A message of hope filled the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on May 5, as AFSP's Lifesavers Dinner raised over $460,000 for suicide prevention research, education and advocacy.

The dinner was chaired by David Norton, company group chairman, worldwide commercial and operations, Johnson & Johnson. Former “Dateline NBC” and “Today” show co-host Jane Pauley served as emcee, and the cast of “Utopia” opened and closed the evening, blending popular music with inspiring thoughts and video imagery.

"A journalist knows a little bit about a lot of things. But one thing I knew very little about was depression, which as William Styron observed is 'such a wimp of a word for such a beast of a disease,' " said Pauley, who was diagnosed with bipolar depression eight years ago.

"The money we are raising tonight is essential to sustain a breathtaking pace of breakthroughs in neuroscience," she said. "Making the connection between brain activity and behavior is a huge step towards demystifying and destigmatizing mental illness. But money is not the only thing being raised tonight. It has been said that consciousness, once raised, can never be lowered."

Pauley and 300 guests were on hand to honor researchers for scientific investigations that significantly contribute to knowledge about suicide, survivors of suicide loss for enduring great personal loss to lead the cause of suicide prevention, and political figures who have advocated for accessible and affordable treatment for persons with mental illness.

The 2009 Research Award was presented to Drs. Barbara Stanley, Gregory Brown and Glenn Currier for their collaborative work on creating a suicide attempt registry as part of the Developing Centers on Interventions for the Prevention of Suicide. This AFSP-funded study, which collected data in three psychiatric emergency rooms, has provided an important new database for research and has led the National Institute of Mental Health to write a contract for researchers to participate in a general ER registry.

"The thing I wanted to say about the Foundation is that this is the only place that someone who is doing research to prevent suicide can come to, to get support for their research," Stanley said during her acceptance. "The Foundation often serves as our starter for doing research projects that can then lead to further work."

"I would just like to thank everybody for this award. This has been a team effort and certainly with my colleagues Barbara and Glenn, we have spent a lot of time together doing this project," Brown added.

"This collaboration has provided a unique opportunity," Currier said. "I'm a clinician, they are top-score researchers, we are doing things in a different way. NIH did not do that. AFSP did that."

This year's Survivor of Suicide Loss Award was presented to Al and Mary Kluesner, who lost their 21-year-old daughter, Amy, and 38-year-old son, Michael, to suicide. The award was presented to them by Eric Hipple, a former NFL quarterback who was the 2008 recipient of this award.

Following Amy’s death in 1985, Al and Mary became co-founders of SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), an organization that works to prevent suicides by educating the public about depression. A decade later, they helped establish the National Council for Suicide Prevention, which is comprised of not-for-profit organizations, including AFSP, dedicated to preventing suicide.

"I have something I want to share with you," Mary Kluesner said. "It is the statement that Amy's roommate made to us when we went to Amy's college to pick up her belongings. When she opened the door she said, 'It never occurred to me that she was dying.' And I have never ever forgotten those words. They were the words that inspired me and my husband. We will work until that is never said again."

"My heart goes out to Amy and Michael every day of my life," Al Kluesner said. "Awareness is truly important. We have to alert the public about depression."

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