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Frontier pushes awareness of veteran suicides

Daily Hampshire Gazette - 12/23/2016

For the Gazette

SOUTH DEERFIELDFrontier Regional School ninth-grader Nick Jarvis breezed through 22 straight pushups, then stood up as the school’s gymnasium erupted into cheers from fellow students.

Around Jarvis, more than a hundred other students also counted off pushups Thursday morning to raise awareness and facilitate discussion about high suicide rates among veterans.

“It’s really important to raise awareness about this,” Jarvis said later, adding, “my grandfather was in the Army, and I also want to join one day.”

The number 22 is the average amount of U.S. military veterans who commit suicide each month, based on a 2010 Veterans’ Affairs study.

“We at Frontier really want to normalize health-seeking behavior,” Health Teacher Kate Blair said after the pushup challenge had been completed. “That was really exemplified today — very heartwarming.”

“A lot of people have respect for veterans, but they don’t know what they’re going through. It’s good to show that you see people are sacrificing their lives, and that you care,” said Connor Waitkus, a ninth-grade student who participated in the event.

In one corner of the gym, a student band performed while students completed a variation of pushups, including “air pushups,” or raising one’s arms in the air and doing a pushup motion. After, Blair challenged students from Mohawk Trail Regional School to continue Frontier Regional’s momentum and to put together a similar 22 pushup event.

Thursday morning’s event was the culmination of a monthlong student-led initiative to bring awareness about suicide. Blair said because of her students’ activism, the vast majority of the school’s roughly 620 students were aware of the event.

Starting early December, high school students from Blair’s two health classes visited classrooms throughout the school, surprising them with a 22 pushup challenge, inspired by a popular social media initiative started by the nonprofit organization 22Kill.

Blair came up with the idea of integrating the pushup challenge into her curriculum after seeing colleague David Buckley, who also works at the school, participating in the initiative on Facebook.

“We went classroom to classroom,” explained Evelyn Boyden, a student in Blair’s health class who helped raise awareness from the start. In the broader picture, Boyden said the pushup challenge encourages people to talk about suicide, especially about how it affects veterans.

“We’re younger. It’s hard to talk about it because it’s such a big issue,” she said.

“I’m really proud of my students — that they’re able to look past the walls of Frontier Regional and show they care,” Blair said. “It’s amazing to see something grow organically. That’s what’s most gratifying to me — to see them realize the impact. It brought the school together on a month that’s usually not very busy.”

In the future, Blair said she’s interested in promoting other causes in a similar way, possibly making it an annual effort.