One out of five teenagers has seriously considered suicide and one out of ten has attempted it, according to the American Psychological Association. These percentages increase if the teenager is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a person of color, or a high school girl. Two FCHS clubs are working to change those statistics with the second annual Suicide Prevention Walk on April 19.
The walk is a fundraiser created by the Fluco Club (a leadership club for athletes) and the Sources of Strength club (a mental-health awareness and action club). Started last year, the Suicide Prevention Walk benefits the ConnerStrong Foundation, an Alexandria, Virginia, based non-profit that helps bring awareness to mental health issues and suicide prevention. The FCHS Suicide Prevention Walk is one way to acknowledge that students may struggle with their mental health, and show that their peers and the faculty care about what happens to them.
The club that organizes the walk and all of the activities before the walk is the Fluco Club. The Fluco Club had its inaugural walk in May of 2023.
“It was such a success we decided to do it again,” said Fluco Club faculty supervisor Christina Harlowe-Garrett.
This year’s walk was organized by Fluco Club members Jacob Cook and Isabelle Garrett, both of whom are seniors. They decided to involve the Sources of Strength club because Sources of Strength (SOS) is a part of the ConnerStrong Foundation. Students in the SOS club helped with the outreach part of the walk. Their work includes selling tickets at lunches, decorating the path down to the track with sidewalk chalk, designing banners, and otherwise making sure the walk goes smoothly.
For Cook, the hardest part of organizing the walk was the small details.
“The hardest part has been that Isabelle and I have taken bigger roles in organizing the walk compared to last year. We have communicated with other clubs, gone to meetings with Ms. Lavin and SOS, and made sure tickets were sold.”
However, he believes it will all be worth it when walk happens.
“The most rewarding part will be seeing hundreds of kids outside the day of the walk and different groups (SOS, Region Ten prevention team, SPARC) who can teach kids about suicide prevention tactics,” said Cook.
Sources of Strength is also making a banner to advertise the walk. Last year’s banner was a tree made of handprints that reminded students what they are thankful for. This year, the club has decided to do a flower banner with handprints creating the petals.
“I’m excited for this year’s walk, but I do have high expectations just because of how fun last year’s walk was,” said sophomore Danielle Scott.
“The walk was good. I got to get out of class to hang out with my friends. They had a couple activities to do and most students just walked with their friends,” added junior Hailey English.
Last year the school sold bracelets to access the walk, while this year they are selling keychains. The keychains are $2 each and let the purchaser leave fourth block the day of the walk to walk at the track. At last year’s walk, SGA sold temporary hair dye, glitter spray, and some other keepsakes and will be doing so again this year. In addition, the Fluvanna Culinary students will sell food and drinks.
All profits raised will go to the ConnerStrong Foundation. To donate to the foundation, click here. For more on last year’s walk, check out this article from the Fluco Beat.
