{"id":29222,"date":"2014-04-07T16:43:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T20:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=29222"},"modified":"2014-04-08T09:24:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T13:24:27","slug":"moving-display-of-backpacks-raises-awareness-of-suicide-on-college-campuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/07\/moving-display-of-backpacks-raises-awareness-of-suicide-on-college-campuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving display of backpacks raises awareness of suicide on college campuses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29247\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/07\/moving-display-of-backpacks-raises-awareness-of-suicide-on-college-campuses\/send-silence-packing-13434_027\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-29247\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29247\" class=\"size-large wp-image-29247\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2014\/04\/send-silence-packing-13434_027-508x243.jpg\" alt=\"Send Silence Packing display\" width=\"460\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-29247\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Backpacks representing the 1,100 U.S. college students who take their own lives each year were displayed in the Wright State Student Union in an effort to raise awareness of mental health issues on campuses.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The backpacks sprawled out on the floor, hung from railings and carpeted the Pathfinder Lounge in the Student Union. They were dressed with photos, beads and personal messages.<\/p>\n<p>The tributes were heartbreaking, piercing and poignant:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cShe was funny and vibrant, beautiful and smart.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe called them Scooby Doo Saturdays because we wore yellow Scooby Doo headbands while we\u2019d run around doing nothing in particular.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhen I found out, I couldn\u2019t stop crying or screaming.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHe was 17. Not a day goes by anymore that I don\u2019t think of him.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On April 7, backpacks representing the 1,100 U.S. college students who take their lives each year were displayed at Wright State University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of them are personal donations from families who have lost their daughters and sons to suicide,\u201d said co-organizer Jeevitha Kempegowda, president of the Wright State chapter of Active Minds, a student organization open to all students.<\/p>\n<p>The traveling display of backpacks is part of \u201cSend Silence Packing.\u201d It was an event organized by the university chapter of Active Minds, whose mission is to eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness on college campuses.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29248\" style=\"width: 241px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/07\/moving-display-of-backpacks-raises-awareness-of-suicide-on-college-campuses\/send-silence-packing-13434_038\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-29248\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29248\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-29248\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2014\/04\/send-silence-packing-13434_038-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"Send Silence Packing backpacks\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-29248\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many of the Send Silence Packing backpacks were dressed with photos, beads and personal messages.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The backpacks were displayed just outside the office of Michelle Streeter-Ferrari, director of the University Center for International Education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is very moving,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives me goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Co-organizer Jason Weisman said the display is visually powerful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of folks really haven\u2019t seen something like this before; they tend to be a little shocked at first,\u201d said Weisman. \u201cAnd then they have some questions and want to talk a little bit about it. As we read some of the stories that are part of this display, I think we can see a piece of ourselves in quite a few of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Active Minds was founded by Alison Malmon when she was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania following the suicide of her older brother, Brian.<\/p>\n<p>Brian, also a college student, had experienced depression and psychosis for three years but had concealed his symptoms from everyone around him. On March 24, 2000, he ended his life.<\/p>\n<p>Weisman, a student in the School of Professional Psychology, said college students have often grown up wrapped in the security blanket of their parents and friends and then are thrust onto a college campus far from home, where they face the pressure of academics, a job and trying to make new friends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat starts to create the perfect storm,\u201d Weisman said. \u201cAs straws are continually added to that person\u2019s back, it just becomes unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The backpack event was designed to put a face on suicide and raise awareness about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis could be you, this could be your friends, this could be your girlfriend or your boyfriend,\u201d said Weisman. \u201cWe\u2019re not doing this because we want to scare folks. But it would be wrong for us to have something so relevant and so dangerous go unnoticed and unchecked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wright State chapter of Active Minds was founded in 2012 and has previously sponsored events to raise awareness about eating disorders and the effects of stress. With about 15 active members, the group also has its own radio show on Wednesdays from noon to 1 p.m. on WWSU 106.9 FM.<\/p>\n<p>The Wright State chapter incorporates diversity and multiculturism into its events, addressing the stigma in different cultures attached to mental illness.<\/p>\n<p>Wright State is the only university in Ohio hosting \u201cSend Silence Packing\u201d this year.<\/p>\n<p>Kempegowda, also a student in the School of Professional Psychology, said she hopes the event encourages students to speak more openly about mental health issues and seek help if they need it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is all of this help,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backpacks representing the 1,100 U.S. college students who take their own lives each year blanketed Wright State&#8217;s Student Union to raise awareness of mental health issues on campuses. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/07\/moving-display-of-backpacks-raises-awareness-of-suicide-on-college-campuses\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":29249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,725,715,2407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-professional-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29222"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29260,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222\/revisions\/29260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}