The Overnight Walk 2009

I will be walking this June for a cause that has no familiar ties to my life. I didn't lose a relative or a friend to this maladity. I simply heard about someone from someone else that came close to the edge. My walk is for suicide prevention.

It's been a long journey so far. Some sympathize with the cause and contribute. Others seem to sympathize but either they do not believe this is something preventable, feel it's something that the person "chose", or they are all "given out"; too many groups needing help, too little money to give TO help.

My goal with a blog is two-fold...to raise awareness and hopefully raise funds. The Overnight Walk by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention requires a minimum of $1,000 to walk in their event. For a split second, in the beginning, this seemed like too much for me to raise. But then God took over. I'm at about 32% of my goal at this time.

Team Resounding Grace, which includes myself and my friend Shannan, is driven to bring to light this shrouded condition of depression and the act of suicide. It affects anyone and everyone somehow. Postpartum moms, doctors, the elderly (for whom I wrote "The Senior"), college-age students, high schoolers, fathers, mothers, the unemployed. If there is something that made your world seemingly fall apart, you may have been on the edge too.

The AFSP raises funds to use in researching the cause of depression. Every 16 minutes, someone falls vicitim to suicide. I'm not waiting until someone close to me gets there...I'm taking a stand now for them and others who suffer in silence in their situations or who suffer from the loss of someone dear to them.

I hope you will join us.

www.theovernight.org/team/resoundinggrace
Walker: Annette Hernandez