Woodbury resident Anna Beckman wanted to make an impact with her Gold Award Girl Scout project, and decided raising awareness about teen suicide in her school and community was a great way to do it.
Beckman, a senior a Stillwater Area High School, and her friend, classmate and fellow Girl Scout Molly Huntley have been working with the Woodbury-based Suicide Prevention Collaborative, a community-focused group dedicated to preventing teen suicide in the eastern metropolitan area through education, awareness, collaboration and advocacy. They decided to put together the first “Together It Gets Better” suicide prevention event at . The event will be held March 3, 7 p.m. in the Woodwinds conference room.
The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive and is typically given to Scouts in the 14-18-year-age range after they’ve completed a project that involves leadership skills, self-improvement and service.
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Beckman and her Girl Scout troop leader, Karen Seashore, an art teacher at , presented the idea to the South Washington County School Board Thursday night.
Seashore said she’s attended past events about suicide prevention, and from those forums, she learned a striking statistic.
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“According to mental health services, one in eight adolescents will suffer some sort of depression (during their school years),” she said. “That could translate to about 225 students at Woodbury High School, or 675 children in our school district.”
She added, “This is something that all of us who care about kids should find out more about.”
Beckman said the event is recommended for those age 12 and up, and students from numerous area schools will be involved in a discussion panel, including her own, , Hill Murray and Park high schools.
Beckman said educating students and area residents about suicide prevention is an important first step to getting help to those who need it.
“We were working on our Gold Award, trying to find an idea, and just last year there was a suicide in our community,” she said.
Beckman explained that she thought her high school did an inadequate job of informing its students about the suicide, instead taking a hands-off approach. Subsequently, rumors started to spread about what might have lead to the suicide, and Beckman said it was tough to listen to people postulating about what might have caused that student to take their life.
“We wanted to put resources in the school and the community for kids who have depression so they can have a resource to go to,” she said after her presentation to the school board.
Beckman said the student panel with be composed of 10-15 students, there will be a featured speaker at the event, Dan Reidenberg, executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, and a forum with mental health professionals and physicians from around the metro will be held at the end of the event.
“We wanted to have as many professionals as possible,” Anna’s mother, Robin Beckman said. “There’s about 30 total from the health, faith, education, corrections and public health fields.”
She added, “What the girls wanted to do with their Gold Award project went hand-in-hand with the goals of this group.”
So far, Beckman said the organization of the event has been going off without a hitch, and she is hoping for a good turnout.
“I think it’s going really great,” she said. “A lot of the kids at school have responded to it saying, “We need something like this.”
Those with questions about the event can contact Renee Penticoff at rpenticoff@comcast.net.
