The Wyatt Raska Memorial is sponsoring a suicide awareness event, Mental Health Matters, Sunday at the Church of the Living Word in Hampton.
Machele Raska is in charge of the memorial and the mother of Wyatt, who was a student at Hampton-Dumont-CAL when he lost his life to suicide in February 2023. Raska says this is one of a few events the memorial puts on to put a focus on mental health.
“We do a memorial ride for Wyatt along with a suicide awareness every June. Funds go toward brochures, cards that we hand out which says 9-8-8 on it so people can call that if they have any concerns or mental health questions. We also put on classes, QPR, which is question, persuade and refer. As a family, we are trying to make sure that resources are put out there for the community. Shortly after Wyatt passed away, I was totally lost, didn’t know where the resources were. So this is one of the ways that I try to get the resources, get the voices out there so that everybody has a voice behind them.”
The guest speaker at the event is Emma Benoit, who attempted suicide at the age of 16 after struggling with anxiety and depression.
“I met Emma back in March. She is a suicide survivor. She is from Louisiana and has made her mission to get the mental health awareness out there. She goes all over the United States to spread the awareness. She has a documentary that she has created and then she does a Q&A. She is a wonderful, delightful young woman, so full of courage, so full of strength benefit for us to hear her speak in our community. She can bring a lot of insight to us.”
The Mental Health Matters event is Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at the Church of the Living Word in Hampton. A free-will offering meal will be served starting at 5:00.
