As NAMI Augusta conducted its walk to support mental health awareness at Grovetown’s Gateway Park, Saturday morning, more than 100 people came to Pendleton King Park, to march its trails in solidarity against suicide.
Augusta Out of the Darkness is a yearly, fundraising community walk, hosted by the Atlanta-based Georgia chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) since 2018. Registered participants in the free event were encouraged to contribute their donations, and connect with one another as they traversed a concrete path surrounding the park’s ponds.
The walk was preceded by a brief ceremony in which Chelsea Piatt, program manager of the Georgia AFSP, called out attendees to display their beads, each color representing a personal reason one comes to walk: orange beads, for example, symbolize the loss of a sibling, gold the loss of a parent, silver for first responders or those in the military and rainbow beads for those in the LGBTQ community.
“In 2014, I did my first walk in Atlanta, and I finally saw other people who had been impacted by suicide,” said Piatt, who lost her father to suicide in 1998. “I’d never talked to anybody, met anybody who had been impacted. So it was super moving for me to see all the people in the crowd bring the same color bead that I had. So it’s a great way to connect and a great way to remember our loved ones.”
The monies raised, 83 cents from each dollar donated, goes towards the AFSP’s mission, including funding prevention education programs, support for survivors and others affected by suicide, and advocacy work, such as an initiative to bring LGBTQ funding for the 988 suicide prevention hotline (for which the AFSP is working with the Trevor Project nonprofit, Piatt noted).
As of Saturday, Augusta Out of the Darkness donors raised some $6,000, part of the roughly $275,000 the AFSP has raised this year through its nine community walk events throughout the state.
Hurricane Helene barred the organization from hosting the walk in Augusta last year, though it has conducted virtual walks during the Covid pandemic, says Piatt. While attendance and participation have remained mostly steady over time, she hopes that the walks continue to encourage people to stay informed and, when possible, contribute what they can by volunteering.
“It’s sort of like a blessing and a curse, almost like we want more people to be aware of the walk, so if they have been impacted, they can come and participate,” Piatt said. “But we hope that there’s not more like the suicide rates aren’t increasing. We just hope that awareness is increasing.”
For more information visit https://afsp.org/chapter/georgia.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering general reporting for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com
