GREEN BAY, WI -- As suicide attempts on the Leo Frigo Bridge become a growing concern for some Brown County leaders, one Green Bay woman with an international message of hope is also fighting for a solution.
Project Semicolon founder Amy Bleuel has been very open about her struggles with mental illness. And it's having an impact.
Since the non-profit launched three years ago, Project Semicolon has fueled an international conversation about mental health awareness.
"Approximately one million people have the semicolon tattoo," says Bleuel, displaying her own semicolon tattoo on her arm with pride. The tattoo reads 'Love Endlessly; Purpose for the Pain,' in reference to her own struggles with suicide, and the loss of her father. "Through this, we're starting a conversation that can't be stopped."
For Bleuel, it's a conversation taking her back home, to Green Bay, to the Leo Frigo Bridge.
"I knew it as 'suicide bridge,'" says Bleuel, referring to the first time someone showed her the bridge after moving to Green Bay, "that's what it was introduced to me as."
Bleuel says it's an area people struggling with suicidal thoughts seem to be drawn to, and it's a perception that needs to change.
"The last one definitely hit me hearing that it was a young 18-year-old girl clutching a teddy bear," says Bleuel, referring to an incident in March where a girl was talked off the bridge by a passerby. "She wasn't looking to take her life, she was looking to escape that pain."
"There's a phenomenon when it comes to people that are seeking to commit suicide looking for high bridges," says Brown Co. Sheriff's Capt. Dan Sandberg.
Sandberg says a previous push for change led to signs being installed on the bridge with a phone number to a crisis center.
"The signs aren't enough," says Bleuel.
But Sandberg says other solutions, like protective fencing, could interfere with bridge maintenance, or snow removal, "and that could end up creating more of a hazard, and we may end up causing injuries, or deaths."
And a $76 million net system, like the Golden Gate Bridge uses, could be unrealistic financially.
"We value every life. We really do," says Sandberg, "but then when you're with a limited budget, or if we even have any funds, we have to look for grants. We've got to look for different ways to try and pay for this."
Captain Sandberg says the County Traffic Safety Commission will meet again in July, to brainstorm cost effective ways to prevent suicides on the bridge.
Public input is encouraged.
