Dear Dr. Christopher Hopey,

I am a freshman at Merrimack college and I am writing to you for a request for a Friendship Bench at Merrimack. What is the Friendship Bench? It Provides an actionable program that encourages student-to-student conversation about mental health, facilities, peer-to-peer support networks.

This topic is very dear to me as a family member suffers from severe depression and has had thoughts of suicide over the years. They were lucky enough to have a great advocate to help them through difficult moments not everyone has someone to talk to. It would be comforting if Merrimack had a place to sit and talk about our feelings or our down days. What a better time to request such a petition for this as May is marked as mental Health awareness month.

Benches have been evolving over the years as a place to sit and rest a bit or enjoy the day. However, they can be bigger than that if they are there for a cause. Elementary schools are starting to put them in the playgrounds so if you see a child sitting there you are encouraged to strike up a conversation, so no one is alone and left out. However, in high school and college there is no recess and the lonely or depressed go unnoticed.

In Canada a father started Movement that is called “Yellow is for Hello” after his son who seemed to be an altogether young man committed suicide. In his son’s spirit, he came up with this solution with a bench that offered a safe place to talk to someone about your day and mental illness. These benches are beginning to be used not only in Canada. The Friendship Bench project has far reaching influence which has spread all the way to Zimbabwe. 

These benches not only encourage peer-to-peer conversation about mental health among students, but also help to educate students on the impacts of mental illness, and how to build resilience connecting students on campus to mental health resources. The benches have a plaque with contact information for a crisis hotline as well as campus mental health resources. Suicide in the United States was the second leading cause of death for young adults. The Friendship Bench seeks to reduce the statistic by using the yellow bench as a visual reminder to sit, take a minute and talk with someone about how you feel. If you see someone sitting, then you sit to ask how they are Feeling! The price of a single bench would be less then $2000 along with local advertisement from posters and fliers to raise the awareness of the new bench and awareness of college students mental health. I feel it would be a great asset to our campus to encourage students to help each other through a tough day by lending encouraging words. I believe it is time for our school to join the many colleges that have taken the initiative against the growing mental health issues students face every day.

Please sign and take action to get this friendship bench at Merrimack college. So we can help college students and their mental health.

Thank You, 

Sincerely,

Katie Duray