After the Oxford Hills community lost two recent high school graduates to suicide over the past year, local groups galvanized to prevent further loss.
Next Tuesday, Dec. 9, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and its partners Healthy Oxford Hills and MaineHealth Stephens Hospital, as well as high school alumnus Ryan Ricci, will sponsor an evening dedicated to suicide prevention awareness. The event starts with a 5:30 p.m. free buffet dinner and educational program presented by National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to immediately follow.
At Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, the mission for suicide prevention education began as a conversation between Principal Paul Bickford and Guy E. Rowe Elementary School teacher Louisa Westleigh Griffin as they mourned the two youths.
“Both boys held very special places in my life,” Westleigh Griffin told the Advertiser Democrat. “One was in my before- and after-school program, where I was the site coordinator for many years, and we formed a strong connection. The other played Viking lacrosse and football with my nephew, who has Down syndrome, for many years.”
Initiative ideas took hold when staff at MaineHealth Stephens Hospital and Healthy Oxford Hills joined school officials to create the working group and launched an ongoing awareness program in September during Suicide Prevention Month.
The group’s inaugural event took place Sept. 12 during a halftime “Light up the Night” ceremony during Oxford Hills’ Homecoming Weekend football game.
More recently, Healthy Oxford Hills’ Wellness Collaborative Network Facilitator Brendan Schauffler came to the high school to help students create a Yellow Tulip Project on school grounds, a remembrance garden for those lost to suicide and to remove the stigma surrounding mental health care.
“The Yellow Tulip Project is another impactful collaboration between OHCHS and Healthy Oxford Hills,” Bickford said. “Removing the stigma around mental health raises awareness and is another example for our young people to know that it is okay to ask for help.”
On Dec. 9, the group will hold its first Community Suicide Prevention Education evening at OHCHS, at 5:30 p.m. in the high school’s cafeteria with a free dinner sponsored by 290 Maine Street. The NAMI presentation follows at 6 p.m. in the auditorium.
To help families participate in the event, free childcare will be provided on site by students of Oxford Hills Technical School’s early childhood education program.
“We at OHCHS are dedicated to shining a light on mental health and suicide prevention awareness,” Bickford said in an emailed statement. “Working closely with Healthy Oxford Hills, we have secured folks from the National Alliance on Mental Illness to provide a community education event. Support for the evening came quickly from Ryan Ricci at 290 Maine Street, Jeff Noblin, president of Maine Health Stephens Hospital, the staff at Healthy Oxford Hills, and students from the OHTS Early Childhood Education program.”
Bickford asks that, if possible, people planning to attend register online or use the following URL: forms.gle/kfuhsFSrsPFhLWPV7.
“I am truly grateful to see the continuing collaboration between SAD 17, Stephens Hospital and Healthy Oxford Hills to support suicide awareness and prevention,” Westleigh Griffin told the Advertiser Democrat. “The loss (of our former students) touched me deeply, and I felt called to do something meaningful to honor them while bringing comfort and hope to others. Those early conversations turned into action and have become a space for healing, remembrance, and togetherness.”
