LITTLE CHUTE, WI (WTAQ) – For people struggling emotionally, the holiday season can be difficult, but one local police department has teamed up with a suicide resource center to help ease the burden.
Barb Bigalke, the executive director of Center for Suicide Awareness, tells WLUK this isn’t your average traffic stop.
Instead of a ticket, the driver went away with a gift bag thanks to ‘Operation Lift Your Spirits.’
“To just say, ‘we know the holidays are tought and people struggle and here’s something that might help you’”
The Center for Suicide Awareness in Kaukauna teamed up with the Fox Valley Metro Police Department.
Bigalke says officers are giving out bags filled with things like toiletries, winter clothes and gift cards.
“They’re the ones that see the people that are in need, the people that might be struggling, the people that fall between the cracks”
Officers decide who gets the bags, possibly choosing people they know are struggling and visiting them at home.
“Also on traffic stops. If they encounter someone on a routine traffic stop for, say a tail lamp that’s out,” explained Officer Michael Lambie.
The bags also hold information about the Center for Suicide Awareness and its statewide texting Hopeline.
The holidays can be the toughest time.
“We see a dramatic increase in people texting in the Hopeline during the holiday season,” said Bigalke.
Bigalke says there has been an 82-percent increase in people texting the Hopeline this holiday season over last year.
She says the holidays can be very stressful, expensive and, yes, depressing.
“Grief really is deeper during the holiday season”
