkness alone, what we can offer is to shine as much love and light as we possible, hoping to permeate immeasurable light & love to all in our arm’s grasp.

For them, for him, for you—I walk.

#bethelight