WASHINGTON — Students from Forest Park High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, held their 4th annual Suicide Awareness Walk Saturday. Hundreds of students and families came out, all in support of removing the stigma associated with mental health, bullying and suicide.
Valerie Evenki is a senior at Forest Park High School and says the walk was initially a classroom project but has transformed into a 6-mile walk to highlight serious issues.
“A lot of people, including myself, they suffer from depression and anxiety and it’s not really acknowledged,” Evenki said.
Organizers of Saturday’s event say suicide is the third leading cause of death among students ages 15 to 24.
Arturo Barrera, also a senior at Forest Park High, said he walked for his friend, Junior.
“I have a friend named Junior. He killed himself last year,” Barrera said.
He said reminding students and families to support one another is how change starts.
“I feel like we share a common cause,” he added.
Brent Freeze was also in attendance. He lost his daughter, Payton, to suicide in 2016. With a table set up in his daughter’s honor at the 4th annual Suicide Walk, he says there’s a hunger for education and change.
“We have to support each other and until going through the agony of losing someone that you love, you never know the pain,” Freeze said.
Through the creation of the Freeze Bullying Scholarship, he’s helping remind students they are never alone. He says so far, they’ve provided $25,000 in scholarships.
“They need to be told that being a good person has value,” he said.
