Regional celebrity rocks local suicide awareness concert

Regional celebrity Alex Boye (left) shares a lighthearted moment with Cache County Executive David Zook backstage at the 1st annual 'Ignite the Light' concert in Sept. 2021.

CACHE COUNTY – The “Ignite the Light” suicide awareness concert Thursday was a huge success, according to its volunteer organizers.

The event, starring regional celebrity Alex Boyé, drew a crowd estimated at more than 2,000 to the Cache County Fairgrounds, where local residents were both entertained and educated about suicide as a growing community concern.

“The concert was amazing,” said Cache County Executive David Zook. “Thank you to Alex Boyé, our sponsors, our committee and volunteers, performers, resource agencies and everyone who attended!”

The idea for the “Ignite the Light” concert originated with local business owner Margaret Gittins, who felt that a local observance of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September was appropriate.

After she approached Zook about that possibility, the county executive led an ad hoc committee of volunteers who organized the event and raised $50,000 in donations and pledges in a mere three weeks.

The fruit of their efforts was an event promoted heavily by the radio stations of the Cache Valley Media Group with all the earmarks of a professional outdoor concert, including an excellent sound system; big screen projection television screens and exciting lighting effects.

Starting at 6 p.m., local performers and representatives of suicide prevention groups alternated occupying the concert stage, all preaching awareness of the availability of both in-person and online mental health services.

The grassy area occupied by the concert’s audience was also ringed by about two dozen exhibition booths providing similar information set up by non-profit groups, counseling organizations and other concerned parties.

Boyé and his musicians took to the concert stage long after dark and their performance quickly brought the frenzied crowd to its feet.

Boyé is a British-American singer, dancer, actor and musician who has resided in Utah for two decades. He is a former member of the European boy-band “Awesome” and of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Suicide prevention is a personal crusade for Boyé, who has performed at numerous similar concerts throughout Utah, where suicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers and the second leading cause of death for young adults.

Boyé has also confessed to having been troubled by thoughts of suicide in his own disadvantaged youth.

“Don’t judge your whole life by just one chapter in your story,” he told a youthful audience recently. “One day, you will tell your story of how you overcame what you are going through now and it will become a healing part of someone else’s story.”

While the “Ignite the Light” concert was organized by volunteers, the event was fully supported by local officials.

Members of the Cache County Council voted to underwrite the concert’s expenses up to $25,000 from the county’s restaurant tax account if local organizers had failed to secure needed donations or sponsorships.

But Zook said that the willingness of the enthusiastic local business community to support the concert made that infusion of public funds unnecessary.

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