Active Minds searched far and wide for the right people to represent the organization and Send Silence Packing during the Spring tour. We were lucky enough to find them in the amazing Brandon and the fantastic Nicole. For five weeks they hit the road on behalf of Active Minds.

In a truck, they traveled to 9 states. They set up 14 displays (with help from our wonderful Active Minds chapter members who generously volunteered their time). They distributed 28,660 educational items. They spoke to thousands of passersby about the program and often got more personal, sharing stories from their lives. They took hundreds of amazing pictures that made us feel like we were on the tour with them. And they blogged throughout, sharing their adventures from the road with all of us. On behalf of Active Minds, Inc., we wanted to thank them for their time, dedication, and spirit.

There were so many of you who volunteered your time, shared your stories, donated your services, and offered your support. We wanted to thank you too for helping make Send Silence Packing’s Spring 2011 Tour a huge success.

We spoke to thousands of people, garnered close to 100 news stories, including two stories that were picked up by the Associated Press, distributed hundreds of thousands of educational items – providing information on student mental health, suicide, specific mental health disorders, wallet cards advertising the national suicide prevention lifeline, information for survivors, information on how to help a friend and much more.

At each display we are inspired by the feedback and gratitude we receive from the visitors. We hope that Send Silence Packing helped empower you or someone you know to speak up and speak out about mental health and about suicide.  Listed below are a few highlights from the many comments we received.

• “This display is giving me the courage to speak”
• “[Send Silence Packing] makes me consider not killing myself”
• “Thank you for letting me be apart of this.  I’m living with mental illness…volunteering with this project makes me feel empowered to keep myself healthy and share my story so that others won’t feel so afraid to get help.  No one should have to go through this alone.”
• “I lost two close friends a year ago.  This is VERY helpful to get closure.  Thank you!”
• “Excellent, moving, infinitely worthwhile exhibit”
• “I feel that I am good right now, but if I ever do need help, I know where to go now and how to help a friend how might be in need.”
• “I was going through a crisis and this display was there when I needed it!”
• “It really made me think about a few people I know are having a hard time. And about a boy in my dorm I know who has a roommate the he believes is suicidal.  I’m really going to encourage him to get his roommate help.”

We really like to hear passersby feedback about the display. If you were at a stop and haven’t shared your thoughts with us please do here.

The Send Silence Packing truck is headed to California this fall! Keep checking back to see when dates and stops are announced!

And it closing, I think it is important to remember, “there is no health without mental health.” – World Health Organization

“Thank you”—We throw these words around quite a bit in our day to day life. There’s many different forms of the phrase. We use the same words for when a doctor saves a life and for when someone holds a door open.

At its weakest, It’s a casual automatic response lacking any real emotion. We use the words to fulfill social contracts throughout our days. A lot of times we don’t even look at the person we say it to.

Then there’s the rare kind. A “thank you” that comes with a deep sense of gratitude and humility. Throughout the tour we spoke with hundreds of people in detail about the program, the issue, and about our lives. These moments of spontaneous connection gave such an amazing range of perspective as we all shared our stories. But these weren’t the only meaningful interactions. At every display we would have a handful of people come up to us, look us in the eyes, and say “thank you.” Nothing else. It’s this form of those same two words that is so full of meaning that no further words are needed to express it.

It’s in that spirit that I’d like to thank you. Thank you for your time visiting and volunteering. Thank you for being a part of this movement. Thank you for following our adventure in spreading this message even if you couldn’t attend in person. Thank you for caring. None of this positive momentum would be possible without you.

Thank you for your stories—and for your strength.

Thank you.

Baltimore was our final stop and we couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the tour. Being in a city gives us an opportunity to reach a wider population than college students. Even though Active Minds is a college based organization, we know that mental health affects everyone and our city displays give a chance to reach out to more than students.

When we are doing our displays, it is amazing to notice the open and comfortable atmosphere we are creating for people to share their experiences. Being in Baltimore was an opportunity for us to hear stories from all walks of life. When people see what we are doing and the way we are opening a dialogue about mental health, they seem to be more open about their past with mental illness and ways they can continue to help themselves.

Most of the Active Minds staff was in Baltimore helping throughout the day. I continued to hear so many different stories that were shared with them by people coming to see the display. Many people that I spoke with said that they usually didn’t talk about what they had been through. People stated that  they were able to share with us because we could understand they had struggled and they were in an atmosphere where they were comfortable. I think that it is amazing that we are able to create such an atmosphere where people feel that they can share experiences with strangers.

Most of the places where we set up the display are outside and they cover a huge area. They are public settings, and we invite anybody to come through and  learn about suicide and mental health awareness. I am still amazed at every stop at what people are able to share in such a public setting. I think that it is remarkable that we are able to help people in the process of healing and story sharing in such a public place.

This concept is something important to remember in our everyday lives when we are talking with people from strangers to acquaintances to family members. When people know that others care, they are more willing to open up and share their feelings and struggles. Being in an atmosphere that is free of judgement sends a message that it doesn’t matter what someone is going through, there is someone there to listen. Sometimes that is all that anyone needs.

“What’s with all the bags?”

You’ll overhear this a lot as students round a corner or exit a building and notice the Send Silence Packing display. 1,100 backpacks take up quite a bit of space and they certainly grab people’s attention when they see them laid out from a distance.

Luckily, we’ve got a fantastic network of local Active Minds members and other volunteers posted around to tell people what exactly is “up with all the bags” and bring them into the display. At West Chester University we had a large group of passionate advocates available inform the rest of their community about this issue.

I think something that helps make Active Minds’ 332 (at the time of writing) chapters such a success are the fact that they focus on allowing the students to run the chapter and work with their peers. While they do work with advisors, counseling centers, the national office, and other groups on campus, the majority of what each chapter does is student run. I’ve consistently noticed how effective it is to have peer advocacy on these campuses. In a university setting, and even just young-adulthood in general, a lot of things come from the top down, and it’s easy to tune a lot of that out. When your classmate, roommate, or just someone going through the same college life as you asks for your attention though, it feels relevant.

Many students are more open to listening to fellow students, and Send Silence Packing gives us an opportunity to see the power of a large group of fellow students saying “We’re here and we’d like to tell you about something we think is important for all of us.”

Throughout the day we saw thousands of West Chester students come through the display, and as momentum picked up towards the afternoon, something interesting happened. Facebook, texts, and old fashioned word-of-mouth messages were sending in waves and waves of other students to come see the display. Instead of students just happening to find the display, people were coming because the word was spreading and people cared about the message—and that’s how positive changes spread.

When we pulled into Ramapo College, we were greeted by about 25 people ready to help unload the truck and set up the display. This was the largest amount of volunteers that we have had at and display, especially for 8 am! We had fantastic weather throughout the day and the campus was amazingly beautiful. We finally had a warm sunny day on the tour! The weather told us it was time to clean up when it began raining at exactly 4:02, a whole two minutes after the scheduled clean-up started.

Throughout the day, groups of people continued to show up to volunteer. We had a lot of volunteers that stayed through most of the display and most stayed for about half the day. When I talked to the volunteers, a lot of them mentioned that it was very easy to get a lot of people to volunteer for the event because of the sense of community that the campus has. The counseling center was there throughout the day as well as members from LEARN. They were so supportive of the students that were part of Active Minds and worked together to make the display the best it could be.

I heard one of the Active Minds members telling a few of the volunteers that he enjoyed being part of the organization and really liked working with the national office because of the feeling of community. He said that at Active Minds it is a “we’re all doing this together” experience. Whether he was working with the Ramapo chapter, at the conference, or talking to a member at the national office he knew that he was appreciated individually and that he was a part of a whole.

Throughout the tour, it has been great to have that sense of community with the people that we work with at each stop. From the moment I walked into the office in DC, I knew that I was in a comfortable and accepting atmosphere. I believe that we took this feeling through the tour and became an Active Minds family with all of the chapters that we visited. This view of interacting with each person and making a welcoming and pleasant environment is something that has easily been established among Brandon and myself, the Active Minds members, and their volunteers.

Ramapo also hosted a Wellness Walk through the beautiful campus for about an hour during the display. Celena Gray, Executive Director of the NJ Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma, spoke before the walk. She talked about what New Jersey was doing for mental health and shared inspiring words with the walkers. The walk highlighted areas on campus that students could go to focus on mental health, relax, and take care of themselves. A few of the places they visited were: the counseling center building, the campus recreation center and gym, and the Salameno Spiritual Center.

There were several moments of education throughout the day and the volunteers showed their dedication to the display through their interactions with the students that visited. The Ramapo chapter sold bracelets with each color representing students’ experience with personal mental health. The students’ interest in showing their support really conveyed how dedicated they were to learning more about mental health, suicide, and mental illness.

Send Silence Packing brings a powerful and emotional message to college campuses as well as being a positive resource to students. Active Minds members work hard to educate students on resources they can use as well as ways to be a resource to peers. Seeing the ways that Active Minds has motivated students to work toward a bigger feeling of community on campus makes me realize how easy it is to inspire someone to inspire others.

Although most of our displays during the tour are held on college campuses, we have a few stops that are just downtown in a city. This Monday we were able to set up the send silence packing display right outside of the Prudential Center in Boston.

City displays are different in a lot of ways. The largest difference is the crowd that moves through. While any display usually has a mix of students, staff, and community members, the cities provide an even wider and more evenly distributed group. You never know who might be passing through and interacting with the display at any given moment—we have tourists, students, business people, families, and just about anyone you could imagine. As different as this might appear at first, we’ve found that the reception is just as strong. City displays truly show us that this issue has a far reaching impact. We always mention that even though we primarily work with undergraduates, this issue affects all of us and the resources can be available for anyone, and our interactions in the city help us put those words into action.

Boston welcomed the display warmly, even if the weather didn’t. As we’ve discussed previously in our travels, we enjoy doing outdoor displays whenever possible. When we saw the forecast of 50% showers for Boston, we were a bit torn. We had the amazing Meg Hutchinson lined up to perform during the event, and we thought that her sound and the visual of the display would be such a great mix outside of the Prudential Center. We decided to risk the weather and do the display outdoors.

This started off great, we’re extremely happy with how the event ran throughout the uncertain weather. Every time a few drops came through, they’d stop almost as soon as they started. We continued to joke about the positive energy of all the volunteers keeping the rain away. As noon approached (which was when Meg was scheduled to perform), no amount of positive energy could keep the showers away.

Even though we got a bit wet, that didn’t stop us, Meg, or the fantastic community at Boston from continuing in the event. Meg played in the rain, Boston brought their umbrellas, and the show continued. I was personally quite moved to see passerby’s stop to interact with the display even in the rain. I think that really says something about how important this all really is.

After Meg finished performing, we decided to pack up and move the display indoors to our rain location at City Hall. Though we didn’t have enough time to set up the entire 1,100 backpacks there, we were able to set out the story bags and have a big final push during the final hours (this time while staying dry).

The city displays, as I mentioned, are both extremely different and curiously similar. I am incredibly proud to have the opportunity to work with this program, and seeing the way these communities come out to support us makes every bit of effort worth it—even in the rain.

It was a blustery day in Hanover, NH yesterday for our display at Dartmouth College but that didn’t stop us from being outside all day with Send Silence Packing. We got a few flurries throughout the day as well as interested students, parents and staff.

Send Silence Packing has been to college campuses with varying numbers of undergraduate college students currently attending. Dartmouth was one of our smaller campuses with about 4, 000 undergraduate students. At smaller campuses we have less traffic but that does not mean that we make less of an impact on the campus and community. The president at Active Minds Dartmouth, Katie, told me how thankful she is that Send Silence Packing was at their campus. She stated that she felt there were a lot of the students on campus that do not address their mental health issues. She also added that this was a great way to open their eyes and see how important it is to take care of your mental health as well as your physical health.

Every college that we have been to has left a message that sticks with me no matter the size of the campus, where the display is, or who we talk to. This message is two simple words: thank you. Most every person I have talked to on this tour has said ‘thank you’ and it means so much more than one would initially realize. It means more because whether it is followed by a story or just a smile it means that we are reaching out to someone and taking another step at erasing the stigma that people hold against suicide and mental health.

At the Dartmouth display I was able to talk to a student for a while about the message we are sending and what I am doing as a mental health advocate. He was so interested in what we were doing and the lives that we were affecting that he wanted to know more about Active Minds and my personal reasons for advocating mental health awareness. After I finished one of my sentences, he gave me a hug and said ‘thank you!’

Talking to a lot of different people that are passing by, you sometimes forget the affect that you have on the people that see the display. Every time I hear the words ‘thank you’ I remember how important the work of Active Minds and Send Silence Packing is. They are two words that go much deeper than a polite expression to a stranger. We may not hear every personal story someone has that walks by, but hearing ‘thank you’ is what matters. It reminds me that the hard work of everyone involved with Active Minds and mental health advocates everywhere is changing and saving lives.

The weather seems to be back on our sides finally. We’re now officially on a two-display-streak for clear skies, which allows us to do the display outdoors. My favorite part about Send Silence Packing being outdoors is the way that the visual impact draws in people that might otherwise have stopped. One of the biggest challenges of indoor displays is getting people interested enough to change direction from wherever they were headed and instead come to our display. Often times, indoors means a smaller space and out of direct eye-sight. This means we have to rely on flyers and verbal direction to get people interested. One of the things about college campuses is that if you’re in a public area like a student union, there’s a lot of groups working for your attention (and many of them for other fantastic causes). It’s easy to tune out and not pay much attention to something going on in another room. When we are able to set up the display outdoors, though, you can’t just ignore the visual of 1,100 backpacks.

Hundreds of students come by the display at the University of Vermont. As I talked with the visitors, I noticed a common topic coming up. It usually started with something like “I was on my way to…” and ends with “but I saw all the bags and had to come see what was going on.” Humans, generally speaking, aren’t too great at visualizing large numbers. When I started on last years tour, before ever seeing the display in person, I thought that I had a pretty good visual in my head. 1,100 backpacks didn’t seem that hard to visualize. Seeing it in person, however, was (and still is) stunning.

I mention all of this because I think there’s something important about catching the curiosity of people that might not otherwise stop by. By bringing in people that might not have otherwise known about this issue, we’re expanding the reach of the conversation. The chapter at UVM had a lot of their own buttons made up to pass out, and one of them had one of my favorite phrases we use: “Mental Health: Everyone has it.” These events and the mission behind Active Minds isn’t just about a certain group of people, or people going though something specific. It’s about mental health, and we all share that. Whether it’s working with your own mental health or with your networks of friends, families, and peers, we all have a roll to play in this conversation.

I’ve really enjoyed finding people at the displays that weren’t aware of this program and asking them what they thought of the display. Here’s a response from a visitor here at UVM.

Ithaca College was our first full outdoor display! The day started off cold but soon turned into a beautiful day to be outside. The banner was filled with signatures by the end of the day and Ithaca needed to start a second page in the journal. We were visited by members of Cornell’s mental health student organization, Minds Matter. Along with Ithaca College they donated a backpack to tour with Send Silence Packing.

One of the many great things about touring with Send Silence Packing is all of the people we are able to meet that share their thoughts, ideas, and moving stories with us. It is an extraordinary feeling to inspire others with the message of positive mental health and suicide awareness but it is also such a fantastic experience to hear the amazing things that others are doing.

LeBron Rankins, Ithaca College Active Minds advisor and campus counselor, works hard to change the lives of students for the better. His dedication shines in the programming the counseling center has and in the dedication of the Active Minds chapter members. Throughout the day he started conversation with students, volunteers, and Brandon and myself that were thought provoking and forward-moving. He held these conversations with ease and is someone whose passion for helping others is extremely evident.

Students were filming the display for a video LeBron is helping them work on about the counseling center. It focuses on why every individual’s voice matters in reference to mental health and how everyone can help to erase the stigma that our society holds against mental health issues. There was also another student project filming at the display for a class assignment. Their main focus was issues surrounding the suicides from the bridges on Cornell’s campus and installation of barriers to prevent future tragedies. As part of their project, they interviewed Active Minds members and filmed the display to raise awareness of suicide.

The parents of Joe Cooper were present in Ithaca to see the powerful impact of Send Silence Packing. They lost their son to suicide and they donated a story to the project to help spread awareness and promote positive mental health. Mrs Cooper said that she works hard to let people around her community, and wherever she can be heard, that they are not suffering alone. She has visited schools, funeral homes, and other places where she can reach out to others to let people know what kinds of resources are available to survivors of suicide and individuals dealing with suicidal thoughts. She told me that she educates people because “there is always someone that is willing to listen, no matter what kind of issues you are going through.” She is working hard to let others know that they don’t have to suffer in silence and that there is always someone to turn to, even when you think you are alone.

The students that are a part of the Active Minds chapters are spreading the importance of changing the conversation about mental health and erasing the stigma that people have against talking about it. It is their hard work that encourages students to be mental health advocates and resources to their friends and family. There were many students and professors that I was able to talk to that told me what they were personally doing to ensure positive mental health in the students that they knew. The concern of staff and students on college campuses is a remarkable way to show students that are having trouble with mental health that there are people they can turn to. Sometimes people just need a friend or a mentor to talk to when they are having a difficult time. Knowing that there are people that are willing to listen can help save a life.

Buffalo State College marked our official half way point for the Spring 2011 Send Silence packing Tour. Nicole and I often talk about how one of our favorite experiences throughout this trip is having the opportunity to meet so many different people in different places. We’re currently driving on I-90E towards Ithaca, New York, and as we put the miles behind us, I find myself reflecting on a question that we often get as we meet all of these people—”You see so many of these events, what sticks with you?”

There are so many answers this question.

At our Buffalo display we got to meet so many people that came to support this cause. Not only did we have the local chapter that was hosting the display, but both the Oswego and University of Buffalo Active Minds chapters came out to join the display as well. That means we had three chapters, the counseling center at Buffalo State, Naomi from the national office, all of the volunteers, and finally Nicole and myself working together to run the display. Send Silence Packing is a display filled with a lot of complex emotions. Despite having done the event 16 times now, I still never know exactly what to expect or who I’ll meet.

Early on with my experience with Send Silence Packing, I found most of my attention focused on the same parts as the visitors to the displays—the awe striking visual of 1,100 backpacks, the touching stories on the bags, and the wide range of emotions of the people visiting and interacting at the display. That’s all still certainly there, but with so many post-display nights to reflect, I find myself watching for the smaller moments now, and since we had so many fantastic volunteers at the Buffalo State stop, I was able to really pay attention to them. I noticed two things in particular that show something that really sticks with me.

The first thing that I noticed was a visitor spending time in the display, carefully reading each backpack. This isn’t too uncommon—I’ve seen many people come through the display and spend a large amount of time visiting with the stories. However, it caught my attention when this same person came back to the display two more times throughout the afternoon, each time bringing someone new and showing them the backpacks. Not only did this person discover the backpacks and spend time with them, he went on to begin starting a conversation with his peers.

The second experience occurred while we were about to begin packing up the display at the end of the day. Two students walked into the display and had a surprised expression as they looked over the backpacks spread out throughout the room. I made my way over to them to see if anyone else had explained the display yet.

They told me that they hadn’t heard of it, and just happened to see something going on through the doorway and decided to check it out. I explained the program while they continued to look out over the bags.

“Wow…” one of them said, “I had no idea something like this was happening. This is all in one year?”

We continued to talk, and I also learned that they had never heard of Active Minds until this point. They went on to spend some time reading the stories on the bags. 15 minutes later I saw them both at the resource table signing up to learn more about how to join their local chapter.

Like I mentioned before, I’m noticing more and more the importance of the little things, and I think these two experiences exemplified one of our goals that personally resonates with me. We’re trying to, among other things, start a conversation. We’re trying to let people know that it’s ok to talk about this. It’s fantastic to see people that are already working on this issue to continue to make strides, but it’s especially moving to me to see someone start their journey in advocating for an issue. Whether it’s starting something or ending something, there’s a lot of ground to cover between zero and one—that first step. We’re seeing people decide to take interest in an issue. We’re seeing people ending a stigma. We’re seeing people come by and take that first step—and that’s something important.