Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By LARRY HOLCOMBE
Ironwood — The Range Suicide Prevention Council will host the sixth annual Break the Silence, Walk Through the Pain event on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 10 a.m., at Gogebic Community College.
“We call it an awareness and support event,” said organizer Pat Gallinagh. “It’s certainly not a fundraising event. Everything is free, there is no cost to registration no cost for the social hour, the only thing is if they want a T-shirt it’s $10 and that’s pretty cheap by most standards.”
The idea is to raise awareness of support that is available to survivors of suicide and to raise awareness of the signs of depression and other risks factors associated with suicide, said Gallinagh.
The morning will begin with a 1-mile walk from and back to the college parking lot, followed by a social hour of coffee and other refreshments in the Lindquist Center lounge, followed by a program in the gym.
Gallinagh said people don’t have to walk. “It’s optional, they can just go upstairs for the social hour instead.”
In case of rain, they’ll walk inside.
“The program will consist of three survivors are going to tell their story. They’re all local people. We want to let everybody know if they’ve lost somebody to suicide, they’re not alone,” said Gallinagh. “There’s more of us than anyone would like to think of, but we’re there to prop each other up and spread the news that it is preventable, especially if you learn the risk factors, know the symptoms of depression and with intervention, lives can be saved.”
Gallinagh said the program will also include some music, adding they usually get anywhere from 75 to 150 people.
Besides the various signs that will be on display that people have made to remember people over the years, five of the group’s six quilts will also be on display. The sixth quilt is on permanent display in Escanaba.
There will also be informational tables from other organizations including Domestic Violence Escape, Aspirus, Community Mental Health and various law enforcement agencies.
The Range Suicide Prevention Council was founded in 1996. Gallinagh said the group has had several fine leaders over the years as the group has tried to reduce the number of suicides on the Gogebic Range and “attack this national health problem which took over 47,000 lives in this country last year and help tear down the shroud of shame, secrecy and stigma surrounding suicide and its primary cause, untreated mental illness.”
For more information on this event or the RSPC, call 906-932-5718.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255.
