While keeping social distance, Sacramento women will come together to walk for suicide

The Boss Ass Women of Sacramento are hosting a socially distanced suicide prevention walk to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The event, scheduled for Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon, will begin at Oak Park Brewery and will loop up and down Broadway.

Mari Padilla, the founder of BAWS, is organizing the walk as a way of bringing awareness to suicide prevention and raising money for AFSP. BAWS support women in the Sacramento area, especially with entrepreneurial issues.

While AFSP typically holds an annual walk called “Out of the Darkness” — complete with resources, community groups and support systems — the event has gone virtual this year. Due to the coronavirus, the organization will host a livestream on Sept. 26 featuring pictures of participants walking on their own and wearing AFSP clothing and signs.

Padilla said that BAWS had a team that participated last year, and she wanted to be able to unite the organization again this year. With no more than 100 people expected to attend BAWS event, Padilla believes the walk will be appropriately distanced.

While the walk hosted by Padilla is completely separate from the virtual AFSP event, the proceeds will go toward the organization. The suicide prevention group uses funding for implementing educational programs, developing community resources for loss survivors and the community and helps fund research into suicide.

For AFSP, the annual Out of the Darkness walk is both a fundraising opportunity and a connection point to unite the community. Rashell Choo and Sara Benedict, coordinators of the ASFP Out of the Darkness Experience, are trying to make the event resemble the in-person experience of connecting with others despite the challenges of virtual events.

“Just to be able to go and to see other people who are in the same boat as you and to talk to people who have experienced what you’ve experienced is huge. It’s very healing,” Benedict said.

To try to encourage some of that community building, a photo booth complete with AFSP merchandise, signs and honor beads, detailing different connections people have with suicide, will be available to the public at Tomato Alley Collective on Friday and Saturday.

Photos from the booth will accompany photos from walks like the one organized by BAWS in the event livestream to show everyone who supports the mission of AFSP.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, Benedict emphasized that AFSP is not receiving as much money as normal, which is a trend seen across many organizations.

“Depression and anxiety is on the rise with the whole pandemic thing going on, so it’s more important now than ever to raise these important funds,” Benedict said.

Registration for the virtual event is free, though the organization asks that people donate what they can to support AFSP, at afsp.org/sacramentowalk. The livestream and donation information will also be available at the website.

This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.