ROY, Utah — September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and one local bar is helping this cause with a special kind of fundraiser: arm wrestling.
“It means a lot to me personally because there are several people in my life that have committed suicide, and so it does personally mean a lot to me to contribute to this,” said Scott Evans, a professional arm wrestler from Riverdale.
Every year, Rainbow Saloon in Roy hosts an arm wrestling tournament to help suicide prevention efforts. The event raises money for the Legacy Suicide Survivors Support Network.
“I think that it helps a lot to bring more people to tournaments. Not many people know about arm wrestling, that it is an organized sport all over the world," said Kody Merritt, who is from Cache Valley and has been arm wrestling for over 20 years. "An activity like this helps bring people and make them aware of arm wrestling, and we can bring arm wrestlers to help with the legacy group."
“I’m so passionate for suicide awareness,” said Brittni Strickland, whose parents own Rainbow Saloon.”When I was 12, had thoughts of suicide. I’ve struggled with it my entire life… I know there’s so many individuals out there that are alone and feel alone, and we just want to create that conversation, so it means the world.”
This year, they teamed up with the World Series of Arm Wrestling and hosted people from all over.
“I am so grateful for the support that everybody is here chipping in. I’ve seen everybody chip in on this,” said Evans.
People could write messages of love and encouragement on a memory wall and donate to the cause. Judy Bezoski and her husband, Don, started Legacy when their son died by suicide at age 18. This event helps them help more people.
“These people are wonderful,” Bezoski said. “I don’t even know how to tell you how wonderful they are. They have had fundraisers for us for many years and it just keeps getting bigger and better, and we’re ever so grateful for them, and it allows us to carry our activities that we do for survivors and help families.”
“We just want them to know: one, they are not alone; two, to never give up and there’s always a home here at the Rainbow,” Strickland said.
Donations can be made via Venmo: @Legacy-SuicideSurvivorsGroup.
