Last year, the Sphinx Club hosted Leslie Weirich for her Chapel Talk “One Second of Hope” where she detailed her story of losing her son and former student Austin Weirich ’18 on September 10, 2016 to suicide. She looked on to a full chapel of students and shared a vulnerable story on men’s mental health and suicide. Many students were moved to tears and still remember this talk one year later.
“It was a really rich and close to home talk that really engrained a statement about mental health into my mind,” said Landon Huber ’27.
Following Weirich’s first Chapel Talk, Leslie’s Hope, a suicide prevention and advocation organization started after the passing of Weirich’s son, hosted a 5k to continue spreading their message of suicide prevention and mental health. It was a major success with a significant portion of the student body and Crawfordsville community attending. Participants were exposed to hard conversations about men’s mental health and this year a very similar event will be taking place.
On September 19, the College will be hosting the Mental Health Mile immediately following Weirich’s upcoming Chapel Talk. While not the same 5k as last year, the Sphinx Club and the Student Development and Wellness department hope that making the event a mile will prove even more successful.
“Doing a 5k on a Saturday morning isn’t the easiest on student schedules,” said Student Development and Wellness Coordinator Tristen Myers. “Since my priority is serving students, I changed the event into the Mental Health Mile during the week, just to be more accessible and hopefully reach a wider audience.”
With a lot of these changes Myers hopes for an even greater attendance than last year. The 5k was attended by over 300 Wabash students and was noted as a great success in spreading an important message. These aspirations have grown even bigger.
“I hope that by doing it during the week and immediately after Chapel [Talk], maybe we reach 400 or 500 plus students,” said Myers.
With September being Suicide Prevention Month, organizations across campus are working to bring awareness to the issue of suicide – especially when it hits so close to home.
“Every year in September, the Sphinx Club does its best to bring awareness to mental health and suicide prevention,” said Sphinx Club President Luka DiFilippo ’25. “The mile is an event to help the student body feel more open about being sensitive to this. My role in this is to be welcoming to everyone across campus and to get as many people in attendance as possible.”
While this month puts a focus on mental health, the College doesn’t want the hard conversations to stop after the mile.
“Being an all-male campus, we want to continue to educate students and staff on the value of prioritizing mental health,” said Head Counselor Keri Francis. “We know there is an increased risk for this population, and we want to recognize the risk and normalize help seeking. We also think it is important to cultivate a culture of vulnerability and empathy towards one another, even if you have not experienced the same struggles.”
Creating a culture of vulnerability is important for any community – because Wabash has felt the impact of suicide before, a big part of the reason for the Mental Health Mile is to spread a message that students and members of the community are not alone.
“You never know who is struggling,” said DiFilippo. “Be there for everyone at all times. Remember Austin Weirich and Evan Hansen ’16. We miss them dearly, and we never want to experience anything like that ever again.”
Thanks to Myers, Weirich, the Sphinx Club and more, the College is getting to be a part of another impactful community event and hopefully future students will also. Thanks to popularity from last year’s event there is a desire to continue doing such things for the community in the future.
“We do hope to make this a yearly thing,” said DiFilippo. “It is great for the community. It brings us all together and allows us to spread awareness and be there for each other in times of need.”
September invites all students to have hard conversations with each other and become more aware of the challenges of suicide and how to prevent it. All students are encouraged to attend Weirich’s Chapel Talk on September 19 and participate in the mental health mile. In a community affected so greatly by the effects on mental health, the organizers are hopeful that the Mental Health Mile will continue ot be a popular gathering. But more than anything, the organizers hope to leave a message to students that they are not alone and there is always someone looking after them.