VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — September is Suicide Prevention Month, and for the past seven years, a local nonprofit has been hosting a run to support community resources, raise awareness and honor loved ones who have died by suicide.
The event was started by Angela Wiese, a mother who lost both of her sons to suicide and is now helping other families by providing them with resources and a community of people to talk with.
"It was an event that we planned in honor of my two sons Mason and Ethan Gilbert who both died by suicide," Wiese said.
It's an event Wiese never thought she would be planning. After completing high school in 2014, her son Mason Gilbert joined the Navy Reserves. After graduating from boot camp, he prepared for more advanced military training. But in 2015, at just 19, Mason took his own life.
Two years later, in spring of 2017, just one month before his high school graduation, Mason's younger brother, Ethan, died by suicide.
"Originally we wanted to raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention, and just by holding the run in honor of them and then as the years have gone by, this is our seventh year, it has turned into more than that," Wiese said.
In 2021, Wiese's family was shaken yet again after her 13-year-old niece, Myra, took her own life.
Brothers Run is a nonprofit that supports community programs and provides adolescent mental health services, suicide prevention and awareness. So far the organization has raised over $200,000.
"We help promote suicide prevention programs in schools, mainly Sources of Strength, is one of the programs that we see in a lot of the schools around this area in central Kentucky," Wiese said.
Wiese said the event started in honor of her sons and niece but continues to help support families, friends and communities left behind — a space for people who have experienced the same loss to support one another.
"There are more places and more resources than there was 10 years ago when I was going through it and for me, it was very lonely, because nobody was talking about it," Wiese said. "And so to be able to have the resources and to be able to talk to someone about it to get the help that you need on the spot and for your family to get help, to me, that is what is so important about this."
Brothers' Run will take place at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Falling Springs Center in Versailles. If you register ahead of time, you can pick up your packet at the center Friday from 4 to 7:30 p.m.
For more information, visit brothersrun.com.
