Victims of suicide remembered at Butler rally
A split-second decision in the 1990s could have resulted in Kristin Sapienza’s early death, but, instead, another decision allowed her to speak about that split second to a crowd of people Wednesday, Sept. 6 in Diamond Park.
Sapienza, of Butler, was one of four speakers at the annual Suicide Awareness Remembrance Rally, which the Butler County Suicide Coalition puts on each year to honor victims of suicide, and share stories of people affected by suicide.
Sapienza said she almost died by suicide in the late-1990s, when she was a young mother who recently moved into her first house.
“I had all these balls I was juggling and I had to stop, my arms hurt so bad,” Sapienza said. “Thankfully I had a friend I called. There was that split second of, ‘My head hurts I want it to stop,’ to, ‘Oh my gosh I don’t want to stop breathing.’
“Calling my friend was the best thing.”
Amy Cirelli, mental health specialist with Butler County Human Services and co-chairwoman of the suicide coalition, said another purpose of the rally is to destigmatize the mental illness that drives some people to suicide. Each year, members of the coalition place pairs of shoes around the fountain at Diamond Park; one for every victim of suicide the year before.
Cirelli said suicides in Butler County dropped from a reported 37 in 2021 to 19 in 2022, “which is still too many,” but is a good start. The people who die by suicide are still mostly older men, according to Cirelli.
Tyrone Smith, of West Sunbury, another speaker at the event, said he once considered suicide the only way out of his mental anguish. He has been in treatment for nearly three years now, and said he hopes to inspire other people struggling with mental health problems to reach out to someone.
“Sometimes we get sick,” Smith said. “That’s what it is, it’s not that they’re crazy. I can’t believe how different I feel now.”
Smith also said learning about mental illness helped him identify characteristics in himself that explained his own thoughts and feelings. That helped set him on a path to recovery.
“Everybody has someone out there who cares about you,” he said.
In addition to members of the suicide coalition, there were also mental health professionals from the Center for Community Resources at the rally, plus therapy dogs, which made rounds through the park to comfort people.
Sapienza urged everyone to reach out to their loved ones regularly, to not only check in with them, but to keep those connections strong.
“Always reach out to somebody, that’s my motto,” she said. “I did, it saved me, and it’ll continue to save anybody.”
