The Graffiti Bridge is honored to help promote Project Semicolon.

The Graffiti Bridge is extremely happy and proud to have been chosen to help raise awareness for Project Semi-colon’s 5k walk on the fifth of November.

It is quite fitting that Saturday is “World Suicide Prevention Day.” The team from Pensacola’s chapter of Project Semicolon painted The Graffiti Bridge in honor of their friends and family members who had succumbed to depression, substance and alcohol abuse, and self-harm, and even suicide.

Sadly 1 in 10 people suffer from clinical depression. Suicide took the lives of 30,000 people last year alone.  That is double the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS.

Amy Bleuel founded Project Semicolon in 2013 as a way to raise awareness, form a support group, and bringing love and hope to people who have been affected by suicide.  The group is geared toward  suicide survivors, or those whose friends and loved ones lost their lives to suicide.

Bluel got her first semicolon tattoo was to honor her father’s  memory. In English grammar the semicolon is used to join together two parts of a sentence.

The author of this story is You, and the story is your life!! The semicolon represents you are in control of your life.  You could choose to end the story, but instead, you choose to continue on.  You CHOOSE to LIVE!!

Project Semicolon recently gained some serious star power. Celebrities Selena Gomez, Alisha Boe, and Tommy Dorfman recently joined the cause after playing a significant role in the new show “13 Reasons Why.” This show addresses a few of the causes of teen suicide.  

Gomez, Boe, and Dorfman all had semicolons tattooed on their wrists, to commemorate their parts in the show, and to remember friends and loved ones they personally had lost to suicide

For more information about Project Semicolon, please visit their site, Facebook Page, and follow #stopsuicide, and #bethevoice

Projects like this is what The Graffiti Bridge is all about.  We are doing everything we can to help promote causes, raise awareness, and bring hope to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the community.