A day to remember the people lost to suicide

THE Goulburn Valley Suicide Awareness walk is set to be held for the fifth time on Sunday, September 14 starting at 8.30am.

Organiser Jacky Gilbee said that it’s going to be a big year for the event “because we’re finally getting the speakers really up and roaring. This year we’ve got guest speakers including The Unbreakable Farmer Warren Davies.

Everyone knows about him. It’s been so hard on farmers this year… including the cost of living and the cost of hay has just skyrocketed, so we think he’s very appropriate. We’ve also got we always have a local person, Ron Hockley.

He’s a local hay man and he’s been around Yea and Seymour and all those areas for a long time, and he has a really good story as well.

We’re also going to have David from the band Stoked, who does acoustic music. We’re featuring this year local identity, Tayla Arnett. We’re also going to have the mayor, Damien Gallagher, to read out our honour list.

“We ramped it up a little bit. A lot of people will be wondering who painted that gigantic blue tree on the Melbourne Highway.

I would have to say we had a lot to do with it. We always walk probably about 100 metres from it normally, so we’re going to you give you the choice of walking to the two bridges closest to the Melbourne Highway, or you can actually go and touch the blue tree.

You have a choice this year, or you can do both. We also will have Cruisin’ Coffee as our coffee cart this year.

We have a smoking ceremony performed by Aunty Angela of the Taungurung people, and we always have a free sausage sizzle by the Yea Rotary Club.”

Jacky noted that all are welcome, including pets. “We’re getting more dogs than we’re getting people now, which is great. We welcome two legged and four legged animals, and we have…