Suicide Prevention
Take a Picture We Care
Sue McKellar, Ghendi Essington, and Lisa Pruter, financed and supported by USD 461, have created yard signs filled with suicide prevention information. They want to encourage members of the community, young and old, to take a picture of one of many signs that will be located throughout town and to save it to their phone’s photos. This information then will be readily available to any person either experiencing this kind of crisis or to a person receiving a desperate call from one entrenched in an emotional black hole.
These signs were prompted by the recent and past deaths by suicide experienced in Neodesha and surrounding communities. Not only are family and friends affected deeply by these deaths, but so are members of communities in which they lived.
The first words on the signs are We Care! Frustrated and saddened by recent deaths, the question becomes, what can we as a community do? What tangible action can take place that might save even one other person in a crisis? “If community members stop, take that picture and save it, important life changing information will be available at one swipe of a finger,” McKellar said.
We might never know if what is planted today will take root and save even one life. We don’t need to know. We know! We are flooding our town with signs that can’t be missed.
“We are stepping up and letting those who need to know that WE CARE and we want you to REACH OUT,” said McKellar, one of the local group’s organizers.
