Students live their story with TWLOHA
“Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students,” according to The Johnny Foundation. The members of the Georgia College chapter of To Write Love on Her Arms recognize this, and have spent the past week raising awareness on this and other issues.
According to their website, TWLOHA is: “A non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.”
All over the country, students who support this organization have formed their own chapter, also called a UChapter.
The TWLOHA website explains the purpose of these groups in the following way:
“The UChapter at Georgia College is a network of student organizations on college and university campuses that exists to embody the mission and vision of To Write Love on Her Arms. Through organized meetings and events, each chapter serves as a voice of hope, inspiration, and support for students and their surrounding communities.”
Last week, Oct. 3 through Oct. 6, members of the GC UChapter sponsored four days worth of events as part of an awareness week called Living Your Story. Their event is a part of UChapters Collaborative Project, which will take place on every school campus that is a part of the university chapter.
“Each Chapter will have the opportunity to reach into their communities and offer hope and the promise of redemption,” cites TWLOHA.
Living Your Story took place the first week in October. This date was not chosen at random, it coincides with National Mental Illness Awareness Week. Living Your Story kicked off on Oct. 3 with To Write Love on Her Arms Day.
TWLOHA has a saying called “Love is the Movement,” and on this day the UChapter calls for students to simply write love on their arms. The idea is that instead of having hate toward yourself, people should love themselves.
“I wrote love on my arm throughout this entire week. I really believe in and support the message of this group,” junior business management major Casey Leech said. Tuesday evening the group sponsored QPR Training, also known as Question, Persuasive, Response Training.
It was held at 6 p.m. in the library Mac Lab and was taught by the Library and Instructional Technology Center faculty member Joe Windish. During this training session attendees learned how to recognize warning signs of suicide crisis and depression signs. By the end of the training those who attended were certified to recognize these warning signs. This certification is even something that students are allowed to put on a resume.
However, one important point that was stressed is that this training did not certify students to treat people, only to recognize the signs. Junior business major and member of the GC UChapter of TWLOHA Ashleigh Greba attended QPR Training.
“Spreading awareness of suicide and depression is important because not too many people are comfortable discussing these issues,” Greba said. “It wasn’t until my experience in high school when a close friend of mine committed suicide that I truly understood that if we don’t ask, then we will never know what someone is going through. This silent killer is 100 percent preventable by people and organizations, such as To Write Love on Her Arms, to be the voice of hope and courage for those who are consumed by this evil. Suicide is caused by an illness; it is not a character flaw or sign of weakness.”
On Oct. 5 the UChapter in collaboration with Art Tank, had an art opening at Art Fix Gallery. The gallery featured student art and photography, as well as music performed by GC student, Paul Rosetti. Also, there was an installation piece called Fear vs. Dreams. This installation was a collection of GC student’s biggest fears and greatest dreams. Graduate student Abby Gibson is the founder and president of the GC UChapter of TWLOHA.
The Art Fix Gallery was her favorite event of the week. “It is such a wonderful collaboration with the Art Tank that is very powerful in raising awareness and spreading hope for the importance of sharing your story. It will still be available for viewing for another two weeks, so come out and enjoy,” Gibson said. The final event of the week took place on Thursday, Oct. 6. Andrew Gadtke is the author of the novel “Schizophrenia: Conversations to Recovery.”
He came to GC and spoke in Magnolia Ballroom about this novel and answered questions from students. TWLOHA did not sponsor this author or event but members of the group did attend to support Gadtke and any GC students who may be suffering from schizophrenia. Overall members of the UChapter felt Living Your Story was very successful. The chapter has been established at GC for one year, and this was their first Living Your Story event.
“I think we had a lot of great support from people this week,” Gibson said. “Promoting is something we are trying to do more of and people that were unable to attend events still submitted pieces for the gallery or Fears vs. Dreams. So I think it was definitely a success.” The Uchapter of TWLOHA meets every other Wed. at 7 p.m. in Chappell Hall. For more information on this group contact twlohagcsu@gmail.com
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