VIDALIA — Preparations are under way for the annual Out of the Darkness Community Walk, and organizers want you to help spread the light.

The walk aims to bring awareness to the issue of suicide, in hopes of preventing future deaths and helping families dealing with suicide cope.

The local event will be Nov. 13 on the Vidalia Riverfront.

The walk — which occurs nationally — also raises funds for suicide prevention organizations. The Out of the Darkness Community walk is to suicide what Relay for Life is to cancer.

The Miss-Lou event was at Duncan Park in Natchez in 2008 and 2009. However, the director of the event, Erin Sessions Frith, said she felt the Vidalia Riverwalk would be a better site to have the event, in hopes that more people would attend.

In 2002, Frith lost her father to suicide. Since then, she has been driven to promote suicide prevention, she said.

She wants anyone who has lost someone to suicide or knows of someone who has had thoughts of suicide to attend the event.

“Anybody who has lost someone to suicide should come,” Frith said. “It is a community effort. Even if you would just like to help out, you should come.”

One of Frith’s main focuses and concerns is the local school systems. In teens, depression and suicide is much greater, she said. If the event can save one teen’s life from suicide, then her job is complete, she said.

To sign up for the walk, visit www.outofthedarkness.org, or sign up upon arrival.

The walk will begin at 9 a.m. and run until 1 p.m. or later.