Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM LAVENTURE
HURLEY, Wis. — Members of the 2009 Hurley High School class reunion wanted to do something meaningful to remember two former students who were lost to suicide and so raised more than $4,000 for the Gogebic Range Suicide Prevention Council.
The reunion committee set up a Hurley Class of 2009 Suicide Prevention Mission page at gofundme.com that has so far received $3,400 from 54 people as of Monday, said Jay Aijala, a 2009 graduate. The class raised another $500 taking donations while handing out prevention cars during Saturday’s Heritage Parade in Hurley, and a classmate who is now a restauranteur in Minocqua donated another $500, he said.
“I am not really surprised with the positive response,” Aijala said. “Our community always comes around in any event.”
For a small class of 48 people the loss of Cody Cunico in 2016, and John Kutz in 2010 — both to suicide — was understandably devastating to a class where everyone knew everyone, he said. Most of the class had been together all through school and the news came as a shock, and wanted to do something that helped dispel the stigma of depression and suicide in memory of John and Cody, he said.
“This brought the attention of suicide awareness front and center,” Aijala said. “Depression can occur with anyone and mainly we just wanted to get the word out that it doesn’t discriminate and that anyone can suffer from depression and anxiety.”
Cunico and Kutz were remembered at the reunion this past weekend with a lantern release at the high school with their families invited, said Cody Kivisto, a 2009 Hurley graduate who now lives in Appleton, Wisconsin. But the classmates also wanted to do something as a community, he said.
“We wanted to do something more,” Kivisto said. “We wanted to be productive and make a difference.”
The reunion committee contacted Cunico’s mother to see what she felt would be a relevant project for the Hurley area. She suggested a donation to the Gogebic Range Suicide Prevention Council, a nonprofit prevention group made up of community volunteers who support people in the community and work to break stigma around suicide and mental illness.
“They are all volunteers and the funds stay local,” Kivisto said. “They were also very helpful to her during a difficult time.”
Pat Gallinagh, president of the council, said the donation by the Hurley class of 2009 is benefiting the entire Gogebic Range and surrounding areas to include the western Upper Peninsula and northeast Wisconsin.
“I thought it was one of the most thoughtful and compassionate donations I have ever seen,” Gallinagh said. “This is totally unique. Usually when a class gives a donation they may set up a scholarship fund, or purchase a scoreboard and paint a wall — but this is something that is not only going to benefit the Hurley school system but the entire Gogebic Range. It’s going to help save lives.”
The donation helps to ensure that Cunico and Kutz will not be forgotten, he said. It also attaches their names to the work to help save other lives, he said. There has been much progress with prevention over 50 years but there is much work to be done, he said.
“I believe that change is more evolutionary in nature than revolutionary in nature,” Gallinagh said.
Most people who attempt suicide don’t want to die, he said. What they want to do is end an almost unbearable type of pain.
People with a mental health issue are suffering and trying to end their pain, said Crystal Suzik, vice president of the council. Many self medicate with food, alcohol or other drugs and the people who take their own lives are going through these issues.
“They are fighting an invisible battle that nobody else can see from the outside,” Suzik said.
Trust is a big part of teaching prevention, she said. To help someone does not mean telling them they will get over it — that is stigmatizing them and preventing them from seeking help, she said.
“As survivors and as people who have been touched by suicide we have to keep it in the forefront and educate and prevent,” she said. “That is by helping people understand that mental health does not discriminate, whatsoever. It doesn’t matter what you make every day in life; it doesn’t matter who you socialize with, when it comes to suicide it doesn’t matter who you are and where you are from, it does not discriminate.”
The council offers free education, prevention and trainings on how to “QPR” (question, persuade and refer), the mental health version of CPR, she said. It is to learn how to help someone in crisis until the professionals take over, she said.
