A 3K walk raised about $10,000 on Saturday, with roughly half of it going toward establishing a suicide prevention and advocacy group at UF.
A group of about 120 UF students and Gainesville-area residents marched about 2 miles through UF’s campus as a part of the second annual Out of the Darkness Campus Walk, hosted by a UF student organization of the same name.
The organization has raised $10,200 total so far but will continue raising money until June to donate to the university and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said Jaclyn Krantzler, a UF statistics junior who organized the event.
Krantzler said half of this year’s funds will be used for UF to create a suicide prevention and advocacy group, while the other half will be donated to the AFSP.
Krantzler said she organized the walk, which started at 9 a.m. on Flavet Field, to help reduce the stigma around suicide and encourage people to talk about it. Before and after the walk, speakers shared their experiences with suicide and stories of how they lost others.
“There were a lot of tears in general,” Krantzler said. “People really resonated with some of the stories.”
The group raised more than double what they raised last year, when about 50 people attended and raised $2,700, she said.
While walking, participants wore colored beads that indicated why they were participating, with reasons including the loss of friends or loved ones.
Hanna Clayton, a UF English sophomore, said the colored beads were an expression of unity.
“Other people can visualize that you are not alone, and there are so many other people going through situations like this,” the 19-year-old said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
