WAIMEA — There were perhaps 50 people who started the Out of the Darkness suicide-prevention awareness walk Saturday at Waimea Athletic Field.
Walkers trooped past the softball field where senior players were starting to gather, and past the soccer fields where American Youth Soccer Association players were engaged in play in the midst of colorful umbrellas erected against the increasing heat from the Waimea sun.
As the entourage led by Mar Cadiz, Leici Camara and Kaylynn Drake approached the finish line, the number had swollen to several hundred people.
Those numbers were aided by the fact Saturday’s walk was the first done in conjunction with the Kauai Suicide Prevention task force, said Madeline Hiraga-Nuccio, the task force president.
The Kauai Suicide Prevention Task Force was joined by other community groups offering services and information on suicide, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Hale Opio, Queen Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center, state Department of Health, and more that were active in the HOPE Festival and Healing Space.
“During the three years — 2017, 2018 and 2019 — there were 47 people on Kauai who died by suicide,” said Gina Kaulukukui, the Kauai representative to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-Hawaii Chapter. “The resources and task force are so important to curb these numbers. The AFSP is a state-level group, but each island is unique.”
Kaulukukui, who was thrust into the suicide experience at age 4, was joined by other families, including coordinator Sheila Garcia-Louis, and several others, including Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami, who experienced loss by suicide.
“We are all connected, like a lei — lei kukui,” Kaulukukui said. “Kukui because it symbolizes light. We celebrate not how to die, but life. The memory beads keep the experience alive. Hope, help and healing are possible.”
Pua Kaninau-Santos, after suffering her loss, became the voice for suicide, starting a task force on Oahu and bringing it to Kauai, where she got Kaulukukui to join the movement to break the silence on suicide and mental illness.
Drake, a 2019 graduate of Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama campus, said she has commited to be the voice.
“Four years ago, I made the commitment to help others to be the voice,” said Drake, who said she will lead the Out of Darkness walk on Oahu this week. “I have a mission to help prevent loss after my family lost some of its members and friends, and even myself.”
The Out of the Darkness community walk, brought to Waimea this year, encourages people to learn the warning signs of people at risk of suicide, learn the training and become a life saver, and break the silence surrounding suicide and mental illness.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
