Community Highlight: AFSP Walk

On October 26th, 2019, several Reading students and alumni walked in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Boston Out of Darkness Walk. I was one of them, with my younger brother, Theo, who attends Coolidge Middle School. Alumni Nicole Kendall also walked as part of her school’s team.

The walk began at 10 am, but registration was open at 9 am that day. I personally arrived around 9:30, waiting for another member of my team. There were tents arranged in Government Center filled with food, t-shirts, merchandise, and information about the cause and mental health conditions in general.

At 10 am, the walk began with a ceremony run by Val Alfeo, the senior walk director. Before giving information about the particular walk, Alfeo told us that the Massachusetts chapter of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) was one of the oldest in the nation. She also told us how many teams had attended the walk, how many walkers overall were there and how much money was raised overall for the cause.

Previously, I had gotten an email saying that there were over 220 teams. In another email I received in the following week, the final totals were given. There were over 1,600 walkers who came to participate and as of October 28th, there was over $337,000 raised from the Boston walk.

There were also many incentives for raising money, such as a T-shirt that served as a reward for raising $150 before the walk began.

The opening words of the walk included a bead ceremony. There were many different colors that represented the different reasons that people walked. The dark blue necklace represented supporting the suicide prevention cause and teal represented knowing someone who struggled with mental health or suicidal ideation. Green meant that the walker struggled with mental health or suicidal ideation. White represented the loss of a child where gold represented the loss of a parent. Red was for those who had lost a partner or spouse and purple represented the loss of a friend.

The final color, silver, represented the loss of a first responder or military member. The ceremony consisted of announcing a person who wore a certain color of beads and why. Then the walkers were told to put that color of beads. They went through the entire range of colors. It was a touching ceremony.

After the ceremony, the walk began. It was a set one-mile loop that started and ended at Government Center. It went down Cambridge Street to New Chardon Street then along Congress Street. The recommended number of laps was one to three. I walked three with my brother and my cousin, who I also convinced to walk with me. Each lap took around 20 minutes. Along the route, there were people holding ‘Free Hug’ signs. I assume that this was also part of the overall walk plan because it was a way of supporting the walkers.

Our three laps took around an hour, so we finished walking at 11 am. Afterward, we went back to Government Center to see what was tents were still up. Most of them had been taken down, but some remained, such as “The Yellow Tulip” tent; The Yellow Tulip was a foundation, similar to my own Green Ribbon Project, that was created by two young women who had lost a friend to suicide. Yellow was that friend’s favorite color and the tulip was her favorite flower, hence the name.

As for my personal records, I raised $634 dollars and my brother raised $210 dollars. My cousin has yet to raise any money, but he has joined the team. The fundraising for the year doesn’t end until December 31st, which means that I do have time to collect more donations which would make the cause even more important to me.

With all of the money that they raise, AFSP works to help prevent suicide in many ways. According to their website, some of the money they raise goes towards research programs that “improve interventions, train clinicians in suicide prevention, and advocate for policy that will save lives.”

They also work on educating on mental health conditions and how to help those who are suffering. These programs are can be initiated in schools and all kinds of workplaces. The final part of their cause is to help those who have lost someone to suicide heal and help others who need help. One of their largest goals is to reduce suicide by 20% by 2025.

Their education programs can cover topics from high school mental health education to college mental health education and the workplace. Anyone can download these resources.

In Reading, I know a lot of high schoolers who struggle with mental health conditions. By raising awareness of these issues, I hope that it will be able to help those people to be more open and get the help they need. I know that I could probably use their resources to help get my message across. It will always be an issue that is important to me.

My own hope, in participating in this walk, is to raise awareness of the issue of suicide and mental health conditions. I have been attempting to raise awareness of this important issue for a year and a half. I hope that by using this as part of my campaign to raise awareness of mental health conditions, I will be able to reach more people in Reading.