The Out of the Darkness community walks are part of a national movement bringing about suicide prevention awareness.
Even when everyone went their separate ways after high school graduation, Craine knew they would reunite and enjoy each other?s company like old times.
Then came the unimaginable.
On March 25 of this year, Craine?s friend and former Dos Pueblos High volleyball teammate, Sam Wopat, died at Stanford Hospital from an injury following an attempted suicide. She was just 19.
The devastation and pain Craine felt that day and the days after have been channeled into something positive.
She is organizing an Out of the Darkness Community Walk in Santa Barbara to increase awareness about depression and suicide, to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and to honor her friend, Sam Wopat.
The 3- to 5-mile walk is set for Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8 a.m., at Leadbetter Beach. Registration for the event is free and can be done at AFSP.org. Craine welcomes anyone who would like to join her Team Alohilani, but anyone can register either individually or as a team.
?My main motivation is keeping Sam?s spirit alive,? said Craine of her reason to put the event together. ?This was a sudden and unexpected tragedy in everyone?s lives and I not only feel strongly about being educated but also about others being educated when it comes to suicide and mental awareness. I aim?to bring the topic of suicide out of the darkness, changing it from being categorized as a hushed issue into a knowledgable topic of everyday life.?
- OUT OF THE DARKNESS WALK
- Date and Time: Nov. 3, from 8 a.m to about noon
Where: Leadbetter Beach
Free Registration: AFSP.org
What: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is at the forefront of suicide prevention and mental illness awareness. The Out of the Darkness Walks were created to bring more awareness to communities while also helping the foundations mission of understanding and preventing suicide, education, and reaching out to people with mental disorders and those impacted by suicide. The walk in Santa Barbara is a 3-5 miles.
Craine and Sam had been best friends since junior high. They played volleyball together and were part of a CIF Division 1 championship team at DP in 2009 and a runner-up finisher in 2008.
Sam received a scholarship to Stanford. Craine accepted an offer to Loyola Marymount. She returned to Santa Barbara after one year.
?… We went through six years of school together, into high school, and were never apart. We were so close and always together that we were even sometimes confused as triplets in junior high … until they grew, of course,? Craine said with a laugh.
Sam, along with sister Carly, grew to 6-foot-2.
Craine says she has countless memories of doing things with Sam and Carly.
?If I had to hold onto one memory of (Sam) I would remember her laugh. It was wild and free spirited. It had the ability to make me feel alive and will always be a piece of me,? she said.
Organizing the walk is labor of love.
?I felt strongly about bringing this event to Santa Barbara.? said Craine. ?I wanted to be able to participate in something that could make a difference in many people?s lives. This is one of the ways my friends and I have found to make a difference and begin to heal as we bring this topic to the forefront of conversation.?
Craine has received the support of several people in the community, including the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club and the Santa Barbara Response Network.
?I am a part of?SBRN; it is a psychological trauma response team in Santa Barbara, and now in Santa Maria, for tragedies in the community ? mostly suicides. They respond when they are called or asked for and provide psychological first aid to those affected by a tragic situation,? she explained.
Craine has learned a lot in the last few months and she?s inspired to use this knowledge to serve people.
?No one expected this tragedy to touch our lives,? Craine said. ?I have learned that there is a choice when tragedy comes. You cannot control the tragedy but you can control what happens?afterwards. You can either sit with it and be sad or you can use it as a catalyst for something greater. There is always a little bit of both. However, I want to keep Samantha’s memory alive.
?I have learned many new things about mental illness and suicide along this journey that I did not know before. The main lesson: suicide can be prevented if people are given the right knowledge. Therefore it has become my goal to bring information to people and encourage them not hide pain or fear about this hushed topic. More people die from suicide each year than from car accidents. To me that is shocking and should not be a fact or study to begin with.?
?I will be 20 in November,? she added. ?I would never have thought I would be dealing with losing someone I love so much so soon. When I used to imagine my future, Sam was always going to be a big part of it. She still will be, just in a slightly different way.?
