Walking and talking about suicide

The Long Beach Board Walk will be turned into a walk of remembrance and awareness as the Long Island Crisis Center hosts its first suicide awareness walk on Oct. 25.

The walk, called “Let’s Walk, Let’s Talk...Stepping Together to Prevent Suicide,” is being hosted to help raise awareness about and funds for the Crisis Center.

“There’s a two-prong goal, but the most important goal is community awareness of our community intervention services,” said Linda Leonard, executive director of the Long Island Crisis Center. “Because for almost 40 years, the Long Island Crisis Center has been the lead agency for suicide prevention in Nassau County.”

Among the services it provides, all free of charge, the Crisis Center has a 24-hour hotline that those who are contemplating suicide can call. The center runs a community outreach program in which calls are made to individuals who are thinking about suicide, and there is also a community education program, which helps to educate children and teens about suicide prevention. The center also has online counseling, which is tailored more towards young people.

“But it’s very difficult for us to get publicity to do outreach,” Leonard said. “So Legislator Denise Ford saw that need and thought that people should know we’re here.”

Ford has been involved with the Crisis Center for some time, and has always been a supporter of it and the services it provides.

“I am very pleased to be associated with this outstanding agency,” Ford said in a release. “With Long Islanders struggling in these very tough times, Long Island Crisis Center’s mission is more relevant than ever.”

The other goal of the walk is to raise money for the Crisis Center, which has seen budget cuts recently. Leonard said the goal was $10,000.

Registration for the walk can be done in advance online at the Crisis Center’s Web site, www.longislandcrisiscenter.org. Those who wish to participate can also sign up the morning of the walk, starting at 11 a.m., with the walk itself starting at noon. Those who bring in $100 will receive a T-shirt. The walk will have raffles, including prizes of a Nintendo Wii and an iPod, and there will also be a DJ and free food. “Any event that I run is going to have food,” Leonard said.

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