“Before my back injury, my life was rewarding. I was an avid runner, hiker, and fly fisherman. I volunteered with Mountain Rescue-Aspen and on an ambulance with the Mexican Red Cross.

After the injury, I lost everything I loved to do. Despite three back surgeries, I was in horrendous pain constantly and on high doses of pain medications. I went to bed every night with excruciating pain. I lost hope and did not see any light at the end of the tunnel. For several weeks as I lay in bed at night, I composed and refined a suicide note in my head and made plans for how to kill myself. 

Finally, one morning, I begged my wife to let me die. She knew I was in crisis and immediately called The Hope Center. The counselors helped me out of the darkness. They pulled me back from the brink. I owe them my life. Now, despite three more back surgeries and daily pain, I am alive to enjoy my life and family thanks to you.

I know there are many people out there who are in crisis or are headed into crisis. They may not have someone to grab them and pull them back from the brink. They may feel alone and have no hope. However, they do not have to be alone, and there is hope.

Because of you, the Hope Center is here to help so many people in our community who need it. I am just so grateful to you that the Hope Center was there when I was at my lowest point.

Thank you again for saving my life.”

“When I was in second grade, my brother and I used to walk home for lunch.  We lived on Long Island and my dad worked in Manhattan. This one day, while we were eating our sandwiches, my dad and my Uncle Pat pulled up in the car and walked up the front lawn.  My mother said, “What’s going on, why are you here?”  Dad said something and I remember my mother screaming.  My mother’s brother had died by suicide that morning. 

The details were so horrible. He died with his kids, my cousins at home. But no one could talk about it. The impact it had on my mother, and me, and all my cousins and everyone else was so difficult. You didn’t talk about suicide back then. They actually told my grandmother that he had a heart attack.

Till the day my mother died, she was so disappointed that her brother didn’t talk to someone about his problems and get help. She felt helpless that he had no one to talk to, including his siblings. No matter what his problems might have been, she would have done anything in her power to help him. But no one talked about suicide. No one knew.

His suicide has impacted me for fifty years. Helping people talk about suicide is my way of paying tribute to my mom and my cousins. My mom was really proud of our work with the Hope Center, both personally, and as a law enforcement officer.

Hope Center provides support to law enforcement and people in crisis on 911 mental health calls.

As a former Aspen police officer and Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputy, I witnessed the help the Hope Center brings to law enforcement and the public for years. From fatal crashes and drownings to times when people were feeling suicidal, we called the Hope Center. Because of you, the Hope Center, clinicians were there in minutes to listen, assess, and bring hope to the situation.

When a young man was suicidal and intoxicated at the Aspen Airport, he said enough to let us know he had a clear plan to kill himself. We couldn’t just let him go. He needed help. We didn’t want to take him into protective custody with handcuffs. He hadn’t done anything wrong and he didn’t belong in a jail. He needed emotional help. The Hope Center crisis clinician was there immediately.

The young man got the therapeutic help he needed from The Hope Center because people like you provide support. Thank you for caring.

Thank you for talking about suicide. You are making a difference.”