Up to 135 people are affected by a single suicide loss. For Kyle Anagnos, this statistic is deeply personal.
“It impacts entire families,” he said, “It impacts entire generations, and it impacts entire communities.”

Having lost six family members to suicide, including both his uncles and his cousin, Kyle joined the Samaritans Council in Fall 2024 as part of his journey from grief into a powerful mission of hope.
Growing up in a small Vermont town and attending a high school with fewer than 100 students, Kyle shared an unbreakable bond with his cousin Josh. He encouraged Kyle to dream beyond the limits of his small-town world, and he was the reason Kyle applied to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester—where he earned a full scholarship and began to imagine a future he never thought possible.
Josh died by suicide in 2015, during their first semester attending Holy Cross together. Josh took his life shortly after coming out as gay.
“It felt like a dark cloud—a weight borne from both our family’s history and the pressures he faced—followed me to college,” Kyle said. He was closeted at the time, struggling with his identity in a Catholic institution. “His courage to live authentically was something I admired deeply but hadn’t yet found in myself. Losing him left a void I’ll always feel, but it also gave me a purpose: to honor his legacy by breaking the silence around mental health and ensuring others never feel alone in their struggles.”
There hasn’t been a time in our history where there is a greater need for the support that Samaritans offers.
Kyle wanted to transform his pain and his family’s story into something that could help others. He saw Samaritans as a beacon of hope, offering a compassionate, non-clinical approach to suicide prevention that focuses on listening and providing support. In particular, he is passionate about the services Samaritans provides for youth, such as the Hey Sam peer-to-peer textline for youth under 24.
“Programs like Hey Sam are lifesaving,” Kyle reflected. “If something like this had existed in 2015, Josh’s story—and so many others—might have had a different ending.”
In 2020 and 2021, Kyle ran the New York City Marathon with Team Samaritans. He raised over $5,000 for our lifesaving programs. His journey didn’t stop there.
Kyle’s most significant achievement came through his career as an Associate at Blackstone. In 2024, he and his team competed in the 2024 Blackstone Gives Back Challenge, the firm’s annual global employee-driven grant competition through which employees compete to win funding for nonprofits of their choice
Competing against nearly 400 colleagues and representing the most junior team, Kyle—along with teammates Connor Healy, Andrew Eichelberger, Rae Zhang, Erin Cullen, Charlotte Rauner, and Katherine Torres—won 2nd place in North America.

Kyle shared his personal connection to the mission to highlight the critical need for Samaritans’ lifesaving programs:
- More than 1 in 10 LGBTQ+ young people attempted suicide in the past year.
- Suicide is the 2nd and 3rd leading cause of death for ages 10-14 and 15-24, respectively.
- Calls and texts to the Samaritans Helpline have increased 11% in the past year.
“Pitching to some of the most senior leaders at Blackstone was an intense experience,” Kyle said. “But it was also deeply meaningful—sharing my family’s story, coming out to the firm, and advocating for such a critical cause all at once.”
As a result of Kyle and his team’s win, Samaritans received a $150,000 general operating grant that will allow us to expand our services and reach more people in need.

“It was one of the most powerful moments of my life,” Kyle shared.
The team’s success was more than financial. Their presentation resonated with Blackstone’s senior leadership, sparking conversations about mental health awareness in the workplace and potential future collaborations with Samaritans.
“I sent [Maura Pally, Executive Director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation] a note thanking her for her kindness following my final pitch. During the award ceremony, she came up to me specifically and just thanked me for the courage to be vulnerable and share my story.”

The experience brought a profound sense of healing—not just for Kyle, but for his entire family.
“When my mom lost both her brothers to suicide, it shaped so much of her life and left a void that I didn’t fully understand until years later. When I lost my cousin Josh while at Holy Cross, I began to feel the weight of that same pain. It was a grief that connected us across generations, reminding me how loss can ripple through families in ways that are hard to describe.
When I told her we won 2nd place in the Blackstone Gives Back Challenge, she cried tears of joy. It wasn’t just about the award—it was about breaking a generational cycle of silence and loss and writing a new chapter for our family. Sharing our story showed us that even the hardest moments can inspire hope and purpose. It reminded me that by turning pain into action, we have the power to create change that reaches far beyond ourselves.”
Kyle is excited to continue supporting mental health programming at Blackstone, and for future collaborations with Samaritans. His next endeavor is to tackle the 2025 Boston Marathon® as a member of Team Samaritans.
“There hasn’t been a time in our history where there is a greater need for the support that Samaritans offers, and I anticipate that this need will only continue to grow. Through increasing awareness, alleviating the stigma surrounded by having these hard conversations, and promoting openness in all walks of life…there’s a real opportunity to create a measurable impact that has ripple effects on society and the world.”