Remembering Jake

Boston Out of Darkness Trip

2500 Walkers Raise 2.9 Million dollars to help prevent suicide. Our walk took a little more than 6 hours to complete 15.2 miles. The last 2 hours in heavy rain and strong winds. We met many people along the walk with stories similar to ours. In then end, we were all soaking wet and tired, but nothing would stop us from finishing. To me the most powerful part of the walk was the liminaries all lit up at the end of the walk.

A couple shocking facts I learned: Every Day 22 US Veterans Commit Suicide. 1.5% of College Students attempt suicide and 6% of all college students have Seriously considered committing suicide in the last year. Jake was certainly not alone, rare or statistically insignificant. As a parent, no matter how much love, time, energy, worry, hope and advice you give a child, there's no guarantee this will not happen.

This is our team before the start of the walk

Each Walker wears beads representing why they walk. Our entire team wore Blue and Teal in honor of thoese we know and don't know struggling with suicide. Eileen and I wore White for Jake. Sam and Caitiln wore Orange for Jake.

Start of the Race 2500 people all leaving at once

And then the Rain and Wind came

Every person doing the walk made special Luminaries in honor of the person they walk for. A couple of Jake's are pictured in the groups below. I spent a long time reading many of these, very powerful and sad.