UC Nursing Program to host suicide awareness walk

The University of the Cumberlands Nursing Program is trying to do what it can to help prevent suicide and raise awareness about it, and wants your help this weekend.

On Saturday, April 2, the inaugural Out of the Darkness Campus Walk will be held at 11 a.m. at the UC campus in Williamsburg, and will start at the UC track.

The Out of the Darkness Campus Walk is a journey of remembrance, hope, support, and a walk that unites a campus and community – a time to acknowledge the ways in which suicide and mental illness have affected our lives and our loved ones, organizers wrote on the event registration page.

Organizers are hoping to raise $5,000 through the event that will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), which has a goal of reducing the annual suicide rate by 20 percent by 2025. As of noon Monday, the walk had already raised $1,225 and had 32 participants registered.

For more information about the event or to learn how to register for the event, go to https://supporting.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=8153.

Those raising $100 by April 2 will receive an official Out of the Darkness Campus Walk T-shirt.

In addition to fundraising online, you can turn in additional cash or check donations at the registration table the day of the walk.

Donations can be made to a team, the T-shirt and other incentives are based only on individual fundraising.

Organizers are asking participants to please fundraise as an individual by sending friends and family to your personal page, and ask for a team “sponsorship” from local businesses, clubs, etc. and use it as a way to ask for donations during a team fundraising event

Online registration closes at noon the Friday. However, anyone who would like to participate can register in person at the walk from the time check-in begins until the walk starts. Walk donations are accepted until June 30th.

When you walk in the Out of the Darkness Walks, you join the effort with hundreds of thousands of people to raise awareness and funds that allow AFSP to invest in new research, create educational programs, advocate for public policy and support survivors of suicide loss.