On a steamy evening Tuesday night, during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, nearly 100 people gathered at Rotary Park in Newark for Mental Health America of Licking County’s annual Suicide Prevention 5K Walk and Vigil to honor family members, friends and loved ones who have died by suicide.

Thank you to Mental Health & Recovery for Licking and Knox Counties for sponsoring T-shirts and to Licking Memorial Health Systems for providing bottled water. We appreciate Youth Leadership Council’s balloon launch to memorialize those we have lost. To all walkers who braved the heat, thank you for being there. Thanks to members of the Licking County Suicide Prevention Coalition for your support.

MHA is here to support anyone who has lost someone to suicide through a monthly Survivors of Suicide Loss Support Group.

Penny Sitler

Mental Health America of Licking County, Newark

Found in The Newark Advocate September 12, 2015