BEAUTIFUL SUNFLOWERS — You don’t need to drive to Lawrence to get pics of gorgeous sunflowers. You can find them right here in Overland Park at Mitzvah Garden KC. The folks at Mitzvah Garden invite you to come to the garden any Sunday between 8 a.m. and noon to see the sunflowers in their blooming glory. Take a selfie or an entire group photo. While you’re there, take a minute to plant a seed or pull a weed. Most important volunteer to help harvest to feed the hungry in our community. So far this year Mitzvah Garden has harvested 7,900 pounds of produce, which has gone to food pantries throughout the metro including JFS, SAFEHOME and Kosher Meals on Wheels.
AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE IN WWI — I recently visited “For Liberty: American Jewish Experience in WWI” at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, for the second time. If you are a trivia buff you can learn a lot of fascinating facts such as Irving Berlin wrote “Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” while stationed at Camp Upton on Long Island during World War I. It eventually became part of three different Broadway shows. He also wrote “God Bless America” while in the Army but revised it almost 20 years later before Kate Smith performed it for the first time. The sheet music was released in 1939. The exhibit runs through Nov. 11, don’t miss it.
SASS 15th ANNUAL WALK TO REMEMBER — Suicide awareness is in the news a lot lately. In this week’s edition of The Chronicle you can read about You Be You, the teen mental health program entering its second year on page 18 and about the annual Speak Up Walk to raise awareness of mental illness on page 16.
Both of these efforts are in their infant and toddler stages compared to the SASS-MoKan’s annual Remembrance Walk. This year will mark the 15th anniversary of the walk, which remembers those who have lost their lives to suicide, homicide, fire, accident and other traumatic deaths. The Remembrance Walk will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at Loose Park, 51st and Wornall in Kansas City, Missouri. It is sponsored by SASS-MoKan, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit suicide awareness survivor support organization (sass-mokan.com/).
The support group was started by Bonnie and Mickey Swade to honor their son, Brett, after he lost his life to suicide 14 years ago. The annual Remembrance Walk is the major part of SASS-MoKan’s fundraising to help with suicide awareness, education, prevention and survivor support. Funds earned from the walk stay exclusively in the metropolitan Kansas City area.
Facts and figures from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention show that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall in Missouri and Kansas. It is the second leading cause of death for ages 25-34 in Missouri and second in Kansas for ages 10-34. More than twice as many people in Missouri die by suicide than by homicide with nearly four times that many in Kansas. A Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) report shows that the suicide rate in Kansas increased 45 percent between 1999 and 2016. The rate in Missouri was 36.4 percent. The report said that adults 45-64 had the largest increase in suicide.
Suicide rates among young people go up in the school year and down during the summer. Although the reason is unclear, more girls attempt suicide than boys. Teen suicides in Johnson County nearly doubled in the first six months of 2018, according to Johnson county Mental Health.
This year’s event begins with walk-up registration available at 8 a.m. The walk will start at 9 a.m., followed by a balloon release, which will be around 10 a.m. The pre-registration fee is $25 and the day of the walk is $30. Participants can register online by going to sass-mokan.com/Sass-walk/ and clicking on the registration link.