Students kick with suicide awareness and prevention fundraiser through Longoria Academy
Suicide is the number one cause of death in elementary kids.
In front of a supportive and cheerful audience, students kicked through boards as a fundraiser for Yellow Ribbon Suicide Awareness, and in remembrance of a fellow black belt student who took his own life last year. Students can learn the importance of one another and through Longoria Academy they have learned to become one.
“This class motivates me. It says that I can do anything, I’m not alone, I have people that are with me,” student, Supun Fernando said.
The event had sponsors donate money for every board that was broken through.
“So it’s something fun for them to do to break 10 boards in a really quick amount of time. And on the fund raising part, it brings in a lot of attention and awareness in a short amount of time,” Yellow Ribbon leader, Chris Hansen said.
The board has a symbolic and even metaphorical meaning to the cause.
“The board is significant of our hard times and once we get through that, then hopefully it all goes up from there. It’s just getting through it is the hard part,” Longoria mentor, Rudy Longoria said.
And it’s a statement that suicide doesn’t stand a chance when they are in it together.
“This is a bully, and we’re gonna fight back,” Fernando said.
To help prevent suicides, yellow ribbon follows a 3 step process that everyone should follow when they may be with someone who is having suicidal thoughts.
- Stay with the person
- Listen to what they have to say
- Seek help for the person
With this training, yellow ribbon taught mentors how they could be more aware of symptoms so that they too can become listeners and get a child the help they need.
“If there was a kid who was struggling, I would want to know what can I do to help them. Sometimes words are only words and sometimes it doesn’t hit home to them, so I wanted to know if there’s more that I can do,” Longoria said.
There is a community out there that cares.
“That’s where the emotion comes from, it’s deep rooted because people just need to know that they matter and that there’s help available,” Hansen said.
Longoria Academy students say that no matter what, keep your head up. This is not the end.
“It’s okay that they’re not alone. They have people that care about them and they can still survive longer,” Fernando said.
It is Yellow Ribbon Suicide Awareness goal to inform and prevent suicides so efficiently that hopefully suicide gets removed from the number one spot by next year.
