Long Beach walk for suicide prevention

The Long Island Crisis Center has scheduled its third annual walk to raise awareness of suicide prevention for Sunday on the Long Beach Boardwalk.

“We know that people give warning signs when they become suicidal,” said Linda Leonard, the executive director of the center that has provided free confidential services to Long Islanders in crisis for 40 years. “We strive to raise awareness of these warning signs so that friends and family can be effective in helping to prevent the tragedy of suicide.”

Participating individuals and teams will gather on the Boardwalk at Riverside Boulevard at 11 a.m.

Rita Kestenbaum of Bellmore and Cheryl Schiffman of Merrick will be presented with the Linda Nadle Award for Community Service, named for a former associate director of the center who died of breast cancer.

The two women, whose daughters were victims of a double homicide in Arizona in 2007 by a young man who then took his own life, established the Carol Kestenbaum Foundation and the Nicole Schiffman Foundation. The two foundations, named for the 2005 graduates of John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, collaborate with the crisis center to deliver services to troubled youth.

For more information, visit longislandcrisiscenter.org.