Clicks can help fight suicide

A local nonprofit aimed at preventing teen suicide is among a thousand groups across the country competing for grants from Pepsi. But in order to win the $50,000 prize, Unite 4 Life needs help from the community.

Every month this year, Pepsi is giving away $1.3 million in grants — two grants for $250,000, 10 for $50,000, 10 for $25,000 and 10 for $5,000. In order for Unite 4 Life to win the money, the Vancouver group must be one of the top 10 vote-getters in the $50,000 category on the Pepsi Refresh Project Web site, http://refresheverything.com. Voting ends April 30.

“If we get this grant, it would open the door for us to offer our services free of charge for 10 schools or maybe more,” said Aaron Chidester, Unite 4 Life executive director. “We could make a significant impact in the local area using this money.”

Chidester and trained volunteers go into schools to help students understand depression and suicidal feelings, teach them warning signs of suicide and give them tools for accessing help. Each school presentation costs about $4,000 to $5,000 and includes a school assembly, training for faculty, seminars for parents, follow-up presentations in the classrooms and ongoing support, including mentoring. Presentations in 10 to 12 schools could reach as many as 15,000 students, Chidester said.

The Pepsi project is open to individuals, businesses and nonprofits with ideas of how to improve their communities. At midnight on the first day of each month, Pepsi begins accepting online applications. After 15 days, or once 1,000 applications are received, the submission period is closed. On April 1, the program received 1,000 submissions within 30 minutes.

The applications are reviewed to ensure they meet the program requirements, and voting opens on the first day of the following month. People who want to participate must register on the Web site and can vote for 10 ideas everyday. The top finishers in each category are awarded the grants and have 12 months to implement their programs. The top 100 runners-up are automatically entered in the next month’s voting cycle.

Not giving up

Unite 4 Life’s page on the Web site is at http://refresheverything.com/unite4life. If Unite 4 Life isn’t a grant recipient this month, Chidester said, it will continue to apply.

Chidester formed the nonprofit in Livermore, Calif., in 2006 after two high school students died by suicide. Last fall, Chidester and the nonprofit relocated to Vancouver. Since then, group volunteers have given presentations in local classrooms and the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center and spoken to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The group also held a seminar, “Helping Hurting Students,” and has three more seminars scheduled in the coming weeks.

So far, though, Unite 4 Life has not given schoolwide presentations because cash-strapped schools can’t afford the program. The Pepsi grant would change that, Chidester said.

“Any student displaying warning signs of suicide, whereas before they may have slipped through the cracks, now everybody around them is going to start to notice,” he said. “They’re no longer going to slip through the cracks. Young people who are hurting are going to get help.”

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.