Local Out of Darkness Walk hits 10th year

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is a national nonprofit “dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide,” according to its website (afsp.org/about-afsp). On an annual basis, it holds hundreds of annual Out of the Darkness walks across the country to help raise funds for and increase awareness of its mission.

This year, the local walk — the Out of the Darkness Greater Ithaca Walk — marks its 10th year in the community. As Tompkins Weekly touched on last year (tinyurl.com/2no7hhe8), the Greater Ithaca Walk takes place in Lansing’s Myers Park and is an important event for many area residents.

This year’s walk is set for Sept. 10 at the park. Attendees are welcome to arrive any time after 9 a.m. to pick up T-shirts and talk with AFSP staff members. The ceremony preceding the walk starts at 10:30 a.m., and the main speaker will be Karen Heisig, area director for AFSP’s Greater Central NY Chapter, which includes Tompkins County.

Registration is free, and pre-registration is encouraged. Visit tinyurl.com/2g72yo4o for more details.

Organizers and other community members are looking forward to this year’s walk. AFSP’s Crystal Howser lives in Lansing and spoke to what it means to her and other residents to have such an important event in their own backyard.

“It is everything; it is so important to me to do this, to make a difference,” she said. “I am just more aware, almost daily if not weekly, of how much our event really helps people. And I think, sometimes, it’s even more powerful … for the people that have struggled to even talk about their losses. Then, they get up the courage, they come to the walk, and then they tell us afterwards, ‘This is the best. I was nervous this morning [and] wasn’t going to come. And I’m so glad I did.’”

Heisig explained why the Out of Darkness Walks are so important for AFSP as an organization.

“Our Out of the Darkness community and campus walks are literally the backbone of everything that we are able to do,” she said. “They raise awareness in the community, they bring people together for a common cause, and they offer support to those who have lost someone.”

Heisig added that the funds raised at Out of Darkness Walks “support everything that we do at the local level.”

“Whether we’re doing school programs or providing resources to a recent loss survivor or any of the things that we do that happen in our chapter, [all] are supported by those walks,” she said.

Howser emphasized the education and school aspect of AFSP’s local work.

“We’ve had losses in our community, as obviously a lot of people have,” she said. “Even when I was growing up, later in high school, we had some losses, [but] it wasn’t really talked about, So, I want to make a difference. I want to continue to see that change in the schools and obviously the community as a whole, but our youth is a huge piece of this too, and educating them and letting them know that it’s OK to not be OK.”

Funds raised at Out of Darkness Walks also support AFSP’s national work, including funding suicide prevention research, as well as advocacy efforts at the state and federal level.

“So, the funds that people raise at a local walk, like the Greater Ithaca Walk, really make an impact at both our community level and the bigger-picture level because communities alone can’t do that bigger-picture work,” Heisig said.

During the pandemic, that work has had to shift slightly, like providing more virtual offerings and, in the early days, having to cancel bigger events like Out of Darkness Walks or switch to a different format to allow for greater social distancing. Fortunately, the walk is back in full force this year, and Heisig added that AFSP grew considerably over the course of the past few years.

“When many nonprofits took a big hit during COVID and had to actually let go of staff, AFSP actually grew, and we added staff,” she said. “And now, there are some chapters that are doing such an amazing job and really bringing in the necessary funds for growth.”

In the 10 years that the Greater Ithaca Walk has been held, Heisig said that she’s seen a real impact on the local community, with the walk and AFSP’s local work helping bring residents together.

“You don’t realize how many people this affects until you start talking to people,” she said. “I’ve known some people for 25 years, and I walked in to ask about hanging up a poster, and they were like, ‘Hey, can I talk to you?’ And I was like, ‘Of course, sure.’ And they tell me this whole story about losing a loved one. And I just realized how important that is, every single time. And so, just engaging our community in the importance of mental health, the whole thing is important to me personally, and I know the rest of the people on our committee and our volunteers, it’s very important to them also.”

Heisig said that the current number of registrants for the walks across the Greater Central NY Chapter of AFSP is already above what it was last year, which shows, “that people still want to come out and engage.”

Heisig described what to expect if someone has never been to an Out of Darkness Walk.

“They should expect to be [touched] in a really positive way, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s so many people that care about this and so many people that have been impacted,’” she said. “And so, if they’ve lost someone, being there, it’s a happy, hopeful event. It’s not a sad event at all. We do have those moments of remembrance and everything that are impactful. But for the most part, it’s just when you go to a walk for the first time, you’re like, ‘wow.’”

Even if you haven’t suffered a loss or haven’t dealt with suicidal ideation before, Howser said, you’re still welcome.

“Some people think that they have to have a personal loss — absolutely not,” she said. “We are all affected in some form. And everyone is welcomed. So, I always say it’s free to register. Everyone’s welcome — families, children, even leashed dogs that are well behaved.”

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.