The 2025 Out of the Darkness Community Walk for LaSalle County is a week away: October 11 at Washington Park. Check-in begins at 11 am and the event begins at 1 pm.

Ottawa native Alexis Ferracuti coordinates and sponsors the event for our area. She recently spoke with the Ottawa Visitors Center and explained more about the walk. Ferracuti has been running the event since 2015.

As the organizer of the event, Alexis is in contact with the different working parts that come together to make the walk what it is. This includes the police station, non profits, as well as handling donations. She explained her thoughts on this aspect of organizing.

“… we’re lucky to live in a community where people just want to donate things and take care of you.”

She also spoke about what visitors to the event can expect to find. Open Space Art Gallery & Studios will have an art therapy activity at the not-for-profit health fair that the walk will include. Ferracuti gave more details on the health fair.

“So, when you’re in crisis and you can’t think of who to call or where to go, you don’t have it in you to Google something on the internet, because sometimes it’s too much… And the whole point is to provide people with as much information as we can, because when you’re in a mental health crisis, it’s like a physical health crisis. For example, if you’re having a heart attack, you’re not thinking… if somebody asks you give directions your house in the middle of a heart attack, you couldn’t do that. It’s the same idea in a mental health crisis. When you’re in a suicidal ideation, you’re not thinking about those things, you’re not able to think about those things, you’re focused on that pain in the moment. So, we want to make sure that we address that. Make sure the people have the resources they need at all times.”

These resources will include information for Alcoholics Anonymous, Arukah, Perfectly Flawed, and OSF Behavioral Health. There will be bags with these resources for privacy.

Ferracuti went into detail regarding her reasons for running this event.

“A lot of my life is centered around helping people who are in crisis, physical health crisis, generally. But it does run into mental health crises a lot. So, I became very passionate about helping people at a very young age. But I lost in 2012, one of my friends in college, died by suicide.”

“I lost Pat in 2012, and that was really my first… I didn’t know the signs. And I didn’t know how to identify that in people. And I wanted to be able to do that for other people and help other people get to resources. I’m not a counselor or a therapist. I want to make sure you have the resources that you need so you can get the help you need… to get better, to feel better, to do better. I got very passionate after that. And then, since then, obviously, it had my friends, you know, who have gone through mental health crises that I’ve been able to help and stand beside while they went through it. And, it became very important to me: teenagers. To know what those signs and symptoms look like, because they’re very different in teenagers than they are in adults. And, they’re very different in 21 year olds, than they are 55 year olds. It’s really important to me that people actually understand that because our generations weren’t taught that. Kids’ schools are starting to get taught that now… but our generations weren’t taught that. So, I want to make sure as parents, as siblings, as friends, as kids, daughters, sons, whatever, that we know how to identify those things and all of the people around us, that we can help everybody you know. We can help people find the resources they need, to find help.”

The event is tied to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Ferracuti spoke on partnering with the AFSP for the walk.

“Now, I run the walk and have had the privilege of doing that for the last 10 years and AFSP is a truly incredible organization for the people who genuinely want to make the world a better place. It is the largest private funder of suicide research and prevention efforts in the nation.”

Finally, Ferracuti shared her favorite impacts that the walk has on the community.

“That’s I think my favorite part about the walk is it creates a sense of support in the community for one another. And you know, when you look around like, you’re not alone… here’s all these other people who are here and just want to support you and make sure that you feel loved.”

For more information on the 2025 LaSalle County Out of the Darkness Walk and AFSP, check out the event link here