Corpus Christi (KIII News) — This coming weekend a suicide awareness walk will be taking place at Calallen Middle School.
The walk is something that's close to the heart of local Assistant Fire Chief Randy Paige. The event is named in memory of Paige's son, Colten who took his own life at the age of 19.
"He had a big heart, loved to help other people, what he gave to other people," Paige said. "He loved to go out there and be with the rest of the kids and play baseball."
Paige is talking about his son Colten, a graduate of Calallen High School, someone who had a passion for baseball, a seemingly happy kid.
"For the most part you would never know anything was ever bothering him," Paige said.
In December of 2016, the young kid with a bright future decided to take his own life.
"There are warning signs, and Colten had warning signs, it's not that we ignored them, we let his smiles and him telling us everything was okay, what we wanted to believe, we didn't want to believe we saw, the depression, anger spells," Paige said.
After the death of his son Paige and his wife wanted to do whatever they could to bring awareness to the often taboo subject.
"We talk about drugs and alcohol to our kids all the time they pail in comparison of the number of deaths in suicide among our teens, the stigma of it, and I think we got to break that," Paige said.
Colten's goal was to be in law enforcement, and he was taking classes at Del Mar College in hopes of one day getting a job for the FBI.
The Paiges are now helping keep his memory alive by offering a scholarship in his name, and they created this walk for Colton.
In 2017, dozens of people came out to the very first walk to help raise money for that scholarship fund but more importantly get their message out to others.
"We encourage other teens out there we want them to hear the message that there are other choices that are better than taking your life," Paige said.
The second annual suicide awareness walk for Colten will be held on Saturday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m.
If you or a loved one is in need of someone to talk to, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at1-800-273-8255.
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