Community walks for suicide awareness and to remember Emily Alessi

No community is immune to loosing one of their own to suicide. A small community faces many of the same risks as do urban centers, and, according to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicides in rural areas are on the rise.

In just over three years there have been 23 suicides in the Lake Tahoe portions of El Dorado County:

May 1, 2014 - May 1, 2015 - 8 suicides

May 1, 2015 - May 31, 2016 - 4 suicides
May 31, 2016 - March 13, 2017 - 8 suicides, 4 by hanging (All local men, ages 25, 35, 37, 51) and 4 by self-inflicted gunshot wounds (Three local women ages 45, 59 and 69 and one male from out of town, age 34).
April 1, 2017 - August 27, 2017 - 3 suicides (One by gunshot, local man 52, Two by hanging, both local men ages 24 and 53).

It was because of one local young woman's suicide in 2014 that over 250 community members turned out on Sunday for the first Emily’s Walk for Hope. It was held in memory of Emily Ann Alessi, born and raised in South Lake Tahoe. She loved to snowboard, play soccer and softball, hike Mt. Tallac, scuba dive, sky dive.

She loved life and loved her family very much," said her mother Susan as she addressed the crowd of participants Sunday.

The walk was held not only to honor her life and help others as they remembered their loved ones, but bring awareness to suicide.

Prevention and awareness is the first step towards prevention. What was once kept secret and not shared, is now used as a way not only to remember loved ones, but to create awareness so others do not have the same experience.

SLT City Manager Nancy Kerry also spoke to the crowd and shared her own experiences with suicide. Her son Dusty killed himself almost five years ago.

"Hope is a good thing, even in devastating times we can see beyond today," said Kerry as she talked about hope for tomorrow.

She told people to be that "someone" to another person who sees no hope in the tomorrows of their life.

Many people don't know how to be that other person to someone who is struggling.

"Don't worry about what to say, just listen and be there," Kerry said. "Someone near your feels hopeless."

With strength in numbers, the 250+ who walked the over one-mile route wearing their purple and green Emily's Hope T-shirts shared not only their memories of Emily, but their passion to prevent another person being lost to suicide.

For more information, visit the Suicide Prevention Network website at https://www.spnawareness.org/ or call them at 775-783-1510. They visit their South Lake Tahoe office at Tahoe Youth & Family Services twice a week.

The first step towards change, is awareness.