A circle of candles lit up University Green to honor those lost by suicide.
Sheri Hole, who attended the Monday evening vigil, lost her husband to suicide 11 years ago. She searched for further guidance for her and her 17-year-old daughter and this is when she discovered support groups.
"I want people to know there is life after suicide, there is peace, and there is joy," Hole said. "I am an 11-year survivor."
Hole is the co-chair of the East Central Indiana Coalition for Prevention of Suicide and has been doing support groups since 2004 for survivors of suicide. She said her coalition is working to erase the stigma of suicide and being on Ball State's campus helps to raise awareness.
"It's hard to get the awareness out, and we're trying to get the word out," Hole said. "I want to let people know there is help out there, and my support group is out there for anyone to attend."
The candlelight vigil was sponsored by A Better Way, the Ball State Counseling Center, Meridian Health Services and the Alive Campaign.
Carmen Diaz, director of Information for the Alive Campaign, said Monday was chosen for the candlelight vigil because Sunday through Saturday is National Suicide Prevention Week.
"It's extremely important for Ball State to be involved because the suicide rates in college youth is one of the top leading causes of death," Diaz said. "Suicide is such a black-listed topic, so our goal as a campaign is to break down those barriers and make people more comfortable talking about it."
Diaz said she and the rest of the Alive Campaign want to see more students become involved to increase awareness and help people with crisis intervention. The awareness group, after this week, meets at 9 p.m. each Wednesday in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Pineshelf Room.
"I think our biggest goal and main focus for the stuff we do here is raise awareness," Diaz said. "Suicide is 100 percent preventable."
Mark Mossner, executive director of the Alive Campaign, said the group has many more activities planned to continue raising awareness. He and Diaz believe that "raising awareness saves lives."
The rest of the week there will be guest speakers and the Out of Darkness Walk is on Saturday in Indianapolis. The campaign will also be hosting a balloon release later in the year.
"If this just helps one person, that's enough for me," Diaz said. "[Suicide] is something that is so real and it can happen to anybody at any time."
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