On Saturday, October 11, the Triad Area Out of the Darkness Project will hold its annual Community Walk – bringing together volunteers, survivors, families and others in order to fight suicide by walking, talking and connecting.
Registration begins at 9 a.m. at Triad Park in Kernersville.
Organizers say the event is all about creating a healing community and encouraging people to talk openly about mental health and any suicidal thoughts.
Darren Shell, co-chair of the Triad walk, has been involved since 2017 and has chaired the event in recent years. He said personal loss led him to get involved.
“My father died of suicide,” Shell said.
Years later, he saw it happen again with another person close to him.
“I lost my best friend who was just totally unexpected – I never thought he would die that way,” he said.
“Our main focus of the walk is that it’s a healing community,” Shell said, “It’s amazing.”
Suicide prevention is about openness.
People should never just hold those thoughts in, he said.
“The biggest thing is just for people to talk about how they feel. It helps them get rid of the stigma that ‘I’m weird,’” he said.
He added that, at your annual physical each year answer the mental health questions honestly.
He said the worst thing he did after his father’s suicide was to “just try to man through it,” for about six months.
According to the CDC, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States and the 15th leading cause in North Carolina. Among youth and young adults, suicide is one of the top causes of death.
There are eight Out of Darkness walks this month across the state, and the organization also holds a similar event in the spring. The walks raise money for the group’s suicide prevention programs – such as those that operate in schools, as well as mental health research related to suicide and support efforts for survivors.
Similar walks are taking place across the nation this month.
The schedule for the October 11 Triad event is:
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. — Wreaths Across America (honoring veteran lives lost to suicide)
9:00 – 9:30 — Registration
9:00 – 10:00 — Vendor visits
10:00 – 10:30 — Opening ceremony (speaker: Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr.)
10:30 – 11:00 — Honor Bead Ceremony
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. — Walk of the Survivors
12:00 – 12:15 — Closing Ceremony & Sponsor Recognition
12:15 – 1:15 — Music by “Penny Candy”
To donate or join this event, visit www.AFSP.org/Triad.
Participants are encouraged to bring a photo of a loved one for the memory wall. Photos printed on photo paper can be used to create memory buttons.
At the event, nonperishable food items will also be collected for a food bank in Greensboro.
Shell said that some communities and subgroups that face the greatest risk of suicide are veterans, those who are LGBTQ and those in their teen years.
He also pointed out a troubling trend since COVID of rising suicides among the elderly, particularly in assisted facilities – as well as risks among certain professions such as construction workers and female massage therapists.
He said those massage therapists, for instance, are often single mothers, who are independent business owners and who are frequently the victims of sexual harassment.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline remains available nationwide, offering 24/7 support by call or text.
Those who want to support the cause can join the walk, donate, or simply show up on October 11 in Kernersville. More information can be found at https://afsp.org/chapter/north-carolina.
