To kick off Mental Health Awareness Month, the creative collective of St. Marys Area High School’s Dutch Manufacturing students x ECCHS alumn John Schlimm x Community Education Center brought their 988 Coin Tour assembly to our middle and high school students for an engaging presentation and discussion about mental health and to raise awareness for 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline. Every student and school staffer was then given a “988 Coin.”
The DM x JS x CEC collective has spent this school year designing and manufacturing 30,000 “988 Coins” from 2,000 pounds of powdered metal—in partnership with the Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force. The top punch for the coin was produced at Gerg Tool & Die, the molding and sintering took place at Metco Industries, and the coating was done at Ion Technologies.
“The 988 Coin” project was made possible by generous funding from Dickinson Center’s Children’s Prevention Services and the Elk County Commissioners via an Act 13 grant. In addition to those mentioned above, the distribution of the 30,000 coins is also being facilitated by the CEC’s Leadership Elk & Cameron program participants.
Thanks to everyone above for sharing this project and the important message of hope with our Elk County Catholic School System family.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, immediate and nonjudgmental help is available. Please call or text 988.
Click here for more on the project.
