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Participants walked one mile around campus with signs and beads, advocating for greater funding for mental health resources.
LMU hosted its first Out of Darkness Walk on Friday, April 5 and fundraised over $4,000 for mental health resources and bring awareness for suicide prevention. The one-mile walk was put on in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), ASLMU and Agapé Service Organization.
The event started at St. Robert’s Auditorium, where tables from organizations and programs such as Over the Hump Initiative, Lions for Recovery and Wellness Educators hosted activities and information booths. The walk around campus began with a ceremony where participators took bead necklaces to represent their relation to mental health struggle and suicide prevention, whether it be personal reasons, a friend who suffers or a family member who has passed away.
“We do a little ceremony with the beads where they’ll announce what each bead is, and people will raise up the bead. We look around the room so that people know they’re not alone and why they’re here and why they’re walking. Everyone is there to support each other for the cause,” shared Chloe Barsness, president of Agapé and senior political science major.
Students sought to boost community through the walk, as over 120 individuals participated in the event, according to Kelly Manning, special events manager for the greater Los Angeles and central coast chapter of the ASFP.
Students wear different colored beads to remind themselves why they were walking, whether for themselves, their friends or family.
“Mental health is very prevalent in society, regardless, but especially on college campuses. For me, personally, I definitely feel it’s exacerbated to an extent due to the fact that it’s the first time that a lot of people are living on their own … Thankfully, a lot of people do have a support system they can lean on. However, for those of us who don’t, it’s even more difficult,” said Logan Venhoff, a sophomore political science and journalism double major.
Additionally, the event had alternative options for those who wished to participate outside of walking.
“We have stationary activities that can be enjoyed indoors if people don’t want to partake — or can’t partake — in the walk. We’ve really put a lot of thought into making sure it’s an inclusive environment, especially because there’s so many beautiful people out there that have different beautiful needs, so we wanted to make sure everyone’s included,” shared Frances Dygean, a junior biology major and a coordinator of the walk.
Participants hold hands as they walk, supporting and uplifting each other as part of the event’s mental health mission.
The event sought to raise awareness for the need for adequate resources on campus and create a community of like-minded mental health advocates. Proceeds went to AFSP’s “research, education, advocacy and survivor programs,” according to Manning.
“Participants gathered together at our Walks are part of a national movement to spread awareness and show their peers and communities that they are not alone and suicide can no longer be ignored. In attending our events, it’s my hope that together we can raise understanding of mental health and how to be there for each other, including ourselves, when someone is struggling,” stated Manning in an email to the Loyolan.
Additionally, Dygean, a member of the women’s swim team, noted the importance of prioritizing mental health resources given the decision this year to discontinue several sports. “This walk is pretty meaningful to me and probably the athletics community, due to what has happened with sports being cut. Those are [the] kind of avenues that we seek to build up our mental stamina and mental health, and I think there’s a lot of people in the LMU community suffering right now because of that … I can sense that from a lot of just my own teammates,” shared Dygean.
While this was the first Out of Darkness Walk on campus, Dygean and other organizers hope for more similar events on campus that advocate for mental health.
