It was another successful year, despite Mother Nature trying to hamper the event. 

The annual Moose Jaw Journey to Hope Walk took place this past weekend, with various elements added to the agenda this year. In the past, and again for this year, they had to move the event inside due to unfavorable weather conditions. This was something that the organizer, Della Ferguson, said created some good feedback.

"It felt more connected. When we're in the park it just naturally is a bigger space, and so people are spread out. It was interesting how I've heard that the two times we had to go indoors they felt more closely connected to each other. So that's feedback that we're really going to think about and as we move forward as we look to next year."

Each year, Ferguson says they see even more people getting involved, whether that be making a donation, collecting more funds, or the increasing number of people attending the Journey to Hope Walk. 

"We've seen an increase in the number of people attending, and it's twofold. One is the awareness and the other is we've lost more people to suicide. We have more passion behind our push because we have more families that have this very much front and center in their lives. We also have the community coming together and I think that's because the stigma is being addressed, we're talking about it and we're breaking the silence."

Ferguson couldn't believe participants collected over $25,000 and tipped her hat to various members of the public who brought in large cash donations such as Lianne Nekrasoff, Carousel Riders and Dawn Froats, who through a side project involving fitness gathered $5,500. 

Despite seeing a larger number of people out in 2018, Ferguson would love to see that get even bigger in 2019. She encourages all residents to come out to their events to address their healing or to help others through theirs. 

"We'd be hounored to have more people come on board, the more people the stronger we are, the bigger presence we can have and the bigger impact we can make. I can't say enough gratitude to our community in so many ways that they have stepped up."

The Journey to Hope committee put a lot of time and effort into the annual Walk; however, they're hitting the ground running as they've got three workshops scheduled for the end of October, and the bi-annual Hope Summit happening in November.  

Anyone wanting to volunteer, attend or participate in another form can find more information on the Journey to Hope Facebook page.