BELLE FOURCHE—With the 6th annual Belle Fourche Out of the Darkness Walk about one month away, September 19, co-directors Amanda Kramp and Sonia Ribordy held a gathering to provide an opportunity for all team leaders to come together and support each other. The Hitching Post Tap House hosted Heart of the Walk: Captain Gathering on the evening of August 11.
The Out of the Darkness Walk is held yearly to raise awareness about mental health and support suicide prevention. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is a nonprofit organization that advocates for suicide prevention and mental health laws and education. They have chapters in all 50 states.
The Belle Fourche Out of the Darkness Walk co-directors are actively seeking new team leaders for the upcoming walk. Anyone can be a team leader. “It’s really any size, I mean, we have had people sign up as just one person and that’s it—they’re team captain of their own team,” explained Kramp. “Teams just get more people involved. As a team captain you can sign more people up for it and bring more people into the walk—trying to be the person to pull everyone together. Obviously, the more people that are there and participate then the bigger the turnout is for it and the more people are made aware.”
Money raised from the walk helps support the South Dakota chapters in providing educational resources and healing support for suicide loss survivors. “There are 16 teams right now and 83 participants. We’ve already raised $11,000 for it,” shared Kramp.
The evening was an informal gathering meant to help team captains in any way they needed, to inform them on ways to expand their teams and to learn about the difference they are making in the community. The Hitching Post provided seasoned tots and cookies along with a variety of refreshments to go along with the informative evening. A variety of handouts and educational SWAG was given out.
If you are interested in leading a team but you didn’t make it to the event, there is still plenty of time to sign up. You can reach out to Sonia or Amanda and they can direct you on the process, or you can go to the website and sign up on your own. “Just Google ‘Out of the Darkness Walk Belle Fourche’ and you’ll go to register for it— you’ll go through and put all your information in and create your team,’ said Kramp.
If you are unable to preregister online, that is no problem! Kramp said, “we also have a lot of people that register the day of the walk too. They don’t want to do it online, so they just come to the walk and register. We also get a lot of donations the day of too—people just get checks or cash on that same day.”
Make plans to participate in this year’s Out of the Darkness Walk in Belle Fourche. Check-in begins at 8 a.m. on September 19 at Herrmann Park. Participants can walk the entire route or stay close to Herrmann Park and walk laps there.
There will be a variety of stations set up along the path, including but not limited to a water station, a welcome station, a bubble gum station, a dog watering station and a pebbles and pedals station. “So the pedals are if you are just walking in remembrance of someone and you want to release a petal, you can release that,” explained Ribordy. “If you’ve got a lot of worries and stuff and you’re walking through, that pebble is to drop it—you can just leave it there for that day, that moment anyway.”
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