Comments on: AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk – will you help me to prevent suicide? http://lifev2.net/2008/10/10/afsp-out-of-the-darkness-walk-will-you-help-me-to-prevent-suicide/ Wed, 16 May 2012 02:43:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Susan C http://lifev2.net/2008/10/10/afsp-out-of-the-darkness-walk-will-you-help-me-to-prevent-suicide/#comment-1855 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:33:15 +0000 http://lifev2.wordpress.com/?p=548#comment-1855 Hi Dori -

Thank you for sharing this. I would love to be more involved with the community walks. I will connect with you directly.

]]> By: Dori Radtke http://lifev2.net/2008/10/10/afsp-out-of-the-darkness-walk-will-you-help-me-to-prevent-suicide/#comment-1854 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:40:00 +0000 http://lifev2.wordpress.com/?p=548#comment-1854 Hi,
I’m Dori Radtke, Walk Chair for this year’s Out of the Darkness Community Walk. As I was researching any news articles from our walk this past weekend, I came across your site.

I just wanted to say thank you for attending, our turn out was fabulous and we ended the day making well over $58,000.00!! AMAZING!

I too am a suicide survivor and I’m sorry you are too. It’s a hard pain to know, nothing like I’ve ever known in my life. I lost my Great Grandfather in the 1930′s, my Grandmother when I was 10 years old and in 2004, I lost my only sibling, my beautiful big Brother Randy … all sadly to suicide. They all struggled with mental illness (manic depression/bipolar & anxiety/panic) as I do … with organizations like The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention we can come together to raise awareness.

I have to share with you a bit of an email from a woman who randomly saw our walk as she was biking around Portland.
Hi – I was riding my bike along the river front today in Portland, and saw a community walk coming at me. I pulled aside to show some respect, then saw the signs and banners. Whoa! I wasn’t prepared to be remembering my friend Kelly who killed himself. As I was crying on the sideline, I was feeling better releasing some of my emotions when it struck me how many people in tiny Portland were affected by suicide. Overwhelming and heart breaking.
I thought that was so beautiful & so touching, I just wanted to share.

Please do keep in touch if you’d like … I plan to Chair the walk again next year and we’d love for you to be a part of our committee if you’d like.

Peace,
Dori Radtke
Suicide takes a life every 16 minutes

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