Sharing Kindness's Suicide Awareness Walk (2025)
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DescriptionAn article about Sharing Kindness's recent Suicide Awareness Walk.
MessageLet's do this together!
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Sharing KindnessOn Saturday, May 17th, the Cape Cod community gathered at Veterans Park Beach in Hyannis for the annual Suicide Awareness Walk, a powerful and healing event hosted by local nonprofit Sharing Kindness. Since its inception in 2017, this walk has grown from a grassroots memorial for 17-year-old Jeremy Walters into a movement that raises crucial funds, honors lives lost to suicide, and drives impactful change across the Cape & The Islands.
This event is more than just a walk—it’s a bold stand against stigma and silence surrounding mental health and suicide. It is the first and only suicide awareness walk on the Cape where 100% of funds raised stay local. Last year’s walk already broke records, but this year's was something truly staggering, as likely over 600 people from all walks of life came together to support.
The Walk directly funds suicide awareness and prevention programming, including community education, grief support for suicide loss survivors, and school-based mental health initiatives. One of the most transformative of these efforts is Hope Squad, a peer-led suicide prevention program launched in Cape schools with the support and oversight of Sharing Kindness.
Hope Squad trains students nominated by their peers to recognize signs of mental distress, reduce stigma, and connect classmates to help. What started in 2023 at Falmouth High School as the first Hope Squad in Massachusetts has since expanded to twelve schools across the region (with three more on the way!), thanks to local funding from the walk. These students are not only raising awareness but saving lives. Falmouth High Principal Alan Harris reflected, “Since starting Hope Squad in 2023, we know lives have been saved. The empowered and trusted student leaders make our school safer every day.”
This year, Hope Squad members—including Monomoy students who’ve hosted creative fundraisers like bake sales and design contests—volunteered at the walk, a testament to youth leadership in suicide prevention.
By joining the walk, participants took steps not just on sand and grass and concrete, but toward a stronger, more empathetic community. With every dollar raised, Sharing Kindness expands its reach, offering hope and healing where it’s needed most. And the call of it was clear: walk with purpose, walk with compassion, and walk for those who can’t to remember everything we can.
This event is more than just a walk—it’s a bold stand against stigma and silence surrounding mental health and suicide. It is the first and only suicide awareness walk on the Cape where 100% of funds raised stay local. Last year’s walk already broke records, but this year's was something truly staggering, as likely over 600 people from all walks of life came together to support.
The Walk directly funds suicide awareness and prevention programming, including community education, grief support for suicide loss survivors, and school-based mental health initiatives. One of the most transformative of these efforts is Hope Squad, a peer-led suicide prevention program launched in Cape schools with the support and oversight of Sharing Kindness.
Hope Squad trains students nominated by their peers to recognize signs of mental distress, reduce stigma, and connect classmates to help. What started in 2023 at Falmouth High School as the first Hope Squad in Massachusetts has since expanded to twelve schools across the region (with three more on the way!), thanks to local funding from the walk. These students are not only raising awareness but saving lives. Falmouth High Principal Alan Harris reflected, “Since starting Hope Squad in 2023, we know lives have been saved. The empowered and trusted student leaders make our school safer every day.”
This year, Hope Squad members—including Monomoy students who’ve hosted creative fundraisers like bake sales and design contests—volunteered at the walk, a testament to youth leadership in suicide prevention.
By joining the walk, participants took steps not just on sand and grass and concrete, but toward a stronger, more empathetic community. With every dollar raised, Sharing Kindness expands its reach, offering hope and healing where it’s needed most. And the call of it was clear: walk with purpose, walk with compassion, and walk for those who can’t to remember everything we can.
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