Today is Make A Difference Day

Since 1999, the school where I work has sponsored a "Save Our Students" 5K walk/run on Make A Difference Day. The proceeds from this event go to the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program. This organization maintains a hotline for kids who might be thinking about suicide, and it puts together programs for schools to talk to students about depression and suicide.

The SOS run sprang from the suicide of one of our eighth grade students. This boy hung himself one evening. He had been talking to his girlfriend on the phone when he excused himself, asking her to wait a minute. Well, she waited and waited. She was the last person to hear his voice. While I never knew this kid, I did have his younger brother one trimester in a reading and writing class two years later. He chose to write about what happened when his mother found her older son. I hope to never have that kind of experience.

Putting together a 5K is a great deal of work, and there had been some grumbling this year about whether it would really worth the time. The eighth graders from that year are graduated and gone. Many of the teachers who knew this boy no longer work at our school. However, thanks to a dedicated group of teachers who remembered and caree, the race went on. This event raised almost $3,000 for a worthy cause: helping kids understand that their lives are worth living.

Today, I looked into the misty eyes of the mother whose son we remembered, the child who somehow fell through the cracks. She believes in the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program.

In our little corner of the world, I think we somehow made a difference.