Pitch Your Nonprofit: Suicide And Crisis Center

According to Suicide and Crisis Center’s Fresh Faces of Fashion’s Chair/Founder Yvonne Crum —

“This is a letter from Patricia Massey Sivori, she is a survivor, a board member of Suicide and Crisis Center, and her message is one of hope. I offer it as my plea to help The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas with year -end funding for our amazing program Survivors of Suicide and why I founded Fresh Faces of Fashion featuring 12 young women in the community who help with the awareness and fundraising each year.

“‘Dear Friends,

“‘The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas gave me a ‘safe’ place to share my grief. My story is of loss. In shock and total despair, the SCC was open for our entire family and for our friends. We are the survivors; the ones who are the blank faces of grief and suicide. A survivor named in the obituary column of our local newspaper, the ‘ones’ defined as beloved and remaining alive.

“‘Before November 7, 2001, I don’t know if I had ever known anyone personally that suicided! Putting a face and name to then ‘taboo’ word suicide was kept in the closet, under the rug, in the whispers of the deep-dark archives of family secrets. And was I naive to think that suicide was not occurring at that time, in my city, my neighborhood, in my grandchildren’s home? The door of the SCC opened to rooms filled with stories!  Families speaking of ‘there is no one to talk to at the worst time in my life’; no one speaks to me–I feel that’s the beginning of my dance. Two steps back, one step forward! Now this brings me to today! I am passionate for the awareness of suicide. The SCC is representative of people passionate to help families through their grief with groups. They are passionate about screening young teens for signals of suicidal tendencies in a private ‘safe’ environment. The crisis call lines are answered around the clock, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and holidays by courageous trained volunteers sacrificing comfortable surroundings to be the help a desperate soul reaches for in the darkest of hours.

“‘My revelation is to have realized I went through the grief enduring extreme loss and learned ‘to live to dance’ with what remains. To really hear the music, really cry when it hurts and really grieve when I miss my Cal.

“‘My name is Patricia Massey Sivori. I am married, raised three children, Cal, Blake and Jennifer.

“‘Please accept my sincerest appreciation for your support of the non-profit Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas.’

“Now you know why these young women mean so much to me; they help me and the SCC to give hope to people that have lost someone and cannot realize where to turn and if it’s worth it. It is and our message is simple: WE OFFER HOPE! www.sccenter.org  Take a look at what we do.

“Respectfully submitted for you to learn what all this is about and why I am constantly posting.  Those parents that lose a child or spouse to suicide never really know why, but they grieve and think life will never be the same. In fact – it won’t but as Trish says above: you can learn to dance again!

“Please help us help them!”

-Yvonne Crum

* Photo submitted by Suicide and Crisis Center