{"id":3211,"date":"2023-04-20T10:39:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3211"},"modified":"2023-04-20T10:39:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:39:30","slug":"howard-county-lights-the-night-for-the-second-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/howard-county-lights-the-night-for-the-second-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard County \u201cLights the Night\u201d for the Second Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Maire Crooks, The Current Co-Editor in Chief\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 31st, over 240 people gathered together on Oakland Mills\u2019s field and participated in the second annual Light the Night 5k in honor of suicide prevention. Organized by River Hill junior Aubrey Heiges, the event consisted of speakers, tables full of resources and goodies, and a 5k run\/walk through the neighborhood of Oakland Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think [suicide prevention] is a really good cause and I don\u2019t want to see [awareness] stop. I have seen how [mental health] has affected not only our team but other teams around the county. Everyone has their own story and I just think it\u2019s something that needs more attention,\u201d explains Aubrey, who took over the event from the previous coordinator and founder, River Hill graduate Chloe McGeehan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various mental health organizations and resources were featured, such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Sheppard Pratt, Ellie Mental Health, and more. Participants, clad in Light the Night T-shirts and flashlights, took advantage of the tables. As Addyson Miller, RHHS junior and Light the Night participant, describes, \u201cI greatly enjoyed the white light up stick that we carried around with us throughout the 5k,\u201d which she got from one of the sponsor tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At approximately 6:50pm, participants gathered to listen to people from the community present on the effects of suicide and the need for prevention. The speakers consisted of Becca Niburg, a longtime volunteer of AFSP; Anna Katz, Operations Manager of Grassroots; Stephanie Reid of Howard County\u2019s Bureau of Behavioral Health; Raul Delerme, Director of Howard County Parks and Recreation; and Stephanie Wall from the Office of the County Executive. They reminded the audience that they are not alone, not a burden, and help is available. The speeches were one of Addyson\u2019s favorite parts; \u201c[They] were all really interesting and you could tell how driven they were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the event commenced with the 5k run\/walk, and finishers earned a ribbon. The top three boys and girls each won gift cards to Charm City Run and Feet First, including RHHS freshmen Lauren and Marella Virmani, first and second female finishers, respectively. Additional raffles for Sandy Spring Adventure Park tickets and Feet First gift cards were doled out to the lucky winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants thoroughly enjoyed the night; Addyson articulated, \u201cMy favorite part of the event was the community itself and how accepting and kind everyone was. No one judged anyone on how slow or fast they were going and it really felt like I belonged. I think it is a great way to raise awareness to suicide in an all-inclusive fun activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aubrey began taking on this large event by talking with Chloe, who \u201cgave [her] some contacts for people from last year.\u201d Phil Lang from Bullseye Running and Howard County Parks and Recreation were instrumental in assisting with this event. Aubrey mentions, \u201cThey were a big help the whole time, guiding me through the process of running an event like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, \u201cI thought it went really well, a lot better than I was expecting!\u201d exclaims Aubrey. \u201cI thought the turnout was really great and helped show how this cause has impacted our community and that we as a community want to support those affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked to sum up the event in a few words, Aubrey said, \u201cNeeded and important. I think it is really important to spread the resources\u2026 to people who might not otherwise have access to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maire Crooks, The Current Co-Editor in Chief\u00a0 On March 31st, over 240 people gathered together on Oakland Mills\u2019s field and participated in the second annual Light the Night 5k in honor of suicide prevention. Organized by River Hill junior Aubrey Heiges, the event consisted of speakers, tables full of resources and goodies, and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[559,325,286,561,364,281,269,211,285,560],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5k","tag-howard-county","tag-journalism","tag-light-the-night","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-suicide-prevention"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screenshot-2023-04-20-103823.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}