UNI Out of the Darkness Walk for Suicide Prevention

LAUREN MCGUILL Staff Writer

UNI gave a positive start to April as it hosted its annual Out of the Darkness walk for suicide prevention on Saturday, April 1st. The walk is one of many across the country that helps fund research on suicide prevention, suicide prevention programs, advocating for public policy, and supporting survivors of suicide loss. The walk also allows those who have been affected by suicide to connect with each, along with helping to reduce the stigma around suicide and mental health.

Chelsea Eilers is a second year masters student in the School Counseling program here at UNI, and was one of the walk coordinators for the Out of the Darkness walk this year, alongside Jessie Harder, another second year master’s student in the mental health counseling program at UNI. Eilers and Harder are both members of Chi Sigma Iota, or CSI, a counseling honor society that has been in charge of putting on the Out of the Darkness walk at UNI in the past, yet this year, Out of the Darkness became its own student organization –and their first walk went great. “The walk was such a success! I’m not going to lie, on Thursday and

Rotc Protection Class

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“When [ROTC] partnered with Green Dot, I wanted to make sure we got their take on it, so I asked Green Dot employees what we should focus on. If college students are walking home from the bars, if they’re in a relationship of any sort and it becomes abusive, this class will focus on a lot of those types of things, giving examples of real world situations and how to handle them,” said Lawson.

“[Marti] brought it up that this is a good class for anyone who wants to be aware of their surroundings. So it’s not necessarily a self defense class, they might throw a little bit of that in it, but it’s a class to inform people to look up from their cell phones, or if you have your airpods in, to still be looking around and being aware of what’s going on around you.

Friday before the event I was watching the weather and I was so nervous that no one would show up because it was incredibly cold and windy. But we had a great turnout! I would say about 225 people were in attendance. I think it speaks to the dedication that our community has to suicide prevention and the impact that we want to see in suicide prevention,” said Eilers. Last year UNI’s Out of the Darkness walk raised $9,500 and this year they knocked their $10,000 goal out of the park by raising almost $16,000. The walk also helped to raise people’s spirits about a topic that typically causes much grief and heartbreak.

“One of the phrases best used to describe Out of the Darkness is ‘you are not alone.’ This event showed me exactly that. So many people coming together for suicide prevention reminded me of that message. The whole event was great to be a part of but most importantly was the reason why we were all there. At the end of the walk, we all wrote on a blue flag why we walked then lined the remainder of the sidewalk with the flags. It was such a cool visual of our shared mission and individual stories coming together,” Samantha Phab said, who was a part of the walk at UNI.

The start of Iowa has three more walks planned, the first at Iowa State University in Ames on

This class helps you focus on what to look for in terms of your surroundings so you can get yourself out of a potentially threatening situation.” explained Lawson.

Major Jodi Marti will be one of the instructors of the class, along with Ray Boyer, who instructs personal protection classes in the Des Moines area with Marti. Boyer has an extensive history with law enforcement and protection classes.

Along with the classes in Des Moines, Boyer is an associate and lead instructor with Sharkey’s Karate Studio in Chicago since 1998, is a firearms instructor and a corporate security and safety advisor. Boyer will share statistics and experiences from his time as an Urbandale Reserve officer, as well as the information he’s acquired from interviewing multiple inmates about who they tend to target and why.

Boyer will ask for male

April and female volunteers and show them how easy it is to be a target, and also how strength and size isn’t a sure way to get out of a situation. Since this is the first class, it is being targeted specifically for ROTC cadets to take, but if the class goes well, Lawson plans for it to be open to campus either annually or once a semester, starting next fall. “In the future I want it to be campus wide for everyone to come, so that they can have the training from Green Dot that they can use and they have this personal protection class,” said Lawson. April is the official month for sexual harassment and sexual assault awarness and prevention, and the next Green Dot training session will be April 13, at 3 p.m. in Rod Library.