As a quirky bus named “Zephyr” rumbles across rural Missouri, carrying Kelly Logan and her husband, Cory Richez, its passionate owners are seeking to make Cortez the home base for a so-called “mobile graveyard.”
For more than five years, Logan and Richez have driven various iterations of the Suicide Awareness Bus and Spirit House across the nation, providing a space for family members of suicide victims to honor their loved ones. On the previous bus, named “Phoenix,” people scribbled countless names on its peeling paint and gave the couple photographs, clothes and even the ashes of their loved ones lost to suicide to keep safe and bring on their journey.
Those who’ve struggled with mental health could also find comfort on its four wheels.
“This mission was created because both my husband and I – we’ve lost family and friends to suicide,” Logan said. “We created this to give people a voice, to bring awareness to suicide, give a place where survivors can be seen and [give] our loved ones that are no longer with us a voice.”
They’ve been documented in towns in Arizona, Texas, Ohio, California, New Mexico, Utah, Pennsylvania and others, distributing Narcan, fentanyl test strips and warm clothing. Wherever they stop, they promote mental health education and advertise the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline, while providing a listening ear for people’s stories of hardship.
“We provide a tangible way for America to process grief on their own terms and in their own way,” Richez said.
Logan and Richez are seeking to raise money on GoFundMe to buy property in Cortez where they can retire the original bus, which is still the site of numerous names, photos, mementos and remains of those that died of suicide across America. They also aspire to establish a museum for the bus coupled with a wellness center for the town.
“It will be the ‘SAB Museum and Wellness Center’ and it will be a wellness center unlike a lot of wellness centers,” Logan said. “We’re going to incorporate art. I would like to introduce my angry clay therapy studio into it, aromatherapies. It will be a safe place where people can just come and be.”
For help
Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering suicide:
Axis Care Hotline:
24/7 local response to your crisis & behavioral health needs: 247-5245
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE:
988
RED NACIONAL DE PREVENCIÓN DEL SUICIDIO:
988
FORT LEWIS COLLEGE COUNSELING CENTER:
247-7212
BOYS TOWN HOTLINE:
(800) 448-3000.
SAFE2TELL COLORADO:
(877) 542-7233 or safe2tell.org
COLORADO CRISIS SUPPORT LINE:
(844) 493-8255 or text “TALK” to 38255 or online at coloradocrisisservices.org to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths 24 hours a day.
AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION:
Colorado chapter information available at afsp.org/chapter/afsp-colorado/
FOR MEN:
A website for adult men contemplating suicide is available at mantherapy.org
The mental health resource may be coming to a place that needs it. Montezuma County has a suicide rate 50% higher than the state average with Colorado farmers and ranchers being at higher risk of suicide compared with most occupations.
Richez himself worked as a ranch hand and construction worker. He sold 40 acres of his own land to fund the bus. Logan sold her land in New York to support their mission and now says they need further support to finance their move to Cortez.
“It’s been hard and at the same time a blessing trying to keep this is motion,” Logan said. “We do this 365 days a year, seven days a week, from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed.”
While Logan and Richez are looking for a more permanent home for “Phoenix”, “Zephyr’s” travels are not coming to an end.
“We know what it's like to be in those dark places, and we wanted people to know that there's options out there,” Logan said. “We wanted people to know that they don't have to be alone. They don't have to feel alone when they're going through those emotions.”
avanderveen@the-journal.com
