S.O.S

1. S.O.S Students Opposed to Suicide Sydney Cox, Danielle Hawks, Maia Kern, Hunter Russo

2. Background Sydney Sydney had a family friend whom lost his life to suicide after his girlfriend broke up with him. His sister Riley (Sydney’s good friend) was extremely affected by his death and wanted awareness spread about the issue our society faces with suicide. Riley and her father both had suicidal thoughts after her brother took his life. Our project contains an interview with Riley before she died from, what some assumed, was a suicide herself. Danielle Danielle’s great uncle committed suicide due to a traumatic event in his life that filled him with intense feelings of anger and depression. Unanswered questions and lack of support made him feel like there was no way out of his feelings. If someone had been there for him or if he had talked to someone about his feelings then he could’ve been saved. Our project is designed at individuals like him who feel like there is no light in their life. Maia A few years ago, someone very close to Maia attempted suicide. This greatly affected her and her family. They had trouble working through the after affects of it all. Hunter Hunter’s cousin committed suicide by jumping off of a bridge and onto concrete after her boyfriend broke up with her. She felt hurt and confused because she had faith that they would get married one day and felt she couldn’t live without him. If she would’ve realized that she was loved by the people around her and everyone she would affect by taking her life, then maybe she wouldn’t have committed suicide. Our project targets the feelings of loneliness and low self-worth and helps people feel loved and better about themselves.

3. Why? Suicide is often an issue that society casts as a taboo to talk about, therefore understanding suicide can be difficult, come with many misconceptions, and even seem like something that only happens in movies. We want to spread awareness of suicide because we believe that the more society understands suicide, the more we can do to prevent it. • We want to be relatable to everyone including: • People who have lost a loved one to suicide • People who know someone who attempted suicide • People who have thought about suicide themselves • People who have never been touched by the effects of suicide.

4. Prevention Inspiration Stories Symptoms Reaching Out Statistics Topic Themes Research Suicide Understanding Hope Feelings Reactions Our Idea Write a script Film Establish presentation date Share video Create a video Present our video Rent room 111 to present in Find filming locations Find teachers to allow us to share video Interview Professional permission slips

5. Goals • Give students a better understanding of suicide • Show students the aftereffects of suicide • Give advice on how to go about preventing suicide • Make students feel better about themselves • Touch on our big questions “Does individuality build a strong leader?” • Serve as relatable for all students • Offer a sense of empowerment and encourage students to spread awareness

6. Struggles Changed project perspective First filming attempt – echo in stairs, different locations Snow days Sydney was in the hospital Hunter’s car broke down Danielle attended a funeral Maia got the flu We had a lot of struggles along the way but we made it. Ran out of camera chip memory Editing was very difficult Camera battery died in the middle of filming

7. Feedback “It opened my eyes to what other students may be feeling or going through.” – Mr. Dennis “The video was really awesome and I wish more people could see it and have the word spread around.” –Melissa Gurawski “The video was very informative about Suicide and helped me understand how differently people can be affected.” – Katelyn Laing