IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WZMQ) – In a dedicated effort to raise awareness during National Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month, the Dickinson-Iron Communities That Care organization has gone above and beyond. This month, they are preparing for an upcoming event that aims to provide support to local families who have recently been impacted by suicide.
The Sixth Annual Hope to Help Suicide Awareness Walk is scheduled for Sunday, September 17th, and it promises to be a significant event. The first year of the walk’s existence saw about 65 walkers, while the second year saw double that number of participants. The walk has seen progressive growth up until the onset of the pandemic. Participation saw a decline during the pandemic when the walk had to go virtual. However, this year, event coordinators are determined to reverse that trend, as local families continue to grapple with the effects of suicide.
Tracy Johnson, who serves as both the director of prevention services at Great Lakes Recovery, and as a coordinator for the Dickinson-Iron Communities that Care, shared that due to the alarming national statistics on suicide, making suicide the second leading cause of death among youth ages 10-24, coupled with the increased risk for anxiety and depression locally, the Dickinson-Iron Communities that care responded by creating an independent walk within Dickinson County. “As we saw our numbers increasing and increasing, we started doing our own walk, which many of the coalitions throughout the U.P. also do on their own, there are coalitions in 14 other counties,” Johnson informed.
“This year, we’ve added the candles for families to take on the walks. We have a local family that just lost their son to suicide; they’re going to be leading our walk. They are from right here in Iron Mountain,” Johnson stated. She added that there will be a speaker at the walk, and live music by Norton and Chartier. There will be at least 50 raffle baskets, with prize baskets being valued at anywhere between $100-500 each.
This event’s proceeds will fund the establishment of a brand-new loss team dedicated to providing local outreach to suicide survivors. This team will receive training and will work in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Department.
“This year, we’re going to be utilizing a lot of the money that we raise for our brand-new loss team. So our loss team is a local outreach to suicide survivors where the people are trained. It’s going to be a part of our sheriff’s department,” Johnson stated. She added that the loss team will include at least one person who has gone through the process of losing someone, and another individual that’s trained, so that dispatch will be able to send a team of at least two people to respond to suicide-related crises. She added that there will be funding for assistance with funeral costs and other related costs. All funding raised stays local to Dickinson and Iron Counties.
Johnson informed that the Kenneth James Salon has been actively involved in raising funds, notably by selling t-shirts to support the cause. The salon has diligently been fundraising throughout the year for the suicide walk, through the sales of the shirts that Florence county’s human services department provided a $2500 grant to provide. The employees at the salon, who wear a uniform that is all black, have also been paying a small fee throughout the year to wear color on Thursdays, and collecting donations from customers. Through this combination of efforts by Kenneth James Salon, nearly $5,000 has been collected to fund the event.
A new interim coordinator, who’ll be taking on more of Johnson’s responsibilities moving into this fall, expressed that making sure local resources are accessible is a priority as he moves into his new role. “Being aware of suicide one day a year is not enough. We want to be able to make sure that people understand there are ways to cope with, prevent, stave off all these things, and we have these resources, but people don’t know how to access them,” stated Bob Boivin.
The upcoming Hope 2 Help Suicide Awareness is open to the public and free of charge, with the goal of attracting at least 300 attendees. Boivin shared that he has collected over 3 times as many donations as previous years, so right now the focus is really about getting people within the community to attend the event and show their support.
“The community involvement is so important to do anything. You know, I mean we are a small community; we need community involvement,” he added.
The Hope to Help Suicide Awareness Walk will feature multiple resource tables, including representatives of the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center. Westman precision will attend the event, with important resources to help anyone who needs help to have a gun temporarily locked up. Although the Dickinson-Iron Communities that Care agency continues to accept donations from local residents and businesses, organizers emphasize the importance of attending the event in person.
“I’m not gonna short-sell the financial piece, because that’s a big deal, where people donate. But if they can bring people, if they can bring time, if they can bring energy… We’ll take all of that,” Boivin expressed.
Johnson added, “We need to support these families. We need to hopefully reach them before there are any attempts or completions.”
Children attending the event can look forward to face painting, bounce houses, and can expect surprises from the Youth Hockey League, including a Zamboni and a “hot shot” that are being brought in from the Mountain View Ice Arena. The event will run from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Central Time at the Mid-Town mall parking lot near Super One Foods.
Fore more information about, or to donate to the Dickinson-Iron Communities that care, visit:
https://upctc.com/dickinson-iron
For more information about Kenneth James Salon, visit:
