Written by Aerial Whiting
At the 10th annual Stride to Prevent Suicide, about 450 participants helped raise awareness — and approximately $20,000 — for suicide prevention.The Stride to Prevent Suicide took place at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 2, in Spring Park, where people from the community engaged in either a 5K or 1-mile run/walk to raise funds for a nonprofit, the Dr. Robert E. Elliott Foundation, which offers free programs such as monthly Survivors of Suicide meetings and seminars on understanding depression. The foundation was started in 2002 in honor of Elliott, who committed suicide in 2001.Laurie Swain, board president of the foundation, said in her introduction Saturday that although depression is the most treatable psychiatric illness, a person dies by suicide every 15 minutes.”[These people are] someone’s parent, someone’s child, someone’s spouse, someone’s friend,” Swain said. “And so the work of the foundation here is to raise awareness of the disease of depression, to prevent suicide, to save lives and restore hope.”Swain said she has served on the board for six years because she believes it is important to educate the public about depression and preventing suicide. She added that 80 to 90 percent of people who receive treatment for depression recover but that when depression remains untreated, it can cause a person to lose contact with reality.Several Harding students, like junior David King, said they attended the Stride to Prevent Suicide because they viewed it as a form of Christian ministry. This was King’s first time to run in this event, and he said he thought it was an excellent way for people to unite and to draw attention to the problem of depression.”I’m really glad I came. Before I came, I couldn’t quite imagine how this event would raise awareness or help the problem,” King said. “It makes more sense after coming because we ran through town; people in the community can become a part of it, just anybody and see it going on even if they didn’t know about it before. I think it’s a great way to have a community learn to see each other and group together.”Harding Students for Life, a pro-life student organiza- tion that formed earlier this semester, joined the Stride to Prevent Suicide with about 13 members. Vice president and junior Ashley Shelton, who also participated last year, said the mission of the Elliott Foundation coincides with the group’s mission to promote the value of life. “The foundation is trying to save lives through this awareness, and I think that Students for Life are trying to raise aware- ness about all pro-life issues, so it interconnects perfect,” Shelton said.Some of the attendees have friends or relatives who battled depression or have lost their lives to suicide.Participating for her first time in the Stride to Prevent Suicide, sophomore Erin Grant, president of Harding Students for Life, said she knows people who have struggled with depression.”I think that just about everybody knows somebody in that situation, whether they realize that their friend is going through [depression] or not, and as Christians, we should support life in general because every person is worth it,” Grant said.
