“I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into,” said Rogers City Police Chief Jamie Meyer, pondering his chances of getting soaked during a Saturday “Dunk-a-Cop” suicide prevention event in Rogers City.

Meyer and Presque Isle County Undersheriff Chris Flewelling will take up residence in a dunk tank at the Rogers City Marina on Saturday, where anyone willing to donate to a good cause can take a shot at dousing their favorite law enforcement officer.

Proceeds from the event will go toward a suicide awareness walk scheduled for Sept. 26.

The dunk tank event was the brainchild of Jane Tristain, a Presque Isle County resident who lost her son to suicide.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Dunk-a-Cop planner Jane Tristain holds full cups of water over Presque Isle County Undersheriff Chris Flewelling, left, and Rogers City Police Chief Jamie Meyer in Rogers City on Monday.

In the last few years, Tristain said, several suicides in the area — including those of young people — left her concerned when nobody seemed to react to the deaths.

“I never heard a peep from the community,” Tristain said. “That’s gotta stop. That’s part of the problem.”

When her son died, people stopped talking to her, afraid to say the wrong thing, she said.

Providing help to people contemplating suicide and their families means starting those frightening conversations, though, she said.

To spark such conversation — and, she hopes, to help people who are hurting know they are not alone — Tristain drew together a group of other people concerned about suicide and planned an awareness walk.

The Dunk-a-Cop fundraiser seemed like a fun way to draw attention to the September event while raising money that will provide education and support in the community, said Tristain, who volunteers for the Michigan chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The participating police officers — including a representative of the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department — each hope to sell the most tickets and stay out of the dunk tank — designed with the water on top, to be dumped on a victim below from a specially-rigged toilet, Tristain said.

The indignity of sitting below a toilet becomes worthwhile if it helps people who are hurting know they can get help, Flewelling said.

Police respond to calls about suicidal people nearly every day, Meyer said. Several times a year, they have to talk a hurting person into giving up their pills or take a gun out of someone’s hands.

“There’s help out there,” Meyer said, “but they didn’t know, or they didn’t know how to find it.”

Light-hearted events like getting a police officer wet can lead to people getting the help they need, Tristain said. She hopes to being more suicide awareness programs to Rogers City in the future.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in Michigan and the 2nd cause of death for ages 10-34, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

In 2019, more than five times as many Michiganders died by suicide — reflecting 29,237 years of potential life lost — as in alcohol-related crashes, according to the same source.

* To dunk a cop

WHAT: Dunk-a-Cop suicide awareness fundraiser

WHEN: 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 7

WHERE: Rogers City Marina

HOW MUCH: $10 per throw; free to watch.

INFO: To purchase tickets, contact the Presque Isle County Sheriff’s Department, the Rogers City Police Department, or the Rogers City State Farm Office. Chances to throw can also be purchased at the event.

* To get help

To find facts about suicide, get help with suicidal thoughts, or learn how to advocate for suicide prevention, visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website at afsp.org/get-help. For a suicide crisis, call 911 or 800-273-8255, or text “TALK” to 741741.