Greenville High School

The highest fundraisers at the event taken

Photo: Shelby Doren

Mr. Karle, 10th grade English teacher

at Greenville HS and Shelby Doren

Junior at Greenville HS both are part of

Yellow Ribbon

Out of the Darkness

Raising awareness for suicide prevention

By Shelby Dorn

September 24, 2016 was the annual Out of the Darkness walk at Waterfront Park in Hudson, New York to help raise awareness of suicide, and educate people about this disease. Pam Lent, director of this event explained why she has gotten involved in suicide awareness and in this event. “I lost my nephew 12 years ago to suicide. It took up until 5 years ago to realize I needed to do something about this awful disease and to help break the stigma that still haunts a lot of people to this day… We raise our voices to let everyone know they are not alone and can receive the help they deserve.” Lent then explained,  “There are 8 AFSP(American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) chapters in New York State alone. Each chapter covers certain locations throughout their area. In the Capital Region alone we have 4 Walks, 1 Hike, 1(college) Campus Walk, and 2 Survivor Day events scheduled in 2016…” Some ways to break the stigma is changing the language we use about suicide, for example, we no longer say that a person “committed suicide” we now say “died by suicide or death by suicide”. As well, we no longer refer to someone who has died by suicide as “a suicide” in the same way we do not refer to a person who died from a heart attack as “a heart attack”.  

Members of the Yellow Ribbon Club at Greenville High School attended the walk to bring awareness to the heartbreak of suicide. Greenville Central School recently experienced this pain with the tragic loss of a Greenville student to suicide, leaving many to wonder, “what more could we have done?” “Why couldn’t he ask for help?” Though these questions will remain unanswered, The Yellow Ribbon Club helps inform students at Greenville that there is always someone to talk to if you are feeling depressed and contemplating suicide. The Yellow Ribbon also has resources on how to get the help you need if you are feeling like suicide is the only answer. For further resources on Out of the Darkness Walks, Trainings, the AFSP has an endless list of training and educational classes which can be found by going to  www.afsp.org. #ghsblog