Suicide Prevention Walk - By: Kelli Gunder

The suicide prevention walk was a total success for the surviving families and friends of suicide(at least I feel it was)

First off, I raised $90 ($40 , I donated myself) for the cause..THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
It is a difficult time with this economy to get anyone to donate.Turns out that we raised @ $30,000 that will go towards counseling and prevention of suicide.

The weekend started off very badly. Nothing but rain and wind (East Chicago) so there was a concern about the walk being cancelled.

There were so many families and friends of the deceased there with posters, pictures, tee shirts, small children in strollers to the elderly that were being pushed in wheel chairs. It was very touching to know that even though our loved ones are gone in body that they are not gone in spirit.

So, like I said, we had miserable weather. According to the news they were about to put Munster on evacuation notice due to flooding. But to our surprise we made it to the walk and stormed the weather.

It was scary to know that I was thinking about myself getting wet and rained on and maybe getting sick when all of these survivors of suicide were braving the weather right beside me, I needed an attitude adjustment. So with all the rain coming down and all the folks holding the banners and signs,and pictures( and umbrellas )of the loved ones,(no one complaining @ weather out loud) we started the 3 mile walk around the lake. No sooner did started walking with umbrellas, raincoats and ponchos etc.........THE RAIN AND WIND STOPPED..........that was my attitude adjustment/reality check. We even had a small peek of sunshine.

So the walk ended and we start to leave the park to return to everyday living again, it starts to rain again, even harder now........WOW...........but everyone is thankful that it stopped raining long enough to walk the lake. Now comes the 4 hour ride home to Fort Wayne in the pouring rain..... we get on I80-90 toll road and we see the opposite direction has MAJOR congestion for as far as we can see, as a matter of fact, we were traveling uphill onto off ramps and merges and we were still hydroplaning (looked like we were driving up a small waterfall) We made it home safely (and it was still raining in Fort Wayne) They ended up shutting down the toll road due to high water(not until we were safely off it, thankfully)

I'm still not sure why it stopped raining just long enough for everyone to finish the walk. Was someone looking down on us? Giving us a break? Or why the toll road didn't get shut down until we were done using it.

I do know that I met A LOT of wonderful people from different ethnic groups, political views, ages, rich, poor, the list can go on and on............

I learned a humbling lesson with this fundraiser

I am BLESSED to have the life I have
I may have a bad day
I may get sick
I may get well
I may get enlightened
I may be distressed
I may be depressed or sad
I may be happy

Any way you look at it.......ITS MY DAY.............and I am alive spiritually and physically

Thanks for all the support........
Kelli Gunder