Key Club partnered with the program Erika’s Lighthouse to promote mental health awareness and inform students where they can get help.
“[The purpose is] awareness,” sponsor of Key Club Danelle Ecker said. “It’s growing in Lampasas with a lot of new people coming in from different areas. We just want to make sure that we can prevent people from wanting to commit suicide.”
President of Key Club senior Emily Gonzales said Erika’s Lighthouse is a way to give teens a person to talk to if they are comfortable talking to teachers. The program encourages teens to be more open with their emotions and personal problems when it gets out of control.
“[Some] teachers have little lighthouses outside their doors, showing that they are a beacon of hope, meaning any student with any issues could go to any of those teachers and just talk it out,” Ecker said.
Along with the beacons of hope, Key Club members have also hung up footprints that lead to the counselor’s offices as they are our actual mental health professionals. On the footprints, there are did you know questions, quotes, and other statements relating to mental health awareness.
“I think it’s amazing that we can extend the program into our school and help our local community,” sophomore Sydney Unger said.
Key Club members brought notecards to academic period classes and asked students to write inspirational and motivational quotes to hang in the hall on a bulletin board outside Ecker’s classroom.
“The quotes we received for the bulletin board absolutely helped,” Unger said. “It was a nice daily reminder for people even just walking by that there is help out there.”
September is mental health awareness month. This is a month to remember the lives lost to suicide, provide support to those who need it and to acknowledge the communities or families impacted by mental health.
“For [Erika’s Lighthouse], I found it and I said, here we go, guys,” Ecker said. “We’re doing this, and they’re like, yeah, this is great, and they loved it.”
