As you drive west on US 2 between Grand View Hospital and section 12 road, you might notice a billboard on the north side of the highway stating: DEPRESSION # 1 Cause of Suicide with our local 800 number and a web site "preventsuicidetoday.org".

Just outside of Wakefield on M 28 is another billboard baring the same message. These signs have been put thanks to the efforts of the Range Suicide Prevention Council and the Sweet Charity Riders who sponsored the First Annual Like Lipske Memorial Trail Ride back in June of this year which has raised to date slightly over $3,400 and we are spending that money on our Suicide Prevention Awareness Campaign.

Besides the billboards, the RSPC have purchased for both the Hurley School System and the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District the DVD "More Then Sad: Suicide Prevention Education for Teachers and Other School Personnel" which we hope they will use to alert all our area educators on the triggers, risk factors and symptoms of depression and how and where to get help. We have all provided to all seven of our area schools (Hurley, Mercer, Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield-Marenisco, Ontoganon & Ewen-Trout Creek) with a parental warning letter and reference cards for the parents of every single middle and high school student at no cost to the schools.

We would like to take a moment to thank Lamar Adverting for donating the billboard space, all of our local media for help in getting our message out and to all the workers and participants who made the Luke Lipske Memorial Trail Ride possible and to all the donors whose generosity made all of the above possible.

This is one fight in which there will be no surrender. With each passing day we are helping to lift the shroud of shame and stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide and with that making it easier for those suffering from mental illness to seek help and for the families of suicide victims to hold their heads up high. Without your support none of this could happen.