This is the 16th anniversary of Walkers in Darkness.

On January 1, 1991, David Harmon started the original Walkers in Darkness mailing list.  David, himself a sufferer of depression, had a vision of a support group that had no boundaries and was open to all who needed it.

16 years later, Walkers continues to help people with mental illness with information and support.

Just to give some perspective, in 1991 there was no "Internet" as we now know it.  It would be a couple more years until the first web browser was released.  There was no Yahoo!, Google, Amazon.com or eBay.  The big application of the day was email, and so Walkers started as an email discussion group.

I didn't get involved with Walkers until about 1995.  I was suffering from a major depressive episode and grasping at straws trying to understand and cope with it.  I discovered Walkers after reading the alt.support.depression newsgroup and was amazed at the number of people who were going through the same thing I was experiencing.

In '95 I had an almost fatal suicide attempt and, when I came out of the hospital, it was the support I got from Walkers that saved my life and kept me from repeating the act.

I'll never forget that and when David decided to step down as list moderator, I volunteered to keep Walkers going ad a way to pay back what had been given to me.  To this day, that is still what keeps me going.

1997 was a big year for Walkers.  It was in '97 that I created the walkers.org web site, originally just intended to be an adjunct to the mailing list.

WalkersWeb, as I called it, celebrated its 10 year anniversary in November 2007 and the site has become a web destination for about 500,000 people a year.

The site has been expanded over the years and is now a community in and of itself, with our discussion forums and chat rooms.  It is also a major information resource, with a links database of almost 3000 mental health and social service links represented.

We continue to grow with many new members each year, all coming for the support that Walkers is known for worldwide.

In 2007, we not only celebrated our 10th anniversary, but we got a brand new web site and chat room, improving the services we deliver and our ability to service even more visitors to our site.

In 2008, I predict that the web site will continue to grow and we will have many new members to our community.  With the new members come increased expenses, unfortunately, and it will continue to be important that Walkers has the support of its members in the form of donations.

We are a month into our Winter Fundraiser and have collected about 13% of our needed $2000.00 total.

I ask each of you that, if you receive any benefit from Walkers and want to see it continue, you make a contribution to the fund drive.

In particular, I would like to see more people doing a monthly donation of as little as $5 or $10 a month or more.  Doing so helps ease the financial burden of Walkers and is an easy and affordable way to make a donation.

Go to www.walkers.org/donations.html for information on this or to make a one-time donation.

I would like to thank our staff of over 20 volunteers who help keep the daily operations of Walkers going smoothly.  Without your help, it would be impossible for me to keep Walkers running.

I also want to acknowledge all of our members, both old and new, who are really the heart of the organization.  Without you, there would be no reason for Walkers to exist and you are what makes Walkers what it is.

Thanks to everyone for a great 2007 and a bright and hopeful 2008!

Mark 'Mongo' Oberg