By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Two high school students have planned a week of activities on suicide prevention next week at Los Alamos High School.
Faith Glasco and Elizabeth Hjelvik have put together a list of activities.
“After the events of last school year, I decided it was time someone did something to try preventing this tragedy,” Hjelvik said. “I did a lot of research on suicide and discovered that it is 100 percent preventable if the person is reached out to and having this week’s activities will show people that people do care about them.”
Partners in this events include Key Club, National Honor Society, Anti-bullying Club, Gay Straight Alliance, Student Council, LAHS art classes, Los Alamos National Bank, JJAB, Los Alamos County, Los Alamos Public Schools, CB FOX, Los Alamos Medical Center, Kiwanis and Assets In Action.
“I have loved working on this week,” Hjelvik said. “This is something both Faith and I are really passionate about, and when you work on something you are passionate about no matter how stressful it is, all you can do is enjoy it because in the end, it is completely worth all of the stress.”
Hjelvik is excited about the activity called “Carnations and Compliments.”
“A simple act of kindness can change someone’s life,” she said. “This is coinciding with the ‘Acts of Kindness Day’ that we planned. On that day, there will be other students helping us and we have enough compliments and carnations for everyone at the school to get one.”
The week includes keynote speaker Ross Szabo.
“He is an interactive speaker who will make a strong impact on the students,” Hjelvik said. “I find him inspirational already because he tried committing suicide and was not successful. A year later, he speaks to students so he can show them that it is never an answer. He talks about how students can prevent themselves from getting to the point he got to.”
Szabo will speak twice at LAHS, once at Los Alamos Middle School and once to the community.
The hard work of Hjelvik and Glasco was assisted by friends and LAHS staff.
Both seniors plan medical careers. Hjelvik plans to go to medical school to focus on research or surgery after graduation, while Glasco will focus on the field of pediatrics.
Visit http://laschools.net/lahs for more information.
