If you're in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 — or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
It’s raining, and Jaimee Seitz climbs into the back of an SUV. She already has a poncho on and seems a little nervous.
“Hopefully, this just passes real quick,” Seitz said.
This is an important night, because she’s passing out door hangers with the Boone County Alliance, a nonprofit organization that tries to help teens struggling with mental health or substance use issues.
Seitz did this over the weekend. And she’s back in a new neighborhood a few days later.
Hear from Seitz herself about why this work is so important:
“It keeps me going,” Seitz said. “And it keeps her alive to me.”
Seitz’s daughter, Audree, died by suicide in December. She was one of at least four youth suicides in Boone County since November. It led county officials to form a suicide response task force. And it turned Seitz into something she never thought she'd be: an advocate.
“I knew that things needed to change,” Seitz said. “We want to help in any way we can.”
The hangers include a crisis hotline number, 988. And so do the blue shirts members of the Boone County Alliance wear. Angelena Boone is the program director for the group, which started more than a decade ago after a student's death stemming from alcohol.
“We’ve cried over it, we’ve talked over it and we’re attempting to heal through it,” Boone said. “And this project was really born out of a need to take action.”
They hope to give out 10,000 hangers in May. And the group says they’re about halfway there.
“I hope they understand somebody cares,” Boone said.
Seitz is sitting in the trunk of a car when it starts raining harder. Her mom holds an umbrella over my head before we scramble to another vehicle.
“We are definitely determined today,” said Patti Ewing, Audree's grandmother. “We want families to know there is help.”
In Ewing's SUV, the rain almost covers up her tears. She used to help her granddaughter catch the school bus. The same bus that still drives by her home every school day.
“On Mother’s Day, we sat and cried together,” Ewing said. “It was something no mother — no parent — should ever go through.”
And so while it’s still raining, Ewing and Seitz go to another neighborhood. Door hangers in hand.
Get involved:
If you’d like to help or pass out information in your own neighborhood, you can contact the Boone County Alliance by phone (859) 655-6872 or email: ABoone@mhankyswoh.org
In honor of her daughter, Seitz is also inviting the community to a friendship bracelet event on May 17. Food will be provided and there will be resources available for anyone who is struggling.
It’s happening at Larosa's in Dry Ridge:
6 p.m.
96 Blackburn Lane
Dry Ridge, Ky. 41035
