A student organization is planning a virtual “walk” next week to fundraise for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
GW’s AFSP chapter is fundraising throughout the month of June and will host its first virtual campus walk fundraiser on June 20 to reach a $5,000 goal for the foundation to continue suicide prevention research, develop educational programs and provide therapy services. Senior Kelly Amador, an environmental science major and the chapter’s president, said students who register for the virtual walk will gather donations from donors via the GW AFSP campus walk portal and share videos of themselves exercising or stories related to suicide.
Amador said the chapter has not held a campus walk before because of the difficulty of planning a walk on GW’s campus in the middle of a city. She said after most events transitioned online during the virtual learning period, chapter leaders saw an opportunity to host a campus walk in a virtual format.
Amador said interested students can participate via the event’s Facebook page, where they can upload personal stories of why they are participating in the walk or videos of themselves exercising. She said although the fundraiser won’t have any physical walking, students who register can still ask others to donate through the walk portal link from the time they register until June 30.
“These are just things and they have to be tended to and paid attention to you just like if you were to be physically sick,” Amador said. “The first step in making that happen is to be educated on what’s going on, what may be going on and then educated on how you can advocate for yourself and have the resources to tackle what you’re dealing with and going through.”
All proceeds from the campus walk will go toward the AFSP, a nonprofit health organization aimed at supporting those affected by suicide through research, education and advocacy, according to the chapter’s website. Monetary donations will support funding outreach initiatives like workshops on preventing suicide.
Amador said she spoke with the National AFSP Capital Area chapter following national protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed while in police custody, to incorporate the Black Lives Matter movement into the walk.
She said the GW AFSP Facebook event page will let students post mental health resources specific to the Black community and upload videos of themselves engaging in a form of exercise for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck.
“We’re encouraging people to walk or run or swim, bike, whatever they want to do for 8.46 minutes or miles, whatever works best for them in honor of this moment and George Floyd, and just keeping that momentum going with what’s happening right now,” Amador said.
