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Kevin Ford during his 24-hour endurance run to raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Going the Extra Mile

Loss inspires runner to advocate for suicide prevention

When we think of the work day, we often think of something long and tiring. Eight hours of enduring. In the early hours of Oct. 17, Kevin Ford felt much the same, but his trial of stamina was something different.

Ford was roughly two-thirds of the way through a 24-hour endurance run. Rather than being halfway through a tedious commute, he had already run some 80 miles at that point.

“I’ve never had pain in my feet like that,” he says. “There were points where I was like, ‘Man, I still have an entire work day left and I might be walking all of it.’ But it was never a question of, ‘I might just stop and go home and rest for a little bit.’”

But it was about much more than just running. Rather, he ran to raise awareness for suicide prevention and in memory of his dad, Mark, who died by suicide in 2010.

The younger Ford’s October run at Westerville North’s stadium sought to raise money in support of the Westerville Education Challenge and its Hope Squad program.

The event was a resounding success, raising more than $10,000, Ford says.

Picking Up Speed

Around 2017, Ford began running ultramarathon distances. He started with 50K runs, equal to roughly 31 miles, and worked his way up to 50-mile lengths.

When he started, the runs were an outlet for Ford, not a fundraising effort. At a certain point though, he began to look for a bigger purpose in his running.

“‘What am I really doing this for?’ Every runner has that in their mind,” he says. “I realized that I like having medals. They’re fun to look at, they’re fun to hold, but I just thought, ‘I can do more with this.’”

After germinating for a couple years, the idea came to fruition in 2020. Seeing the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford decided to complete a 100-mile run to raise money for the Columbus-based Sankofa Project, which supports African American youth.

For Ford, a history teacher at Brookwood Academy, supporting that organization aligned with his mission to give back and support young people in need.

That event was proof of the potential for using Ford’s running to support fundraising efforts.

“It was just kind of me and my mom building the hype,” he says. “It was really successful for what it was at the time, but it really proved to me this can be an avenue to give back.”

Ford looked to do something even larger the next year. His mom, a member of the Westerville Education Challenge, told him about Hope Squad. The peer-led program for students in Westerville high schools focuses on mental health and suicide prevention education.

That program reminded Ford of his experience after his dad’s death, before anything like Hope Squad existed.

“To say that I didn’t have support in high school would be a lie,” he says, “but there was nothing systematically in place and I think that there’s a systematic issue in place now, because of COVID, that just exacerbated the already present issues.”

Though Ford generally doesn’t speak publicly about his or his family’s experience with suicide, the opportunity to share his story to help others put speaking up in a different perspective.

“It wasn’t difficult because of the reason I was doing it,” he says. “I don’t really like sharing too much about my dad and his passing. I don’t really put stuff on Facebook about it. That’s how I am. But when there was a purpose to it, it became incredibly easy.”

The 24-hour run gave Ford a chance to provide support for programs that he believes would have been beneficial for him during high school.

Westerville started its Hope Squad program, part of a national initiative, in August 2021. The program seeks to improve culture within schools to destigmatize conversations about mental health and also offers training for students, staff and community members. The training focuses on the QPR method, which means question, persuade, refer. That 90-minute course teaches people to watch for signs of suicidal thoughts, ask questions, persuade someone in need to seek help and assist in finding the appropriate resources.

The Ford family made a memorial for Mike Ford in the stadium to remind Kevin Ford of why he was running.

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Student members of Hope Squad were present at Ford’s run, which raised more than $10,000 for Westerville Education Challenge and the Hope Squad program.

Run to Inspire

For the event, Ford and his family placed a memorial for his father in the stadium stands.

“Every time I came around the track, I had him and his struggles in my mind,” Ford says. “It kind of hit me, ‘I’m doing this for Dad, I’m doing this for everyone.’”

Family and friends were present throughout the entire event. Community members, including students on Westerville’s cross-country team, joined him on the track as well.

“I had several people come and tell me their story,” Ford says. “It just really resonated and helped to remind me why I continued to walk around this track at 5 o’clock in the morning when I felt like my feet were about to fall off.”

Seeing others, particularly young people, moved or inspired by his running is especially important to Ford. He tries to set the example for his own students that if he can do something, they are capable of at least as much.

“I’m a normal guy, I just put the work in for running,” he says. “If I can do 100 miles on the track, what are you guys able to do?”

Cameron Carr is associate editor. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com.

Westerville Education Challenge will host a Mardi Gras Masquerade fundraiser, featuring dueling pianos from 88 Keys & the Truth, on Saturday, Feb. 26. The fundraiser, which takes place from 7-11 p.m., helps support the organization’s work to create a culture in schools where all students feel safe, supported and celebrated. Read more about Westerville Education Challenge on our website and find additional info at www. westervilleeducationchallenge.org

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