By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
For those experiencing suicide loss, the holiday season can feel empty and lonely. Luckily, organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recognize this need for connection, and as such, prepare events like the International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day, which allows community members to connect and bring joy into the bleak moments of each other’s lives.
For the Castle Country, the AFSP International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day event takes place on Saturday, Nov. 22, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Carbon Country Club.
To discuss the event, Suicide Prevention Liaison for Four Corners Community Behavioral Health, Amanda McIntosh, joined the KOAL newsroom to preview what the event has in store for attendees.
“Every year, the Saturday before Thanksgiving we hold International Survivors of Suicide Lost Day where we bring community members together that have that shared loss of suicide,” explained McIntosh of the event. “We are doing it again this year at the Country Club and We’re putting on a free brunch for our attendees and just looking forward to bringing the community within a community of survivors of suicide loss.”
Despite its name, the event is not exclusive to survivors of suicide loss, instead giving an opportunity for the broader community to participate. “Non-survivors of suicide loss are more than welcome to join us, too, because grief is hard no matter how you lose somebody. It is a difficult emotion that we think we’re prepared for until it happens. And some losses hit us differently than others, so we don’t want to pigeonhole our resources to just those who have lost somebody to suicide. We definitely want to invite the community as a whole. If you are grieving this holiday season, please come and join us and take part in the activities.”
In addition to the brunch, the event will also offer several activities to help keep the memories of those we lost alive. “This year, we’re actually putting together a quilt at the statewide level, and so each survivor of suicide loss day event is going to be featuring a quilt designing activity where you get to design a quilt square in remembrance and honor of the one that you have lost. And then at the end of all of these events, they’ll go to our board member, Laura, and her committee will put it together and then it will be on display for when we attend Advocacy Action Day in February up at the hill.”
Additionally, McIntosh is putting together an in memoriam slideshow for the community: “We talked about our loved ones and what made them special, what makes them so lovable and so missed. And so we want to make sure that their faces are remembered, too. We want to put faces to names, so if you have a loved one and you’re planning to join us, please feel free to email me your loved one’s pictures and their dates no later than Friday, Nov. 21. You can email that to me at aMcIntosh@fourcorners.ws. You can call me at 702-419-3471 and text me the information or call me to get more information.”
Closing our conversation, McIntosh shared,” We talked about connection a lot in this interview, and it really is a community within a community. There is no other place where you will find a more accepting, loving, supportive, and compassionate group than our survivors of suicide loss. They will welcome you with open arms. They will want to know your story. They will want to know about your loved one. And isn’t that what it’s all about, just remembering our loved one, right?”
International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day takes place on Saturday, Nov. 22, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Carbon Country Club. The event is free, but registration is required. Registration is available online here.