People listened to first-hand experiences, signed T-shirts and released balloons on campus to remember those lost to suicide and raise awareness.
On Saturday, a group of students hosted the Out of the Darkness Walk to raise suicide awareness.
"Suicide is rarely talked about because there's this stigma around it and it's hard to understand. Really [suicide] is about people who tried but didn't know how to get help," said sophomore Lea Norwood, who attended to support the cause.
Before the walk, guest speaker Brian Shivers, youth program director of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, talked about the negative stigmas surrounding suicide and the lack of attention it gets.
The event also included two student speakers. Junior Tyler Fox has lost seven people to suicide since seventh grade and has learned to cope with the loss through resources on campus.
Sophomore Carmen Diaz was the other student speaker, and she talked about the losses of her father in 2002, uncle in 2007 and some classmates.
"[Being an advocate] really helps me feel closer to my dad," Diaz said. "Pretty much the whole reason I do this is because I don't want people to go through what I did when I lost my dad. This is my passion and it makes me feel really good."
Through these losses to suicide, Diaz is becoming an advocate of suicide prevention and awareness.
"Suicide is a huge thing in Carmen's life, but she can still smile and wants to save people," Norwood said.
After the speakers finished, everyone who registered for the event went on a three-mile walk around campus. While on the walk, the group stopped by the fountain near Park Hall and signed T-shirts and released balloons in honor of the people they have lost.
The founder of the walk, sophomore Chloe Brattain, lost her brother to suicide during her freshman year of high school. Following her loss, Brattain's mother, Lisa Brattain, founded AFSP's Indianapolis branch and started the Indianapolis Out of the Darkness Community Walk in September.
After the loss of her brother, Brattain and her family were left questioning.
"We were looking for information, and we were confused and didn't understand, but we found that through AFSP and we saw that Indianapolis didn't have a branch, so my mom brought it here," Brattain said.
When Brattain came to Ball State last year, she saw an opportunity to bring the walk here and she succeeded.
In its second year, the walk topped last year's attendance with 110 people and raised more than $3,000, which will benefit the AFSP, Brattain said.
Norwood said the walk does more than just raise money.
"It shows that people have reasons to live," Norwood said.
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