Walk and donate for suicide prevention Families and friends gather this weekend to raise awareness

Families and friends who lose someone to suicide often look for counselors or communities that understand what it’s like. Lifelong North Bergen residents Maria Sanchez and her daughter Jeanette, 26, said they found the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention after looking for a way to raise awareness about suicide, depression, and other mental health conditions. Maria lost her son, and Jeanette’s brother, Jorge A. Sanchez, 21, to suicide on March 12, 2014.

_____________ “I want everyone to join my mission to reduce the suicidal rates.” Maria Sanchez____________

The AFSP is a foundation that informs people about saving lives, and brings hope to those who lost someone to suicide through education and community programs. The foundation develops suicide prevention through research. The foundation provides a donation walk called Out of the Darkness for this community to donate to the cause, walk amongst each other, and more.

According to the AFSP website, suicide is the second leading cause of death in New Jersey for people ages 25 to 34, and the third cause for people ages 15 to 24. The website also says, “There is no single cause for suicide, but often occurs when stressors exceed the current coping abilities of someone suffering from a mental health condition.”

“I want everyone to join my mission to reduce the suicide rates,” Maria said. “After my son passed I saw there were a few suicides in Hudson and Bergen Counties, and I thought it’d be good thing to raise awareness for someone going through depression.”

The foundation gave Maria the opportunity to research depression and mental health conditions more. “I started looking at the signs for depression, and back then his death caught me off guard, but now looking at his behavior, I see this is why he was not leaving his room or not eating well,” Maria said. “He used to tell me he was okay, but he wasn’t.”

“When my brother passed, it was out of the blue, and we understood his problems, but we never thought he’d cope that way,” Jeannette said. “After he passed, away my mom, dad Jorge, and younger brother, Jaylan,12, were looking for support groups and counselors for my youngest brother, who was 10 at the time.”

Jeanette added, “There’s nothing in the immediate vicinity in North Bergen. There is [an annual Walk] in Jersey City and in Secaucus, and we got in contact with a coordinator for North Jersey.”

The Sanchezes went on their first suicide awareness walk at the shore to see how it would turn out. They had almost 70 family members and friends join them the first time.

“For our second year we decided to do something in North Bergen, because we were sure so many families were going through the same thing,” Jeanette said. “It brings my mother peace to meet other families who have gone through it, because they understand each other.”

This year, they will have 50 or more people join them.

“I just wanted everyone to know about depression, and that this is okay to talk about, so I wanted to bring the walk to North Bergen,” Maria said.

“The walk is a great place to start a conversation, and to honor the ones we lost.” Jeanette said. “When we started the walk, people asked if it’s okay to bring kids, because parents are scared to talk about suicide because some think it plants ideas in their heads, but it’s not contagious. Suicide is a mental health condition, and it’s ok to speak of.”

Jeanette added, “It gives people with conditions the forum to speak about it and how they feel. If they have negative thoughts, or if they want to inflict harm on themselves they can talk about it without feeling ostracized. Before we went to the first walk we thought we were the only ones going through it, so you kind of feel like you stick out like a sore thumb, and in these walks you see how many people are affected by it.”

Join them

The Out of the Darkness community walk in North Bergen is Sunday, Sept. 18 in James Braddock Park at the Bruin Stadium Football Field. Check-in and registration begin at 12 p.m. The walk begins at 1 p.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. Online registration closes at noon the Friday before the walk. However, anyone who would like to participate can register in person at the walk from the time check-in begins until the walk starts.

To talk to Maria or Jeanette about the walk and donations, call 917-755-4877, 201-978-1115, or email nboutofthedarkness@gmail.com.

Donations are accepted until Dec. 31 at the walk or online at http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=3982

Recently Secaucus also held an Out of the Darkness walk on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Mill Creek Point Park, and raised $905 so far.

Funds raised by Maria or Jeanette or other people go toward various community initiatives. North Bergen will host presentations about suicide and mental health for the public and trainings for emergency responders. The locations for these presentations and trainings have not yet been announced.

Groups in North Bergen already raised $14,000, and almost reached their goal of $15,000 from the walk and other activities this year.

Visit http://afsp.donordrive.com to learn more or make a donation.

Samantha Meyers can be reached at samantham@hudsonreporter.com.