Walking In The Name Of Suicide Awareness

By Dean Wright, The Bristol Press

October 11, 2021

Area residents, officials and supporters gathered in Rockwell Park Saturday for an annual American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Out of the Darkness Community Walk.

“It’s meant to raise awareness and funds for the local chapter,” said Michelle Peters, area director for the American Foundation for Suicide Connecticut Chapter. “It is really fulfilling the mission of AFSP which is to bring hope to those affected by suicide…”

AFSP funds research into mental health among its many other supportive activities.

Peters said the walk wasn’t held last year due to covid and the year prior there also wasn’t a walk in Bristol as it was combined with a larger walk in Hartford. Peters said that area residents requested for the walk to return to Bristol and so it was brought back.

“It was kind of neat because the community reached out to me and said they wanted the walk back and so we’re here,” said Peters. “We’re noticing that our numbers have been a bit lower all over, probably because of covid.”

While the walk is meant to bring awareness to the struggles and facts surrounding suicide, it also is meant to bring like-minded individuals together and families together so that they know they are not alone. Walk participants have the option of wearing colored beads which indicate how they lost a loved one. Respectively, white indicates the loss of a child, red the loss of partner or spouse, gold the loss of a parent, orange the loss of a sibling, purple the loss of a relative or friend, silver the loss of a first responder or military member. Green stands for those who have attempted or have a personal struggle with suicidal thoughts. Teal represents someone supporting another who struggles or has attempted and blue stands for supporting suicide prevention.

“It really is important to reduce the stigma,” said Peters. “Mental health has to be as important as physical health and this is the first step to doing that. It also gets people together… One of my favorite things is watching people who have not met before pick the same color and there’s that recognition. I’ve had people make lifelong friends at the bead table.”

Many walk participants wore shirts announcing their support for or love of an individual. Some came as families with pets, others just as themselves. Lori and the Legends was also on scene to play musical entertainment at the Rockwell Amphitheatre.

“It’s a great thing and means a lot because I’m walking for my son,” said Jinnette Alfaro of the event. “This is my first year here as I usually go to Westport. It means a lot because there are a lot of people struggling that we don’t know. They may have happy faces and we can see they are great people but you don’t know their struggle inside.”

“It’s a good thing. It’s a good prevention tool to help people. This is my first time,” said Wendi Connolly.

“It’s super important to bring awareness,” said Kim Bjerke, sister to Wendi. “I lost my son two years ago. I want to help anybody we can. Having these helps people be aware and it provides support.”

Cornelius Connolly, Wendi’s husband, said it was good to come to the walk to help others out.

The family said Bjerke had traveled from Houston, Texas, to Bristol just for the walk and would be attending another in Texas shortly in November.