Come out and ride for the mental health of 1st responders, veterans

Midlothian firefighter Kevin Kelly said the suicide of a colleague eight year ago affected him greatly.

So it was that Kelly, who likes to ride motorcycles, started putting together annual motorcycle runs to raise money for suicide prevention, with an after-party being held in New Lenox. The 7th annual Motorcycle Ride and Car Cruise will be Aug. 21.

The event will begin with registration at The Office Sports Bar and Grill, located at 4901 Cal Sag Road in Crestwood. Registration is 8:30 a.m., and the ride begins at 10:30 a.m.

The cost for the full event is $20 for the rider and $10 for a passenger. The cost just to attend the after-party is $10.

The ride will make three stops before proceeding to the site of the after-party: Brian’s Place American Legion, 25665 S. Governor’s Highway, Monee; Aroma Park American Legion, 739 S. Sandbar Road, Kankakee; and VFW Post 5422, 557 W. Baltimore St., Wilmington.

The after-party will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the American Legion Thomas Hartung Post 1977, located at 14414 Ford Drive in New Lenox.

Kelly said the event has raised $104,000 over the years with about 100 riders and about 350 attendees at the after-party. Features of the after-party include food, live entertainment, silent auction and donation baskets.

The money is donated to three charities: Illinois Fire Fighter Peer Support, Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation and the New Lenox-based FOREVERU, which describes itself as offering a transformative three-part program journey to teens in grades 7-12.

For information about the event, email ARoadToHelp@yahoo.com. For information about the nonprofits, go to ilffps.org, wwiaf.org and joinforeveru.org.

According to study published this year in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, “national surveys suggest that emergency medical services workers, including firefighters and emergency medical technicians, are at higher risk of experiencing suicidal ideation and suicide attempts compared to the general public.”

Kelly said people often don’t understand the stress first responders experience and the often graphic traffic crashes to which they respond.

“We see death almost on a daily basis,” Kelly said.

Unfortunately, Kelly said, many first responders never reach out for help.

“They just take their own lives,” he said.

The suicide rate among retired first responders also is increasing, too, Kelly said, often because they “don’t feel like they’re needed.” Many first responders feel it isn’t “macho” to need help, Kelly said, let alone ask for it.

And yet, the nature of the job requires first responders to behave that way.

“You may have a really bad call, but you have to get over it because in 10 minutes, you might have another one call that isn’t as bad,” Kelly said. “You have to watch your emotions because you can’t break down in front of families. We have to be the strong ones.”

That’s where peer to peer support is beneficial, Kelly said. The Illinois Fire Fighter Peer Support has resources for firefighters who are struggling with problems such as drug or alcohol abuse, anxiety, depression and insomnia. Someone struggling with stress often is matched with another firefighter who’s experienced similar challenges, Kelly said.

“When our guy committed suicide, other fire departments came and worked for us for two weeks, so we did not have to come to work,” Kelly said, “They took care of our shift and everything ... to give us time to grieve.”