On April 30, Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Phi Omega will hold their second annual walk, Out of the Darkness, sponsored by the Community Counseling Center, as a way to help raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Jasmine Lewis is a senior at Southeast and president of Delta Sigma Theta. She also is a specialist in the Army National Guard, not to mention a single mother, and is the chair for the event. This is not just another event put on by the Deltas to her, but the last that Lewis will get to have established and finished before she graduates.

Lewis’ college education has been long and enduring. Being a full-time student with a full-time load is never a reason for Lewis to ever think it is too much, but rather that it must be done. Her eye is on the prize of graduating and being back in the same city as her daughter. As a member of Delta Sigma Theta, it has become her mission to have the organization’s name forever associated with the Out of the Darkness walks.

Lewis said she will not allow the ball to be dropped during her watch. The day will include sign-up and registration and the two-mile walk around campus, after which everyone will meet in front of Kent Library. There will be a performance by the STEP UP Leadership Academy youth group. They will be stomping out the stigma of suicide.

The two speakers will be Dr. Victor Wilbur, a professor of child development at Southeast, and student Stephanie Hoyt.

“Numerous people suffer in silence afraid to speak out about such a topic because they do not want to make others uneasy,” Hoyt said.

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 16 and 24. It represents a crisis of the individual, the family and, in many respects, the community,” Wilbur said. “It is often the case that as young people struggle to become part of the vast systems of their communities and live up to the expectations of their families and friends, some find the task insurmountable.”

Last year’s turnout for the walk was around 100. This year, the Deltas hope for a bigger turnout and a greater impression on the community.

Lewis said she did not think the tug on her heart would be for suicide prevention, but she loves it. She feels that her own personal story of dealing with depression and being in a dark place led her to where she is now, that if it was not for her support system of sorority sisters and family in St. Louis, she would not have made it this far.

For Lewis, this is another way to give back. She said there is no way she could not help the next person up after all the help she received when she was where they are now. She hopes she is setting a good example for the next person to come after her and make an even greater influence than she is leaving.

“I feel that by sharing my story, even if just one life is saved, that I am fulfilling my purpose of showing that suicide is real, depression is real and mental illness is real, and they all need to be acknowledged,” Lewis said

Wilbur agreed.

“There is no greater struggle than a struggle in isolation,” Wilbur said. “There is no greater recovery than the collective awareness that there is value in us all.”