KIRO 7′s Day of Giving benefits Crisis Connections

With everything happening right now, it’s a great time to help out your neighbor.

This is a Day of Giving here at KIRO 7.

Crisis Connections has been providing a lifeline for those in need in our community for nearly 60 years. And we want to help them help others.

Some of that work is happening right in here. There are volunteers here taking the calls of people in need.

It is work that Crisis Connections has been doing for nearly six decades.

It has been 22 years since Colby Spexarth died by suicide. But for his mother, his life is as present as it ever was.

“The paradox that I discovered through my loss is we don’t get over it, one,” said Kristen Spexarth. “And you can’t fix it. You need to go toward it and embrace it.”

That is how Spexarth found her way to Crisis Connections and its Survivors of Suicide or SOS group.

“You discover that the pain of loss is lessened,” she said. “And then by doing outreach with the other survivors, newer survivors, again, it is a reminder for me of how important it is for us to build community and to build understanding and compassion.”

Crisis Connections or Crisis Clinic as it was first called, was so groundbreaking that it was immortalized in the movie, “The Slender Thread,” starring Oscar-winning actors, Anne Bancroft and Sidney Poitier.

Crisis Connections CEO Michelle McDaniel says that its mission hasn’t changed in 58 years.

“You can call us 24/7 to be able to have someone talk with you,” said McDaniel, “that will pick up that phone live and be able to be a non-judgmental listening ear.”

The volunteers at Crisis Connections also provide an additional resource for medical professionals like those at Kaiser-Permanente, four years into their partnership.

“It really goes back to how we practice modern primary care,” said Dr. Scott Itano, who practices family medicine. “It’s a bio-psycho-social model. And so we understand the social determinants of health that really impact your total health.”

Crisis Connections, he says, “it’s a vital part.”

It is a vital part of so many lives. And the volunteers here are waiting for your call, available every hour of every day.

Now they are asking for your financial help as well, to keep doing this vital work.

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