Help B.I.O.N.I.C. Saves Lives through Colorado Gives Day!
The Suicide Crisis!
The rate of teen suicide in Colorado increased by 58% in 3 years. We see similar trends across the U.S. Research shows that compassion has a great influence on giving the lonely, discouraged, isolated, depressed, and those at-risk for suicide the hope to carry on. We believed this for the last 15 years during our work with targeted B.I.O.N.I.C. Teams at Green Mountain and Pomona High Schools. We saw evidence of that research right in the halls of those schools as students reached out to peers facing challenging times. That is why we are investing all our time and energy in this work to reach more kids!
The B.I.O.N.I.C. Movement is Spreading
In the past four months, school staff and students from 50 schools throughout Colorado came to our eight B.I.O.N.I.C. Team Conferences to learn how to start B.I.O.N.I.C. Teams (Believe It Or Not I Care) in their schools. They saw how to reach out to students who are new, sick, hospitalized, bullied, or lose a loved one. (Those were some of the issues that inspired the creation of B.I.O.N.I.C. – to prevent peers from falling through the cracks and spiraling down into suicidal thoughts – like the initial tragedies that spurred us on to start B.I.O.N.I.C.) What’s incredible is that the schools at the conferences aren’t stopping there! They also learned outreaches for school staff who lose loved ones, and even for the elderly and veterans facing challenging times. The compassion oozing out of those rooms at the conferences is inspiring!
Those 50 schools – rural and urban and suburban, private and public, brick-and-mortar and online, elementary and middle school and high school and college – have a total of over 64,000 students on their campuses. Time is of the essence! They are ready to reach their campuses to help turn the tide of increased suicides. But they need your help!
Equipping Schools
To become an official B.I.O.N.I.C. Team, it costs schools $500 to get the resources to start the club on their campus. With the official B.I.O.N.I.C. nonprofit being new this year, most schools did not budget last year for the start-up costs for this year. So they are being delayed in starting B.I.O.N.I.C. at their schools as they try to raise money…while more kids fall through the cracks. The holidays and winter are times of increased suicides, so time is of the essence! School staff and students are getting discouraged because of the time it takes away from doing outreaches to raise the $500. Seeing this, this summer B.I.O.N.I.C. drastically lowered the start-up fee to $500 for the schools by raising money in other ways. But what a great gift it would be to schools if people would help cover their $500 school fee.
Help Schools Reach Hurting Kids!
Will you help these schools? Individuals or businesses can give donations from $5.00 up to sponsoring one or more school teams to help schools reach hurting kids! Colorado Gives Day (not just benefitting Colorado schools) is a day when people are asked to give to nonprofits on Tuesday, December 10th. B.I.O.N.I.C. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization under the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center – so all gifts are tax-deductible. All money raised for the Colorado Gives Day campaign will go directly toward starting B.I.O.N.I.C. school clubs.
Click here to donate.
Thanks for caring and helping save lives!!! www.bionicteam.org