By Staff Writer: Marissa VanDaelen
Suicide prevention is something that should be talked about more, and there should definitely be more things done to make it well-known. Howell High School seniors, Eliza Bengala and Cassie Bondie, have contributed to this by simply sending out a group message on Facebook. It turned out to be something way more than they were expecting.
“The group Facebook chat only had about 20 people in it. The original idea was just to maybe hang some posters up in the school or just do something to show that we care. Everybody got so excited about it, and next thing I know people are organizing meetings and they asked us to create a Facebook page. It all really exploded,” Bengala says.
Due to the losses Howell High School has suffered the past few years, Bengala and Bondie felt that there needed to be something done to make preventing suicide a more acknowledged subject. Many people have started to step up because of the Facebook page they created. Not just in the school, but also in the community.
“Within 24 hours we had over 1,000 people who liked our page and we were just kind of looking at each other shocked. It turned into something so much more. We had about 50 people who wanted to have a meeting, and so we had to put all of that together,” Bondie says.
English teacher, Ms. Gabriella DiNatale, is the advisor of the meetings. The first meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 26, at HHS. Board meetings take place every other Wednesday at the Barnard Center from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.. The next meeting is on Nov. 27. School meetings are every other Tuesday on the same weeks as the board meetings.
“We have a lot of people getting involved. We’re hoping to get more students. Right now we have a lot of parents and community members. We would love to have more students getting into this because that’s primarily where all the information is going on,” Bondie says.
The first major event organized is on December 12 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Barnard Center. It’s a Christmas party and open house for the public. There’s a fundraiser currently being held to fund the event. Elastic wristbands in purple and gold that say,“We’re There and We Care #preventsuicide”, will be sold for a dollar each as well.
“We’re in a really different place than we were in the beginning. We have a much better idea of what we’re doing and where we want to go with it,” Bondie says.
Suicide is an incredibly important topic in the world today. According to suicide.org, global suicide rates have increased 60 percent in the past 45 years. Anyone can make a difference and contribute to suicide prevention.
“It’s crazy how many people have stepped forward and given money, given time, and volunteered. It’s incredible to walk into a board meeting and there are eight or nine people there who weren’t before. They all want to help, and they’re all interested, and that’s amazing,” Bondie says.
