Avah Fiske remembers her brother as kind, helpful and caring, but she doesn’t remember him opening up about his struggles with mental health. She was 6 years old when Ryan, 12, died by suicide in 2020.
“He didn’t have any symptoms or any clues that he was struggling,” she said. “Because he didn’t talk about it at all … it caught us by surprise, so I’m really hoping that people talk about their feelings more if they’re ever struggling.”
Avah, now 11, has spent the better part of this year trying to convey that message to people across New Hampshire.
Sitting in the basement of the Baker Free Library in Bow, with her Girl Scouts meeting winding up in the background, Avah said she wrote and recorded her own public service announcements for a radio station in the Lakes Region, educating listeners about mental health resources like the 988 lifeline.
“If you ever feel like you’re struggling with mental health or something, you can always either call or text it and it’ll pick up immediately and stuff,” Avah said. “If you feel like you don’t have anyone to talk to, they’re always there to help.”
Avah, who lives in Loudon, also made flyers, staffed booths at different fairs and participated in awareness walks for mental health and suicide prevention. Her work won her a Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest possible honor for a Girl Scout in her age group that is typically earned by an entire troop, not an individual member.
“Some people have had similar experiences to me, and they said my work has really helped them cope with all the grief,” Avah said.
Hometown hero Avah Fiske (left) practices dance moves with her Girl Scout friends Lizzy Sargent and Riley Podraza at their meeting at the Baker Free Library in Bow on Wednesday, December 4, 2025.
Avah’s mom, Emily Hackett-Fiske, said all her kids handled Ryan’s death differently, but seeing her daughter turn it into something positive reminds her of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
“For everybody it’s different, right? Nobody walks the same path,” Hackett-Fiske said. “I just feel really blessed that Avah has been able to, at a very young age, take this and make something good out of it.”
But that’s just what Avah does, her mom said, and she’s found a way to balance it with the rest of her life. In addition to her advocacy work and Girl Scouts, Avah also does theater, dance, music, lacrosse and other activities.
“She’s headed down a really good path of being an advocate and knowing when to back off a little bit when she needs her own stuff and to take care of her own things,” Hackett-Fiske said. “She also very silently keeps an eye on other people that she sees are struggling, who may not be able to say anything to her. She can read that really, really well.”
Those skills, her mom believes, came from time at the Kita Center, a summer camp in Maine that supports kids who’ve lost loved ones to suicide.
Attending has taught Avah and her siblings coping skills. She often uses a technique she came up with herself: Tracing one slender finger around the outline of her hand. A slow breath in as she drags up each finger; a breath out as she goes back toward the center of her palm.
“I like the feel of it,” she said. “It calms me down, and helps with my breathing, too.”
Staying busy helps, too. In her avalanche of extracurriculars, Avah takes after her mom, who’s also had a hand in advocacy. After Ryan’s death, Hackett-Fiske helped pass a bill aimed at reducing gun deaths in Vermont. Keeping active helps both of them stay positive.
“The hardest part of your day is getting your feet on the floor, but as long as you get up and keep moving, and that’s kind of what I’ve showed the kids, is that we kind of just have to keep moving,” Hackett-Fiske said. “We don’t have to like it, but we just kind of have to keep moving, otherwise we’ll get stuck in the mud and never maybe get out.”
Though her Girl Scout bronze award project is complete, Avah has no plans to slow down, hoping to focus her silver and gold award projects on mental health, too.
She’d like to start her own organization to build awareness with benefit walks and other events that encourage people struggling with their mental health to reach out and ask for help.
“If you just keep it in, it’s gonna just not help at all,” Avah said, “and it’s gonna make it way worse.”