Send Silence Packing is off to a great start, the launch of this spring’s tour was a success and today, the exhibit traveled to Penn State for another powerful display and another opportunity to raise awareness about the incidence and impact of student suicide.

The media plays a critical role in helping us expand our reach of Send Silence Packing to audiences who aren’t able to attend in person. We got some great coverage from the University of Maryland event and we wanted to share a couple of highlights with you.

1,100 backpacks on UMd. campus symbolize college suicides in America
WJLA, ABC 7 News

UMd. Sends Silence Packing
College Park Patch

Organization Aims to Defeat Stigma of Mental Illness
Lauren Kirkwood, Diamondback

As a part of the “Send Silence Packing” event, 1,100 backpacks were placed in Stamp Student Union’s Grand Ballroom yesterday.

They were sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, best friends and average students. Yesterday, the 1,100 college students who commit suicide every year were memorialized in an on-campus display — each was represented by a backpack to symbolize the effort to “Send Silence Packing” and erase the stigma that often surrounds mental illness.