Ed. Note: In the Times page two Community Calendar in last week’s edition the community barbeque was listed for Sunday, September 7 – the event is in fact scheduled for Wednesday, September 10.
The Boundary World Suicide Prevention Day Planning Committee is hosting a community barbeque with kite flying from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10 at James G. McMynn Park in Midway. The kite is the national symbol for World Suicide Prevention Day, which is held on September 10 every year and is an internationally recognized day for suicide prevention and education.
In a recent letter to the Village of Midway the committee explained the goal of the event is to renew the commitment to preventing suicide in local communities, support those touched by suicide, and to remember the lives of those who died by suicide.
RCMP Victim Services Program Manager Cathy Riddle said this would be the first year the event will be held in the Boundary Area. Organizers are structuring this event on a very successful format held in Castlegar in 2013 - kite flying.
“The connection we have through the string to the kite in the sky represents our connection to the things we strive to stay connected to: hope, community, those we have lost, and those who struggle with thoughts of suicide,” Riddle wrote in her letter to council.
“The kite also reminds us of the importance of staying connected to ourselves to keep our feet on the ground and to sometimes put our heads in the clouds and dream, to be aware of ourselves, to feel our own importance and power, to care for and nurture ourselves, to have fun and play.”
The community barbeque, awareness session and kite flying is a collaboration between Interior Health, Adult Mental Health, Ministry for Children and Family Development, Child and Youth Mental Health, Boundary Hospice, Boundary Family and Individual Services Society, School District 51 (Boundary) and RCMP Victim Services.