High School Students Campaign for Mental Health Awareness

My name is Nicole Sancilio and I, along with my two friends, Julia Peragallo and Tiffany Holtje, are the Smithtown High School West Storytellers.

The organization ”To Write Love On Her Arms” has a simple but powerful mission statement: “To Write Love On Her Arms 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 and inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery” (TWLOHA.com). As part of a public relations project for our school’s chapter of DECA, a club centered around preparing students for the real-life business world, we have chosen to take part in the high school campaign for TWLOHA called The Storytellers.

As part of our Storytellers campaign, we are tasked with raising not only $1,000 for TWLOHA but also awareness and publicity for the organization. So far, we have designed and carried out multiple awareness projects within our school and Smithtown High School East. In order to fundraise, we are hosting a showing of “The Breakfast Club” on Thursday, November 13th in our high school’s gymnasium. Tickets are only $5 and we will be selling snacks and drinks as well!

In addition to our movie night, we are asking our friends, family, educators and community members to give donations on our fundraising website. This money will not only benefit our efforts to run a successful campaign but will also go towards bettering and saving the lives of those who desperately need it. We understand that not everyone is in a position to be able to give money and so we ask that those people spread the word about our campaign and what it stands for! Mention it to your friends and coworkers or share the link on social media. There are so many ways to help besides monetary donations and everything you can do is appreciated.

This is our fundraising link: https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=359693

Thank you to everyone who supports us and the cause!

-Nicole, Julia and Tiffany (The SHSW Storytellers)