Imagine having someone you love kill themselves. Now, imagine hearing their name read aloud along with dozens of others who also committed suicide and you can better imagine the somber emotions that swept through downtown Lafayette Saturday morning.

Tears literally could be seen falling from faces and hitting the ground as families of suicide victims prayed and spoke during an "Out of the Darkness" walk to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention or AFSP.

Gretchen Elmer-Yax, a native of New Iberia and whose brother, Kevin, committed suicide in 2004, organized the event. Hundreds of people were there, including a team of students and faculty from New Iberia Catholic High School. "We have about 35 people. About 28 of them are students," Teresa Viator, a teacher at CHS, said. Viator said she helped to organize a whole week at CHS where students raised money for AFSP by each paying $5 to wear blue jeans. They raised $1,833 for the foundation. Viator said she had good reason to want to get involved in suicide prevention.

"Since I''ve been working there (CHS), there have been quite a few deaths by suicide," Viator said. The latest victim was Kristen Barras who died in Dec. 2006. "After Kristen''s death, I wanted to educate myself," Viator said.

CHS students at the march said Kristen''s death also made them want to get involved.

"Even though I never really talked with her before, It still has a big impact. We still have a big connection to it," Kim Pham, a CHS junior, said. "Kristen was in my gym class, and she was as normal as anyone. She was the last person I thought would kill herself."

Michael Robichaux, also a junior at CHS, said having one of his fellow students commit suicide also affected him. "I''m here (at the walk) basically because our school has been affected by it (suicide) and maybe we can help someone and maybe overcome this one day," Robichaux said.

Rhonda Delcambre, who lost her son Brock to suicide, spoke during the ceremony right before the walk, saying, "By coming together this morning and supporting this cause, we as a community are contributing to a goal that we all share, that through awareness and education, we can hopefully prevent other families from living this horrible nightmare."

Many businesses donated items for the walk, including Walgreens presenting a check for $1,000. That helped the walk raise more than $18,000 for the AFSP, half of which goes to the local foundation in Southwest Louisiana and the other half to the national foundation.