Walks

When AFSP was founded in 1987, no one thought anyone would show up for a suicide prevention fundraising and awareness walk. But beginning with the first Overnight Walk in 2002 — followed by the first Community Walk in 2024 and Campus Walks beginning in 2010 — the Out of the Darkness Walks have become the way most people first hear of AFSP and learn they are not alone, as well as an impactful means to raise critical funds for our efforts and bring people together to shine a light on this topic that affects everyone.

The Walks are also AFSP’s largest fundraising opportunity, bringing families, friends, schools, coworkers, organizations, and entire communities together to create hope and generate the critical funds that fuel AFSP’s mission.

This year, as our organization and our supporters grew together, so did our impact. All four of our peer-to-peer fundraising event series — Community Walks, Campus Walks, The Overnight, and Construction Hike for Hope — experienced meaningful growth, with more participants, increased fundraising, and new sponsorships strengthening our ability to save lives by funding the research that informs all of our efforts as an organization.

Our annual Overnight Walk — affectionately known simply as “The Overnight” — is a symbolically powerful event held in a different host city each year. Cheered on by supporters along the route and supported by fundraising teams and virtual participants, people gather from far and wide to walk over 16 miles from dusk to dawn, with many Overnight Walkers returning each year and making friendships that last a lifetime.

This year’s event, held in Chicago, was our 31st Overnight — and as always, culminated with a moving closing ceremony featuring illuminated luminaria representing lives touched by suicide: a reminder of why we show up each year to shine a path forward, and create light out of the darkness.

Construction Hike for Hope events took place across the country, enabling participants to gather as a community and enjoy their natural surroundings while raising funds for AFSP’s mission, including new programming and resources geared toward the construction industry, and sharing the message that mental health matters in the construction industry.

This special fundraising event celebrated its second official year as a signature event, seeing significant growth in community impact, growing over 100% year-over-year in both fundraising and participation.

Participants, donors, volunteers, and sponsors have all shown exponential enthusiasm for this initiative, quickly becoming an integral part in advancing AFSP’s mission to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.