SIOUX FALLS – The Helpline Center, in partnership with South Dakota State University Lost and Found, will host the sixth annual Step Forward to Prevent Suicide Walk/Run in Brookings Saturday. 

Registration starts at 8:30 a.m., with the walk and run beginning at 9 a.m. at the SDSU Student Union. The event features a 1.5-mile walk, a 5K run, and a remembrance ceremony. In 2017, about 100 people participated, and nearly $4,500 was raised to support suicide prevention efforts. 

Each year a spokesperson is named for the event, and this year’s speaker is Tod Lacey. Lacey is a survivor of the suicide loss of his son, Wade Lacey, in May 2011. 

Lacey and team “Stay Gold” have been participating in the Helpline Center Step Forward events since 2011. Family and friends joined together with Tod and his wife Jen to form Team Stay Gold.

“We started as a way to get people together and remember Wade as a son, grandson, brother, uncle, nephew, father and friend of so many people, Wade loved the line ‘Stay Gold’ from the movie ‘The Outsiders,’ and we decided to build our team around that. Each year the Step Forward Walk is a reminder to our family and friends that we are not alone in our pain.”

Lacey and his family utilized the Helpline Center as a resource after the loss of Wade. They have also participated in Helpline Center group sessions, training and the Hope & Healing Art Show. Lacey has been speaking publicly to raise awareness of suicide prevention and encourage healing after the loss of a loved one. 

“It has been an incredibly rough journey and not one that I would be able to travel alone. I share my hope for others that they too can survive after a suicide loss.”

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death of South Dakota’s young people. The Helpline Center and Lacey support this event in the hopes of raising awareness, prevention, and to remember those lives lost to suicide. 

To participate in the Brookings event, register online at http://hlc.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=1060&pg=entry. 

For additional information about the event, contact Janet Harvey, events coordinator, at events@helplincenter.org. 

The Helpline Center will be hosting two additional Step Forward to Prevent Suicide events this summer, one in Sioux Falls on June 10 and another on August 4 in Yankton.