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Community Corner

Annual Suicide Prevention 5K Run/Walk a Success

An estimated 250 participants and a number of onlookers and volunteers gathered at Ridley Creek State Park on May 7 to support the cause of suicide prevention and awareness.

The Delaware County Suicide Prevention and Awareness Task Force, in conjunction with Run the Day (a race management company that handles hundreds of races in the Philadelphia area), hosted another successful outing on a beautiful Saturday to remind people of the very real public health issue of suicide. It was the organization's sixth annual run/walk event, the last five of which have been at .

Nineteen companies sponsored the event, including a large amount of food and drinks donated by Dunkin Donuts, Giant, Mary Mullholland, WalMart and Wawa, and the Task Force themselves generously brought over 30 boxes of pizza. All refreshments were free of charge to attendees.

Beneath pavillion #17, the picnic tables were lined with prevention and awareness literature from health institutions like The Horsham Clinic and Crozer-Chester Medical Center, as well as raffle prizes that included gift cards, clothing and a framed movie poster.

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Surrounding the pavillion were signs outlining the myths and realities of those suffering from suicidal feelings and maps with color-coded thumbtacks showing the numbers of suicides in every township of Delaware County since 2001, helping to bring home the stark reality that this happens every year, all around us.

Nikole Heilmann, co-chair of programs and events for the Task Force, estimated about 250 participants in this year's 5K.

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"It's a good-sized turnout. Not as many as last year's due to a suicide cluster that happened at Interboro High School," said Heilmann.

"But obviously we're happy to have fewer people turn out for this, and no suicide cluster this year," added Colleen Healy, the current chair of the Task Force.

The Task Force was founded in 2002 by a small number of suicide survivors with the goal of trying to spread awareness that suicide is a very real public health threat, and to reduce the stigma levied against those committing and attempting suicide. "It's just as much an affliction as heart disease or cancer," said Healy.

The Task Force has grown since then and is no longer populated by only those who have directly lost someone to suicide. Saturday's event featured over 30 volunteers, including Amanda Boccelli, a junior at , who that went on T-shirts worn by dozens of attendees. Boccelli is also a member of LETS.org (Let's Remove the Stigma) and has started a chapter at the high school.

The race kicked off at 9:30 a.m., and 26-year-old Stan Walerski of Phoenixville was the first to travel the entire 5K, which he did it in 18:53. His younger brother, Brent, 23, wasn't far behind him, coming in third overall.

Marie Fudala, 41, came in fifth overall, winning the gold medal for the women. Dante Falasco, 9, of Broomall, who lost an uncle to suicide in 1994, finished first in the 14-and-under category.

Many participants were there for the message only, and completed the 5k at a brisk walk. One such walker, Kim Dorwart, lost her daughter Vanessa in February of 2010, part of the Interboro cluster.

Dorwart is a member of the Facebook group Putting a Face on Suicide, and has been busy since her daughter's death. After claims that she had been villified by specific news outlets, Dorwart has been working hard to change legislation in schools to make the topic of suicide awareness more prominent, even mandatory.

"They think that if they pretend it doesn't exist, then it'll just go away on its own," said an impassioned Dorwart. "They talk about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and tobacco...this needs to be handled like those things. Kids need to know they have resources at school, people they can talk to."

Dorwart and several others wore matching T-shirts memorializing Vanessa, and Kim wore a poster attached to the back of her shirt with the compelling and haunting image of her daughter's face composed of 95 smaller faces—the average number of suicides that take place in America every day.

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