Suicide Relief Funds Foundation

I'm currently a second semester college senior at a small, private college in central Illinois completing my Business Administration degree. Last March my cousin shot and killed himself. While I personally wasn't close to this cousin, I was close to my Aunt and my cousin's kids. While a death in the family is never easy, it can be so much harder when it's a suicide. And this got me thinking.

I wasn't sure she would  be able to handle the financial burden that comes with a funeral. Now, having to deal with the loss of her son, she would also have to find a way to cover the cost of a funeral. How many other people across the world have had to deal with this kind of loss? If you lose someone to suicide, the last thing you should have to think about it how you're going to raise the money for a funeral.

So I came up with an idea to start a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to help provide some financial relief to families who have lost someone to suicide. It's really that simple, I want to create an organization that can make an incredibly difficult time just a tiny bit easier for people. Eventually, I want the organization to grow so that we can provide grief counseling for victim's families and to grow even past that so that we can work on suicide prevention. I've dealt with serious depression and thoughts of suicide myself, and I count myself lucky that I was able to get the help I needed when I needed it, but I know not everyone is so lucky. 

However, this is a large project, and it will need a lot of funding for it to get off the ground. I've got some ideas for local fundraisers, but I'm realistic in knowing that it's going to take a lot more than a few fundraisers to get this off the ground. That's why I'm coming to the gofundme community. If you've ever lost someone to suicide, or know someone that has, you know how difficult it is for the family to handle that pain. Please join me in trying to make this difficult time just a little bit easier for these families.

Luckily for my Aunt, the church she's a part of gathered up the money necessary and decided to cover whatever cost she could not. She had a beautiful service for her son, and the compassion showed to her by those around her made the loss so much more bearable. Now, almost a year later, she still remembers the loss of her son, but she also remembers the kindness of her church family.