11TH ANNUAL
Out of the DARKNESS Walk
Step
by Step
The Middlesex County
Corrections Local 152
Honor Guard leads
walkers in the first lap
Survivors and PBA members walk to raise suicide awareness
n BY JENNIFER TRATTLER
As Hurricane Joaquin threatened to inundate much of New
Jersey with rainfall or worse during the first week of October,
many wondered whether the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention would cancel its 11th Annual Out of Darkness Walk.
Yet on Oct. 4, the storm rolled out to sea letting the skies open
up with sunshine to light up a day many predicted would be filled
with “darkness” – not just meteorological, but emotional as well.
Unwaveringly, hundreds gathered at Buccleuch Park in New
Brunswick to walk for family members and friends lost to suicide;
not to mourn, but to raise awareness through
a celebration of life and light.
And just like that, the weight of such
devastating loss – like the threat of
the storm – started to recede, even
just for the day.
By the end of the Walk, new friends
– united by shared tragedy – joined the
conversation that is working to prevent further suicides in law enforcement, and began
the process of coping through the realization
that they didn’t walk alone.
A Walk to Remember
Past the finish line, with three 1.2-mile laps
behind them, Rachel Zubrzycki and Renee
Lyons finally found each other and shared a long
embrace.
Retired Middlesex County Corrections Local 152 member
Lyons walked for her husband, Larry, a fellow Middlesex County
Corrections Officer lost to suicide on April 29, 2014. Zubrzycki
walked for her husband, Ed, who passed on May 7 after serving
the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office Local 320 for 19 years.
It was Lyons’ second walk and Zubrzycki’s first.
“It’s still hard to deal with this everyday,” confessed Lyons. “I
never thought after being married for 30 years my husband
would have committed suicide. It’s good to see support from
family and friends (at the Walk) and you meet new people every
year. It’s a sad occasion but you’re uplifting somebody new who’s
going through what I went through last year.”
For survivors, meeting new people is a double-edged sword.
The rise in attendance can be contributed to organizations like
the NJ State PBA and Cop 2 Cop that continuously work to elevate
suicide awareness, but it also serves as evidence that law enforcement officers are taking their own lives.
In the past year, 13 New Jersey law enforcement officers have
died by suicide; proof that the law enforcement community isn’t
an exception to this kind of tragedy.
Zubrzycki attended the event with family, friends and
members of Local 320, but spent most of her day walking with
Nicole McClintock, the widow of T.J. McClintock who was a
member of Cherry Hill Local 176 for eight years before passing on
July 8, 2009.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 54
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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