Suicide Awareness Voices of Education CNY held its eighth annual Stride to SAVE Lives 5k Sept. 15, where close to 400 members of the community gathered in the Hewitt Ballroom at Oswego State to support the organization’s cause.
Partnered with Clubhouse Project, a program at Oswego County Opportunities for young people ages 17 to 21, SAVE CNY chose this year’s theme of the event to be “rewrite your story today.”
“Only you have the ability to rewrite or change how you live your life, no one else,” said Jamie Leszczynski, Oswego alumna and head of SAVE CNY. “You can choose to change anything about your story. You are your own author, so grab a pen.”
Mary Jay Olalekan, a junior at Oswego State, has been volunteering for the Stride to SAVE Lives event since her first year at college.
“A couple years ago, I lost a friend to suicide, and now I have an appreciation for life,” Olalekan said. “I appreciate everybody who asks for help, and I want to help other people and make sure everybody feels appreciated and loved, so I always come every year to volunteer. It’s really nice to see everyone come out, and it’s like a family that I want to be part of forever to talk about mental health everywhere.”
The guest speaker, a young woman named Taylor, described her experience with self harm and suicide ideation beginning when she was in the eighth grade after the loss of her grandfather, the loss of her older sister and dealing with the difficulty of coming out as bisexual. After being bullied and catfished, her family got her help.
Although she said she had dips in her mental health, she succeeded in graduating high school early and has a support group. She said she now has the means to cope with depression and has the proper resources to help her. She urged everyone in the audience to talk about their feelings and get help like she did.
“It means so much to me that this is still going and that there are this many people to support a cause because I’ve been through this first-hand, and I know it’s hard, but it does get better,” Taylor said. “I learned that mental illness isn’t just this stigma; it isn’t just being a little weird, seeing things, hearing things, doing things. It’s all just people who need help.”
Organized by Leszczynski, SAVE CNY was the first of 18 charters of the national organization. Daniel Reidenberg, executive director of SAVE, said it is the leading national nonprofit working to prevent suicide through public awareness, education and training, reduce stigma around suicide and mental health and be a resource for those who have been touched by suicide.
“This is a topic that a lot of people don’t want to talk about; this is an issue that is very hard for people to understand,” Reidenberg said. “It is through events like this that can break down the stigma, the shame and taboo of the topics of mental health and suicide.”
Attendance was half of what it was last year, and the amount raised was about $13,000 less. The donated funds raised go toward the community programs that SAVE CNY holds throughout the year, including education, support groups and trainings.
“Honestly, this year, we were down in both attendance and total fundraised,” Leszczynski said. “I am hoping that is simply because less people have been impacted and they don’t need our event as support.”
Photo by Kassadee Paulo | The Oswegonian
