Be bright, save a life

For the third year in a row, Triton High School Student Council members held a color-filled 5K run to raise suicide awareness. The third annual “Be bright, save a life” color run also helped raise funds for Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE.) 
On Saturday morning, student council advisor Kim Swanson said that more than 75 people had already registered for the event, which has continually had strong community support. “We’ve had some tragedies in our community and the student council wanted to do something to raise awareness,” said Swanson. “This was a fun, cheerful thing to try. It went really well, and it’s becoming a tradition.” 
Student council members Kinda Knutson, a senior, and freshman Molly McCool agree that the event is both fun and meaningful. “I think it’s really awesome that we’re raising awareness,” said Knutson. 
“This is a great opportunity for everyone to come together and hear other people’s stories,” McCool said. 
On Saturday morning, SAVE’s executive director Daniel Reidenberg thanked the group for taking part in such a powerful and worthwhile event. Before the run took place, he asked those present to join him in a few moments of silence for the people who died in a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, last week. 
Many people who hurt others, or themselves, said Reidenberg, are often struggling with extreme pain and unhappiness in their lives. Many people are also dealing with mental illnesses, he said. “Part of our job is to get to that early,” Reidenberg said. “We need to recognize the warning signs to help people at risk of committing a tragedy or suicide at their own hands.”
According to Reidenberg, the money raised during the previous color runs in Dodge Center helped fund SAVE’s public awareness campaign, which includes information on a video wall in Times Square in New York. Reidenberg also said that, recently, a list of warning signs for at-risk youth was released. The warning signs, he said, are very different from the warning signs of at-risk adults and, prior to the release, no information like this had been available. (The warning signs can be viewed at http://www.youthsuicidewarningsigns.org/.)
“It takes a long time to make progress in this field because people don’t want to talk about it,” said Reidenberg. “By leaving in white and coming back bright, full of colors you are sending a message.” The message, said Reidenberg, is that it’s essential to build connections between people who need help and people who are willing and able to help them. 
“Today, you bring color and light to those people who are struggling, and to the people we need to remember we lost to suicide,” Reidenberg said. “You are brightening up the world for those who can’t see it. You are saving a life. You are bringing color to a world where the color is gone.”