The death of Lily Karian on Dec. 12 of last year was a loss for the entire Tufts community. Yet for those who were closest to her, the struggle is particularly difficult.
In an effort to address their grief, celebrate the memory of their friend and contribute to the greater cause of suicide awareness, a group of students has created an organization to support participation in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's "Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk," which will take place June 9 in New York City.
The cost to walk is $700 per person, and the money goes to promoting awareness of suicide prevention and funding medical research regarding suicide-related diseases such as depression and bipolar disorder. For Tufts students involved, it represents a therapeutic approach to dealing with their grief while contributing to a wider cause.
"I like being able to focus my energy on being able to do this," said freshman Sarah Bonnie, a friend and hallmate of Karian's. "Right after Lily died, you feel really lost - you really don't know what to do with yourself. I asked my mom what I should do, and she said, 'Why don't you do something in her honor?' It didn't feel like a good idea, it just seemed like sort of a fake thing in my friend's memory."
Yet after freshman Max Chalkin, a friend of Bonnie's, discovered the walk, Bonnie felt they had found a meaningful way to react.
"This is more than just an activity in her memory - it's an active way to stop other people from feeling the way she felt," Bonnie said. "If we have more research into the disease, someone like Lily could have been helped. So I like being able to be really active and to stop things like this from happening."
After reaching out to Karian's friends from home, the group, known as "Walk for Lily," hopes to fund approximately 18 walkers in June. At $700 per person, the current fundraising goal is $12,600.
In spite of the high costs, the group has made significant progress towards reaching its goal, utilizing a variety of fund-raising methods. As of press time, the group had raised $4,574.80 through donations and fundraisers, and an anonymous foundation has agreed to mach every dollar raised by the students, quickly increasing their funds and their morale.
Local fund-raisers on and around campus have proved highly successful. The past three Saturday nights, members have taken shifts staffing a grilled cheese sandwich stand on Packard Ave, from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. At $2 a sandwich, the stand grosses an average of $500 per night.
Other efforts have included a bagel and coffee sale at a Tufts track meet, a day of fundraising at Pizzeria Uno and an all-day expansion of the grilled cheese sales on April 20.
Events like these are publicized through an open Facebook.com group, "Walk for Lily," where the members have posted all of the information about the group, their cause and how to get involved.
Such local activities have accounted for roughly half of the funds raised thus far. Group members have also worked hard to solicit private donations.
"We each wrote letters to our family and friends, [asking for donations]," Bonnie said. In order to reach a wider audience, many of the students involved wrote letters to their high school principals, who then distributed the letter to all of the students' parents and to the entire high school community.
Group members say they are very happy about the response thus far, believing that the donations from strangers came from a common concern and compassion for the cause.
"If they don't personally know us, they might have been affected by [suicide], or by someone who attempted suicide, and so are interested and want to donate," said freshman and Walk for Lily member Martina Santarsieri.
The group hopes to send letters to the wider Tufts community asking for donations as well. Group members said they expect to receive a very positive response.
In order to facilitate the fund-raising process, the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs has agreed to act as a repository for the checks and to support the students however possible.
"The students asked if the university could be helpful in sponsoring, and I thought it was a wonderful idea," Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said. "The cause is certainly a good one - depression and mental health issues are certainly an issue for all college students. Anything we can do to be helpful - anything we can do in memory of Lily Karian - is a great thing."
At this point, all of the students directly involved are those who were closest to Karian - those who intend on walking - but the group is very open to extending involvement.
"We do need a lot of help ... but it's hard to go out and ask people, because they say 'Oh, Walk for Lily, I didn't know her, should I help?'" Santarsieri said. "We want everyone to help us, because the greater goal is suicide prevention. Of course it is in memory of this one girl, but it's going to help everyone."
While hoping to increase awareness of suicide prevention throughout the Tufts community, group members say they won't forget that their efforts are rooted in a very personal cause.
"Sometimes we'll be doing a fund-raiser and someone will ask what it's for, and I'll just give a generic answer," Chalkin said. "But sometimes someone will say 'Who is Lily?' and then I'll remember why I'm doing this. I think of her pretty often, and the more I think about her, the more I want to be there - you can't not remember why you're doing it."
