Oelwein High School 2024 senior Mackenzie Palmer will be featuring her senior project about raising suicide awareness with Alive and Running Iowa and co-founder Ryan Nesbit on Monday, Dec. 16.
Alive and Running Iowa is a non-profit, volunteer organization formed in 2010 by Troy and Candice Belmer and Ryan and Melissa Nesbit that raises awareness of suicide prevention. Money donated goes towards free trainings across the state as the organization feels education is the first step.
The organization was formed following the tragic suicide of Nesbit’s classmate, 15-year-old Rodger Dos. Now, Nesbit and Alive and Running want to change the script and help another Rodger from making the same life-altering choice.
Principal Tim Hadley says the assembly is to get students thinking about their mental health but also keeping an eye out on others who may be struggling in silence.
“I think December is specifically hard for some people,” he said. “Some kids don’t go home to a good family environment, some of them the holidays remind them of the loss of someone, you know, the sun goes down at 5 p.m. and so there’s some seasonal affective disorder.”
According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, 1 in 6 kids struggles with mental health each year and over 50% of cases begin at age 14 and 75% by age 24. Hadley hopes to raise awareness about the topic at a time in the students’ lives where it may matter most.
Hadley said Palmer came to him with the idea of doing something to raise awareness about suicide and was persistent in her choice of outreach. He takes a lot of experience heading into this assembly as his role as chaplain in the Iowa National Guard.
“The soldier statistics are wild,” he said. “What I was surprised to learn about suicide awareness was that it’s not always the people down and dejected. A lot of people who are about to attempt are super happy and life is great and they’re giving things away and look very generous, but it’s because they think they’ve found a permanent solution to all these temporary problems.”
Additional counselors from other buildings will be available for all students during and after the assembly if they need them throughout the day, and students and staff can choose to opt out of the assembly if they wish. Parents were also notified of the sensitive topics of the assembly.
Hadley hopes that this talk with Alive and Running Iowa will open up the stigma surrounding mental health.
“You kind of hope that it doesn’t open anything up, but also hope that if there’s somebody feeling a certain kind of way that they talk to a trusted adult,” Hadley said. “We talk a lot about it and say we care, but we don’t show it enough.”
Alive and Running teaches QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) and ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) training and utilizes the movie “My Ascension,” a film about Emma Bee’s failed suicide attempt that left her paralyzed and the journey to walk again and inspire hope to other young individuals.
Since its inception, Alive and Running has donated over $33,400 towards treatment centers across Iowa, including MercyOne, UnityPoint Health, Black Hawk Grundy Mental Health and Cedar Valley Hospice.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of self harm or suicide, call or text 988, visit yourlifeyourvoice.org or call 1-800-273-TALK.