Darkness Into Light is the flagship fundraising event for Pieta House, a suicide and self-harm crisis centre, and takes place in the early hours of Saturday, May 10th.
With a radio and television advertising campaign launching on Monday, #DIL2014 has already seen a massive surge in registrations from its 2013 incarnation.
London and Sydney become the event’s first international venues this year, with the hope that next year’s Darkness Into Light could even make it Stateside.
Oliver Skehan, Digital Co-ordinator with Pieta House, puts the rising number of registrations down to a number of things: the opening of four new centres in Cork, Tuam, Roscrea and Castleisland since this time last year, the organic growth of the event and the help of celebrities such as television presenter Eoghan McDermott and former Cork hurler Conor Cusack.
“At the Darkness into Light launch we had Eoghan McDermott, who subsequently went on to record a video on YouTube which was the first time he’d spoken about self-harm,” Skehan said.
“We met Cork dual star Eoin Cadogan and his former Rebel teammate Conor Cusack, who was very much in the news with regard to depression and mental health before Christmas. They’ve been a big help.
“Conor Cusack went on to speak about his troubles and that’s what we’re trying to encourage all men in Ireland to do. Men don’t tend to talk about their feelings. It is beginning to change a little bit, but the more high profile men who come out and talk, and encourage others to talk, and say, “it’s ok not to be ok,” then the better it’ll be for everybody.”
Skehan spoke about the history of Darkness Into Light, from a few hundred participants in the Phoenix Park in 2009 to last year’s event which drew almost 40,000 people to get up early in the morning in aid of Pieta House.
“In its first year, in 2009, it was a very small event and there were only a few hundred at it. Even at that we were surprised that so many people were there because it was a very fledgling idea at the time. Since then it’s grown hugely. Last year, nearly 40,000 people took part – there were 19 venues – with the support of Electric Ireland, who are kindly supporting us again this year.
“There are 39 venues this year – over twice as many as last year – but the most significant thing is that there are two venues outside of Ireland, Sydney and London. We see this as a representation of how big the event has become, it’s gone international.”
Skehan, who says that the 15,000 people registered a full fortnight before the event is an increase of 10,000 on last year’s numbers at the same stage, says that the ultimate aim of Pieta House is to “have a centre no more than 100km from every person in Ireland.”
Pieta House uses social media such as Facebook and Twitter to engage with its audiences, and Skehan says that the growing popularity of these pages is proving a real success story for the charity and showing results in the real world.
“The sense I get from the Facebook page is that it’s like a little community,” he says. “A Pieta family.
“People will expect to see something every day and we give them information on the services we provide, we promote campaigns we would be running like ‘Mind Our Men’ or ‘SIGNS.’
“Obviously at the moment Darkness Into Light is the focus so we’re trying to give people as much information as we can about registering, how they do it, making it as simple and straightforward for them as possible.
“The sense I get is that people are anxious to see how they can get involved, or to thank us for spreading the word or raising awareness.”
He hopes to gets #DIL2014 trending on Twitter on the day of the event itself.
“Twitter will be very important on the morning of the event. We’re encouraging at each 1km mark we’re going to have sign up for people to tweet with official hashtag, which is #DIL2014.
“At the 1km mark, for instance, we plan to have a question up asking if this is people’s first time doing Darkness Into Light? We then encourage them to tweet using #DIL2014 with the aim to create a buzz on Twitter and get #DIL2014 trending in Ireland on the morning.
“I’d be disappointed if it didn’t trend a couple of times, given the numbers taking part.”
To register, go to dil.pieta.ie.
Also, check out the Pieta House Facebook page and the charity’s Twitter page.
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