Walk held at UW to raise suicide awareness

The Out of the Darkness walk began at University of Washington's Denny Field.

A moment of silence passed among the nearly 200 people that gathered on Denny Field at the University of Washington last Saturday for the campus’s first suicide prevention walk, called Out of the Darkness.

Beth Adolphsen, an Everett Community College health science instructor, asked those attending to raise their beaded necklaces, which were different colors. Slowly hands began to rise. Each represented a loss to suicide and recognition of mental illness.

Red stood for the loss of a spouse or partner, gold for the loss of a parent, white for the loss of a child, orange for the loss of a sibling, purple for the loss of a loved one or friend or relative, green for those currently struggling with mental illness and blue for those supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

In addition, silver beads were held up in honor of the military and first responders that lost their lives in duty and red, white and blue beaded necklaces were raised to show support for our troops.

Adolphsen raised her white beads. She both spoke and walked at the event.

Since Adolphsen lost her son a year ago to suicide she has done three walks, including this one, as a way to cope and bring awareness to the issue.

According to the AFSP, suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students.

As of Saturday the event raised $10,591, surpassing their goal of $5,000. This came purely from donations, as the walk was a free event.

Since the event donations have continued. As of Monday, the cause has raised $11,791.

Donations will continue to be collected until June 30, and can be made by visiting www.campuswalk.org and finding the University of Washington campus walk.

Julia Borges, a UW student and co-director of the event, explained that the online total does not match their actual total because the site shows online donations exclusively.

Story and photo by Claudia Furmanczyk