On April 18, the Kappa Delta Phi National Affiliated Sorority hosted its annual suicide prevention walk.

The walk was the final step of their fundraising and awareness efforts with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. The AFSP is a national organization dedicated to helping those affected by suicide.

KDPNAS has been hosting fundraising for the AFSP for the past two years, with $474 raised in the fall 2025 semester and almost $300 raised in the spring 2026 semester. Fundraisers have been conducted through tabling sessions throughout the year, seeking donations in exchange for sweet treats and AFSP regalia.

Saturday’s walk was open to the public and around 40 people participated, including KDPNAS sisters, their families and other students across campus. Event organizer and KDPNAS philanthropy chairwoman Savannah Finn spoke about why her sorority took on the initiative to support the AFSP.

“This event is about more than awareness, it is about passion through compassion and action,” Finn said. “We started this event in spring 2025 to help bring awareness because many walks are in Syracuse or some places a little bit farther away.” The KDPNAS AFSP walk does indeed represent one of the only official anti-suicide walks located in Oswego, highlighting the need to host this event.

The walk was a 45-minute loop around campus on a beautiful afternoon. Walkers were able to take various colored beads to represent their experience with suicide, including purple for loss of a relative, teal for supporting peers with struggles, green for personal struggle and more. Many walkers took multiple beads, representing a diverse range of experiences that participants had with suicide.

Walkers were also able to share why they were walking on a poster board. Messages included notes about walking for specific people impacted by suicide and general messages about raising hope and trying to tackle one of the biggest issues facing our society.

Considering the fact that everyone has different experiences with suicide, the walk meant different things to the KDPNAS sisters responsible for putting on the walk. Multiple KDPNAS sisters shared their personal thoughts about why the walk is so important to them.

“For this walk, it means for me to support myself and other people who have struggled with suicide,” Finn said.

“I’m walking today for all the people that have struggled in silence. I think suicide prevention is a very important topic that needs to be discussed more, and I’m happy we had this walk to do that,” Abigail Reed, one of the sisters, said.

“The AFSP walk is important because suicide and loss to suicide is always important to me and it is not taken seriously enough. I feel like my sorority does a lot to shed light on the uncomfortable topics that no one wants to talk about,” Madison Guinta, another sister of KDPNAS, said.

Whether impacted directly by suicide or concerned about the issue in a general sense, all walkers came together to represent a unified force against suicide. KDPNAS aims to continue this walk as an annual tradition while continuing to increase its fundraising and awareness campaign on behalf of the AFSP.