STILLMAN VALLEY — Stillman Valley High School at 425 S. Pine St. will host an Out of the Darkness Campus Walk for suicide awareness on Sunday, May 4. Check-in starts at noon, the event starts at 12:30 p.m. and the walk will start around 1 p.m., Organizer and SVHS Social Worker/Counselor Hannah Feldhaus said.
The event will raise funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which does suicide reseach, supports families affected by suicide and presents programs in schools. The three-mile walk is free to anyone who wants to sign up. Those interested in walking or volunteering at the event can email Feldhaus at hfeldhaus@mail.meridian223.org. If they want, participants can raise $100 for the walk to earn a t-shirt.
“As a counselor at the high school, I think it's really important to bring suicide awareness to our local community,” Feldhaus said. “Unfortunately I've seen first hand how much this affects teenagers in the high school environment. It's an epidemic, especially for teenagers. I've been encouraged by how many students I have that want to get involved with the walk this year. We'll have about 30 volunteering students, which is a big deal in a school of 450. They're getting behind it and they're excited about it, so I am too.”
The walk is in its fourth year at SVHS. It was started by SVHS alumni Lillie Doss during her senior year. Doss lost her father to suicide when she was younger and started the event to help with prevention and make a difference. She remains involved with the event after graduating.
The event is organized by SVHS’s Take Action League, which is an anti-bullying and suicide prevention student group on campus. The group’s other work includes spreading kindness around the school, putting up signs and banners including a poster board of positive things, putting notes on students’ lockers during high-stress weeks such as during finals, fundraising and teambuilding, and raising awareness for Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
“The Take Action League started after a student tragically took her own life here 7-8 years ago,” Feldhaus said. “A group of students came together and said they wanted to do something. Take Action League was started to promote kindness and try to change the school culture in order to be more supportive so people don't feel alone when it comes to their mental health. It's continued ever since.”
Participants in the walk who have lost family members to suicide, have struggled with suicidal thoughts, or consider themselves to be allies to the cause can wear colored “honor beads” to represent their experience.
Feldhaus said the event can be beneficial for students and community members that do, and don’t have experience with suicide in their personal lives.
“For our students who do have experience with suicide in their lives, it's important for them to feel that they can talk about it,” Feldhaus said. “For our students who have not encountered suicide in their lives, they need to learn it's something that can unfortunately happen. They may not understand how prevalent it is and that words can have a lot of weight and hurt people. You can't see what's going on in someone else's life. Hopefully it will help. I hope the more involved students get, the more aware they become, which makes them less likely to be mean and unkind. Bullying is still a big problem in our school and other schools.”
The event will be sponsored by Winnebago Landfill. It will also feature 6-8 community mental health agencies that will attend and spread awareness about their services and give out support to students, families and community members.
The event is for all ages, and Feldhaus said there will be arts & crafts such as bracelet making and rock painting to make it more kid-friendly. The walk will be wheelchair and stroller accessible.
“I think it's really important to include the entire community,” Feldhaus said. “Our kids are influenced by their parents and the rest of the community and that influence comes into our school. If we can teach parents and the community how important and prevalent this is, hopefully we can get more support for our students. Because suicide really is an epidemic. I see firsthand how many students struggle. There needs to be awareness of that in the community. There are things we can do about that and there's a lot of hope for it. But we can't do it all. We need more support from the community to help us with our kids.”
Last year’s event set records for turnout and funds raised. Feldhaus is most excited this year by how many students have shown interest in the walk.
“I think as I get more excited, the students get more excited about it,” Feldhaus said. “We had our most students ever last year and it looks like we're going to be able to double that number this year. Taking a Sunday to come out and support your peers and spread awareness is big. I think all the students are excited to volunteer and walk.”
If you or someone you know is in a crisis, please call 988 or text TALK to 741-741.
