Runners and walkers alike can come out to the Columbus Soccer Complex at 7:30 a.m. Saturday for Christopher’s Hope 5K, a run in honor of suicide victims.
The event was organized by First Assembly of God church members Ryan and Sarah Rickert, with help from Contact Helpline director Katrina Sunivelle.
The 5K will begin at the Soccer Complex and go to the Riverwalk before looping back to the complex.
Registration is $25. Proceeds will go to Contact Helpline in Columbus.
The Rickerts came up with the idea to do something for Christopher Reeves, a student from New Hope who committed suicide in January.
“My wife and I are close friends with his mother,” Ryan Rickert said. “Not long after, my wife and Christopher’s mother would go on walks to the Riverwalk and just kind of talk and get away from everything…we just wanted to do something to raise awareness and bring a little remembrance, not just to Christopher but to everybody that struggles with this.”
Rickert described Reeves as a young man who always had a smile on his face, who was shy at first but funny once you got to know him. He would have been 19 this year.
At first the 5K was simply meant to be a small event mostly for members of First Assembly, which Reeves sometimes attended. But word of the event spread and it’s become bigger, thanks in part to Sunivelle’s promotion.
A friend told her about Christopher’s Hope 5K, and Sunivelle reached out to Rickert to help. But she hadn’t expected Rickert to offer the proceeds to Contact Helpline.
Though the run is named after Reeves, it is to honor everyone who has been a victim of suicide, said Rickert, who has seen an increasing number in suicide and suicide attempts over his career in the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.
Sunivelle, too, said numbers of suicide victims have been increasing. In 2013, there were 389 confirmed suicide deaths in Mississippi, and suicide was within the 10 leading causes of death across all age groups between 10 and 65 in the United States that year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m hoping to help people realize that there is help out there,” Rickert said. “They’re not struggling with this issue by themselves … there are people out there who have been where they are and there are people out there who can help them get past it.”
To register for the event, go to mycolumbusfirst.churchcenteronline.com/registrations/events/6542. Registration will also open at the event at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.