Breaking stigma and raising awareness

Content warning: This article discusses suicide and mental health crises. If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.

Suicide is one of the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. In 2023 alone, 12.8 million Americans seriously thought about suicide, 3.7 million made a plan and 1.5 million attempted suicide. More than 49,000 Americans died by suicide, one death every 11 minutes.

Rates are highest in veteran and LGBTQ+ populations. The CDC reports veterans have an age-adjusted suicide rate that is 57.3% greater than the non-veteran U.S. adult population. In 2021, more than a quarter (26.3%) of high school students identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual reported attempting suicide in the prior 12 months. This was five times higher than the prevalence among heterosexual students (5.2%).

Despite the commonality of this topic, many people report feeling alone when going through a mental health crisis. Whether from loneliness, shame or simply confusion on where to go, many people suffer in silence.

This year, Southwestern Community College is working to fight the stigma during their Pay It Forward Week by partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for an Out of Darkness walk. Scheduled for Thursday, April 23, the walk will begin with a journey to the gazebo north of the SWCC ag site and end with a walk south through luminaries lit on the sidewalks throughout SWCC’s student housing.

“I think it’s important that we bring to light the importance of speaking on behalf of mental health,” event coordinator and SWCC Admissions Director Lauren England said. “I work with the student ambassadors and so that was one of the reasons Terri [Higgins] reached out to me. I’m working with them and making sure all of our students are always able to know the importance of their mental health and that it’s OK to not be OK and reaching out if they need help.”

Higgins is the other coordinator for this event and serves as the director of marketing and enrollment management for the college. Through both working with students and personal struggles, Higgins is passionate about the event.

“We don’t want anybody to feel isolated. It’s just one more way that we can proactively work to bring awareness to a topic that definitely affects people of all ages,” Higgins said.

Though this is SWCC’s first Out of Darkness walk, AFSP is far from new to the idea. AFSP Iowa Area Director Amara Huffine said the first walk the organization put on was in 2005. Since then, the program has continued to grow.

“Those walks are our biggest fundraiser. They allow us to do our programming for free and ensure that we don’t have a cost barrier to anyone that needs help,” Huffine said. “We are a privately funded nonprofit, so we don’t receive any federal grants. We do sometimes receive some private grants, but the walks are how we raise the majority of our funds.”

As an organization, AFSP uses these funds to deliver suicide prevention programming, educate the public about risk factors and warning signs and connect with families who have lost someone to suicide.

“Our mission is to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide,” Huffine said. “AFSP Iowa serves the entire state of Iowa, so the funds raised stay right here in the state and help us do that work and ensure that we’re reducing the stigma.”

While the walk itself is free, participants are encouraged to raise money for the event in teams, competing to raise the most money. While it’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t been affected by suicide, one team has been recently impacted.

Local impact

Team Brain Health Matters honors the life of the late Caidynce Schwartz, who died by suicide in 2023 at 20 years of age. Schwartz was born in Creston, was a 2021 Nodaway Valley graduate and took EMT classes at SWCC. Her grandmother, Lisa Williamson, said Schwartz has inspired her family to advocate for mental health.

“We lost our granddaughter, it’ll be three years ago on April 10, to suicide. That is one of the worst things in the world to have to go through,” Williamson said. “She was an advocate for brain health. Just like your heart or a kidney or with cancer or diabetes, bain health is very, very important. She was aware of that, but we just couldn’t get her through that to the other side.”

The last two years, Williamson and her family have hosted a Brain Health Matters Walk in Greenfield to honor Schwartz and raise awareness. When she saw SWCC was hosting their own walk, Williamson knew she had to join.

“I was very happy to see that Creston, that SWCC was hosting this. The hardest part is knowing where the resources are and how to get those out to the people, so I think these walks are beneficial for that,” Williamson said. “[People] are not alone and I know that’s hard for them to understand that, but they’re not alone and they need to reach out to someone.”

Williamson said those interested are welcome to join her team. Participants can go to afspwalks.donordrive.com/swcciowa to join or start a team. However, one doesn’t have to be on a team to be a part of the event. Everyone is invited to show up, whether they’re walking or not.

“Currently we’re at 50 participants and we would love to see that number grow even more,” Higgins said. “If somebody, because of their health, cannot walk that day, we would still love to have them come and attend because the area on the east side of the student center is going to be an area of activities, refreshments, sharing, and we want everybody to fill in that area all evening long.”

Activities will begin at 5:30 p.m., while the walk will begin at 6 p.m. Attendees are invited to participate in a hope and remembrance wall, a caricature artist, bracelet making and more. A speaker will also give their story.

“We’ll have a speaker come out who has struggled with suicide herself. She’s a suicide attempt survivor, so she’ll share her story of resilience and what got her through that time,” Huffine said. “We’ll celebrate anyone who has a connection to the cause and appreciate that they’re there.”

Pay it Forward Week

The Out of Darkness walk and activities are just one part of a weeklong annual event called Pay It Forward Week. During PIF Week, SWCC students, faculty and staff get involved by encouraging positive behaviors and service to the community.

Higgins said when she was first contacted about hosting an Out of Darkness walk last September, she knew immediately when to hold it.

“Pay It Forward Week is such an obvious place for it to go because it’s a week that is all about sharing and kindness and helping and assisting others,” Higgins said.

Members of the SWCC community have events happening all week for PIF Week. Monday features a campus-wide cookout, highway cleanup and murder mystery event. Tuesday will have a mug glazing event and a doubleheader for Spartan baseball against Indian Hills.

On Wednesday, members of the entire community will come out to campus to participate in Meals from the Heartland. At the same time, students will be able to participate in a scavenger hunt starting in the Student Center.

Along with the Out of Darkness walk, Thursday hosts an Uptown cleanup and the groundbreaking for the new trades building east of Technical Center 1. Friday students are invited to “stick it to them with kindness,” featuring an offering of stickers, flowers and snacks. The final event of the week is another doubleheader for Spartan baseball on Saturday, this time against Iowa Western.

Throughout the week, students and staff will be reading to local children. Additionally, collection boxes for donations will be located in the Administration Center and library for items such as snacks, notebooks, stuffed animals, Alani drinks and more to be distributed to students during finals week. Finally, the SWCC Shoppe will feature 35% off their goods in honor of PIF week.