Joel Frieders, a Hope For The Day agent of impact, leads a discussion about suicide prevention and proactive mental health at the Noon Rotary Club of Aurora meeting at Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora. Frieders is a husband, father, and son who helps run The Compounder pharmacy with his family in Aurora. He is co-owner of ELEMY, Inc, a development company. He is a second term alderman in the United City of Yorkville. His consistent focus has been on talking about suicide and proactive mental health since 2017. He was affected as a boy when a neighbor he looked up to completed suicide. He experienced the loss of two individuals to suicide in high school and later a college friend in 2013. The pivotal point came in 2017, when he learned that his close friend, popular and well-liked Chicago musician, Mike Malinowski, had completed suicide. Suicide rates have surged to a 30-year high. With proactive prevention, individuals step up to take action and facilitate the conversation on mental health in their spaces. Frieders said there are an average of 135 suicides a day, a dramatic spike. Each suicide creates a minimum of 100 individuals who receive an impact. Frieders explained that the message from Hope For The Day is, “Despite the things you’ve been through, it’s OK not to be OK.” Jason Crane/The Voice
