{"id":67296,"date":"2022-09-15T08:21:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=67296"},"modified":"2022-09-15T08:21:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:21:36","slug":"annual-suicide-prevention-event-set-for-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=67296","title":{"rendered":"Annual suicide prevention event set for Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BY RAEGAN NEUFELD<br><em>Photo courtesy Supporting American Foundation for Suicide Prevention <\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the annual Out of the Darkness Walk is a way to raise awareness and decrease the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health issues.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Hays, the Out of the Darkness Walk is organized by the AFSP Kansas City chapter and sponsored by the High Plains Mental Health Center. Starting at 2:00 p.m. on Friday in Municipal Park, participants will walk down Main Street, past HPMHC on 7th Street, and back to the park. Money raised from the event will benefit the AFSP, specifically for education efforts.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat includes trainings and community events that help promote suicide prevention, help people understand how to supports others experiencing suicidal ideation, or ways individuals can help themselves,\u201d said event organizer Kyle Carlin.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the sixth Walk to happen in Hays. According to Carlin, his co-organizer Ashton Gebhard became inspired to bring the event to western Kansas after participating in several in Omaha, NE, specifically to help combat suicide in rural, agricultural areas.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe number of farmers and agriculture workers who have died by suicide or have attempted suicide is quite a bit higher than the national average,\u201d Carlin said. \u201cWanting to bring more attention and awareness to the issue, [Gebhard] reached out to me about helping organize the walk. Each year it seems to get a little bit bigger, and hopefully it brings more awareness.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check-in and walk-up registration for the event will take place from 1-2:00 p.m. Former FHSU President Ed Hammond will give a welcome message before the walk starts. After the walk, participants will have a chance to light memorial candles and grab Honor Beads.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cParticipants can represent the different ways they\u2019re connected to suicide prevention through different colored beads,\u201d Carlin said. \u201cThere\u2019s beads for their own journey, if they\u2019ve lost a loved one, etc. There\u2019s about ten different colors, and each represents something a little different.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vendors from HPMHC, Green Ribbon Hays, and more will also be present at the event. The afternoon will end with a raffle, which helps generate more funds for the AFSP.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a good time for people to have a sense of community,\u201d Carlin said. \u201cA lot of people use this as a way to have a group of friends or family come together and connect, and spend the day together in memory of somebody or in honor of their own struggle.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Carlin, the Walk is also important when it comes to decreasing the stigma surrounding suicide.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven getting people to say the word suicide out loud can be a struggle sometimes, it seems like people feel there\u2019s a taboo towards that word,\u201d he said. \u201cBut getting people to talk about it, getting people to see that they\u2019re not alone, and helping them realize there\u2019s answers and they don\u2019t have to live with it forever, makes the whole community better.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To register for the Walk on Friday, or to donate money, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/supporting.afsp.org\/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&amp;eventID=8467\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Hays Area Walk website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY RAEGAN NEUFELDPhoto courtesy Supporting American Foundation for Suicide Prevention In addition to raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the annual&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":67297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,11],"tags":[9369,14744,14745,14226],"class_list":["post-67296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-news","tag-american-foundation-for-suicide-prevention","tag-hays-area-walk-to-end-suicide","tag-out-of-darkness-walk","tag-raegan-neufeld"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Suicide-Prevention-Walk.jpg?fit=1600%2C1068&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67299,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67296\/revisions\/67299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}