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The parents and friends on Omaha’s riverfront Sunday were intimately familiar with the numbers:
Every minute in the United States, a person attempts suicide, and a person dies from it every 16 minutes.
So they gathered at the fifth annual Out of the Darkness Community Walk to raise suicide awareness, to remember lost loved ones and to work on prevention.
The 5K walk at Miller’s Landing raised $8,200 to aid local and national suicide prevention awareness programs. The walk, attended by a record 1,245 people, was one of more than 100 taking place across the country.
Jeanie Boerger of Lincoln walked to remember her 18-year-old daughter Sabrina, who committed suicide two years ago.
“It needs to be talked about,” Boerger said. “Suicide happens.”
The walkers heard several speakers talk about friends and relatives lost to suicide. They listened to the song “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Then they released balloons of every color, each bearing the name of a loved one.
Joyce Hicks of the Nebraska Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said she hoped the event helped to erase the stigma of mental illness and suicide.
The state chapter is working to implement an Internet screening survey later this year at area college campuses, Hicks said. The colleges will send an e-mail to students asking them to take a survey that will let them know whether they are depressed.
Creighton University will be the first to have the program. The University of Nebraska at Omaha, University Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska Wesleyan University also are interested, she said.
Craig and Lori Martin of Omaha came to the walk to support a co-worker whose stepdaughter had killed herself. People need someone to talk to and to be provided with opportunities for help, Craig Martin said.
“You have to recognize how serious it can be,” he said. “There isn’t a problem that’s too big.”
Donations can be made at www.outofthedarkness.org. Donors need to specify the donation is for the Nebraska chapter.
Contact the writer:
444-1304, news@owh.com
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