Antonella Novi and Amanda Pyle are walking 20 miles to save lives.

Their team, “No Stigma,” will participate in the first Seattle-based “Out of the Darkness Overnight” walk for suicide prevention on Saturday and Sunday, June 21 and 22.

“We are both trying to raise $1,000 to participate in the walk to raise money and awareness for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,” Novi said.
The foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education.

Depression is the leading cause of suicide, according to the Foundation. And more than 32,000 people in the U.S. die by suicide each year. It is the fourth-leading cause of death for adults 18 to 65 years old in the country with 90 percent having a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death.

Novi is a longtime Anacortes resident and Pyle is a design engineer at Dakota Creek Industries. The more they tell people what they’re doing, the more stories come out, Pyle said. That’s why they’re doing it — to remove the stigma of mental illness and to help people not be ashamed of their emotions.

“Letting people know it’s OK to feel good or bad, to not be ashamed because of that fear of stigma,” Novi said.

Other reasons Novi and Pyle, both 28, are participating is because the Anacortes community recently lost two people to suicide and because they themselves have been affected in some way by mental illness and want to help others.

“I am walking because I have known friends who are in recovery from mental imbalances, friends still suffering and friends who were deeply affected by the loss of a loved one due to suicide,” Pyle said. “This is my way of saying that I care for those we have lost and those who are surviving.”

Novi’s connection to suicide is even closer. When she was 13 years old, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a suicide attempt.

“I had to almost die to live,” Novi said.

Novi said she is now successful in living with her disorder with the support of family and friends. But it hasn’t been easy and instead quite a struggle to get the right medication and the right therapy to balance her body’s chemistry.

The best way others can get the right treatment is to be honest with family, friends or doctors, Novi said.

“I wouldn’t get the right help if I wasn’t honest,” she said.

The overnight charity walk from sunset to sunrise will wind through Seattle starting at the Space Needle. From there it goes to the University of Washington, the Fremont neighborhood and around Green Lake with the last two miles lined with luminarias.

Both Pyle and Novi said $1,000 is not a lot of money, but every little bit adds up.

The point is it takes a lot of people giving a little to make an impact,” Novi said.

While this is the first such event for Novi, Pyle has done fundraising for the Fraternal Order of Eagles 249 Women’s Auxiliary, Caring for Kids and Skagit Saving Pets One at a Time organizations.

When she’s not walking, Novi works at as a certified peer counselor at the Peer Connection Center in Mount Vernon, helping people deal with social and emotional disorders and helping them feel accepted, she said.

She also speaks to high school students about mental wellness and to mental health professionals throughout Western Washington. She tells them her story of illness to wellness in support of the “stopping stigma, supporting recovery and staying well” plan through the Washington’s Mental Health Transformation Project.

The goal of the plan is to help people understand recovery from mental illness is possible and stigmatizing those with mental illness undermines recovery.

The idea is to see people as individuals, not as their illness, Novi said. And for health professionals to see their clients as people, not just stereotypes.

“Call us independent, creative, mother, sister or an advocate for our mental illness,” Novi said.

To support or join Antonella Novi and Amanda Pyle in the Out of the Darkness Overnight walk to support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention on June 21 and 22 in Seattle, go to http://www.theovernight.org. Hit the “Support a Participant” button and search by last name Novi.