Locals run, walk to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and beginning Wednesday, people across the state will be running to Stop Soldier Suicide.
Over the next 30 days, runners of all levels will lace up their shoes and hit the ground running 100 miles to raise awareness and money for the national organization Stop Soldier Suicide. SSS is dedicated to lowering the military suicide rate – which is 50% higher than the national average – by providing service members, veterans and military families of every generation access to mental health support, resources, education and alternative therapies.
More than 5,000 people have joined the Pennsylvania hundred-mile challenge on Stop Soldier Suicide’s Facebook page, and at least a half dozen locals are participating in the fundraiser.
“I just saw it on Facebook, it came up as an ad,” said DeeDee Wallen, a Texas native who recently moved from Waynesburg to Washington. “I ran in high school, I walk a lot, I jog. I said, go big or go home.”
Wallen is running for her husband, who died by suicide in 2013.
“He was out of the military for, I want to say maybe a year and a half,” said Wallen. “He was over in Afghanistan. We just never really talked about it. I don’t think they realize the impact … it’s gonna have. I just don’t want any family to ever have to go through that.”
Nathan Cumer of Jefferson, who graduated from 21st Century Cyber Charter School in 2019, plans to run between work and online classes at California University of Pennsylvania.
He lost both his uncle and a close high school friend to suicide. One of his best friends is in the Army and the one-time javelin thrower and sprinter is going the distance with that buddy.
“I’m not a runner,” said Cumer. “I used to be really big into track and field. I did USA Track and Field Junior Olympics in (Charleroi). Distance isn’t my forte.”
Cumer said he’s a big mental health advocate and is looking forward to running every day for one month straight.
“It’s important to get behind a good cause like this. (I’m running) out of respect for those that are in the military, who have died, and in memory of the people I lost.”
Unlike Wallen and Cumer, Joanne Randolph hasn’t lost a family member to suicide, but the UK-born McDonald resident (she became a naturalized U.S. citizen about six years ago) said our military touches the lives of every American.
“I was a flight attendant for 32 years. So many times I would take these young kids down to boot camp. They’re babies,” recalled Randolph. “I would just see the sacrifices they were making for us. Now, as a Realtor, I’m dealing with a lot of veterans; they don’t get a lot of support. (Running) feels like the right thing to do.”
Two of Randolph’s veteran co-workers at RE/MAX Select Realty in Moon Township – one served in Vietnam – have committed to donating up to $1,000 to her Stop Soldiers Suicide fundraising run.
“It’s a community thing. With everything that’s going on in the news right now, I think we’re very sensitive to what our military’s going through,” she said. “It’s a small price for us to do.”
Those unable to run 100 miles in September can join the American Foundation for Suicide’s Out of Darkness walk in downtown Pittsburgh Sept. 12.
Now in its 17th year, the walk connects those who have lost someone to suicide and offers a hopeful space for remembrance, said Jesse Putkoski, area director of the organization’s western Pennsylvania chapter.
Putkoski lost her father in 2010.
“It’s a different kind of loss,” Putkoski said. “Knowing there are other people out there who have gone through or are going through what you’ve gone through, it’s a hopeful and healing situation. It’s the connection, the connection that you experience knowing that you’re not alone in losing someone to suicide.”
Putkoski said official data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control will be published in December, but early reporting shows a decrease in suicide rates in 2020.
“We do know there were more calls to the suicide prevention lifeline, more people using those resources, which is great,” said Putkoski. “Talking about mental health, talking about suicide and suicide prevention will help save lives.”
To learn more about Stop Soldier Suicide or join the challenge, visit https://stopsoldiersuicide.org/. For more on the Out of Darkness walk, go to https://supporting.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=7467.