This June 27-28 in Chicago, IL will be a walk like no other. From sun down to sun rise and people walking up to 18 miles this walk will help raise money for a cause that is very important to me. While I will most likely not be able to attend I will not let my support go without notice. I will yet again donate to someone else who is going to this event. And with my next few sentences and hopefully with to the point statements I am hoping that you too will at least donate to someone else who is attending this event as well. At the end of this I will post a link to a video that will just show you how important and how much suicide has affected so many peoples lives. That is right the cause that is dear to my heart is AFSP's (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) Overnight Walk. Most people do not know the scope of suicide to this country muchless the world (although I will not go into global aspects until later blogs). But for now I will not mention that someone in this world will commit a suicide every 40 seconds or that there is an suicide for every 20 attempts so that puts attempts at one every couple of seconds world wide. I will just for now focus on America only. In the States there is an attempt every minute and a suicide every 16 minutes. That means that during a 24-hour period about 90 people will have killed themselves due to illness, AIDS, alcohol, drugs, AND depression AND lost of hope in their lives just to name a few reasons. AFSP is fighting hard to help prevent suicide from happening in research and getting the information out there so family members can see the signs before they see the death of their love one. This walk brings together people who have either suffered from losing a parent, a child, a husband or wife, a love one, a close friend, or just someone that they knew. And it also brings in people who have attempted suicide and those who have struggled with the thoughts although may never have attempted suicide themselves.
I can not tell you how disappointed I am in how churches, communities, and people in general do not accept suicide as something worth talking about. Just because it did not happen to someone they love or know doesn't mean it will never be that same way in the future. I feel that christians mistake their faith as the power that would prevent a person from commiting suicide. I feel pastors are either afraid to talk about it or afraid that they might lose people due to talking about it. But here is a fact that all people should consider. Look at your church, community, local hang out that you go to a lot and just look at the people in it. Now think of this. High School students have reported that 16.9% of them have thought about suicide at least once during a school year and that 8% have actually attempted suicide during that same period. And look at the other spectrum, the older population. Men and women above 65 are commiting suicide at a rate of almost 13 per 100,000 people. And yet people still hide their eyes from this.
So I hope you will link over to this video and more importantly donate to someone who is going. For every walker is required to raise at least $1,000 in order to be able to walk. These people believe in this cause enough to take that challenge and I hope you would take my challenge and donate even $5 to someone. Your money is going to a better cause I promise.
Think of it this way. I think Starbucks will survive you not getting one $5 coffee for one night in order for you to give to AFSP and The Overnight Walk. And picture how many people you are helping with that money. Forget about the person who commits the suicide for one second. Think of all the family members, friends, and others that will suffer from that person leaving this way. Think about what the person who finds their love one dead will have to go through for the rest of their life. And now picture them not having to go through that because you decided to help save even just one life. Saving just one life also means saving tens of people who loved that person. And for that I say $5, $10, or even more is worth the price. Because that one person your money might being saving just might be someone you loved or know very well.
Again please go here and look at this video before you decide what you will want to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPrlURrhA2s
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