They produced a line of clothing featuring positive messages.
Elizabeth Forward’s student-run business and a local nonprofit teamed up for a project to commemorate mental health awareness month in May.
March Fourth and EF’s iSH Company made, produced and sold mental health awareness T-shirts, crewneck sweatshirts and hoodies.
An Elizabeth Forward student models a sweatshirt that says “Stay; Tomorrow Needs You” with the suicide hotline number written in the text. Courtesy of the iSH company at EF
The iSH Company, aka “In Student Hands,” at Elizabeth Forward High School has been spreading fun designs throughout the community since the end of the 2016 school year.
All proceeds from the latest project were donated to March Fourth, an Elizabeth Township-based organization that assists patients at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital and others with mental health struggles who may need help.
Elizabeth Township residents Ed and Jacki Faircloth created the organization in their son Tanner’s memory and called it “March Fourth” for his birthday. It’s designed to help people who are struggling with mental illness keep moving forward during difficult times and remind them that they are not alone.
The March Fourth organization honors Tanner’s life and spirit by offering hope to individuals facing mental health challenges and to the loved ones who support them.
March Fourth has donated about 3,050 items to Western Psychiatric, according to Jacki, and has received several patient thank yous over the years.
“We’re so happy we can, in a way, help (patients) feel loved, not alone, that someone cares about them and that they’re comfortable when they’re in the hospital,” she said. “So that was actually our main mission.”
Jacki teams with Elizabeth natives and EF alumni Christine Kanalis and Sarah Leibhart for a podcast called “The Mental Funny Bone” that talks about mental health.
They reached out to the iSH students to discuss what they do and why they are ad- vocating for mental health awareness, and the students wanted to get involved for a second year in a row.
“It was just a good combination of people talking to the kids, and I think they really appreciated it, and wanted to help us out again this year,” Jacki said. “We thanked them for their help last year, and just explained how much their donation helped the patients, and that the response we got from the patients was amazing, and thought that was great.”
The next March Fourth fundraiser will be from 4 to 7 p.m. June 11 at Graceful Style in Elizabeth Borough with flash tattoos done by Black Ivy Ink.
They will include semi-colon styles of tattoos, which symbolizes resilience and continuation, along with mental health sayings and more.
A $10 donation will be made to March Fourth with every tattoo purchase, and there will be a 10% sale on Graceful Style retail items during the event along with refreshments, giveaways and an auction.
April 16 was National Semicolon Day, which represents to people that it’s not the end of their story, and Jacki said people usually get a tattoo on their wrist to keep them motivated to keep going.
Jacki said mental health is an important topic to discuss, and March Fourth believes in a world where conversations about mental health are free of stigma and shame.
Their hope is that one day mental health concerns will be as openly discussed, accurately diagnosed and effectively treated as physical health issues are today.
Jacki encourages people to just start talking, researching and doing their homework on what to say to each other when someone is having trouble.
“The stigma is still there, so breaking that down in any way that we can normalize and help, people will be able to speak out for help if they need it,” she said. “Being that there still is a lot of stigma there, it makes it difficult for people sometimes to speak out and say that they need help or that they’re having trouble because they’re not sure of the reaction they might get.
“So any awareness we can give to that, any way we can make it be able to be talked about easier is gonna help all around for everybody involved, and that way they can get the help they need I always say stop the silence, make sure you tell someone if you’re having any problem, any trouble, so that they can help you, because they want to help you more than anything in the whole wide world.”
More information about the nonprofit can be found at www.marchfourth2000. org. Anyone who wants to order products from iSH before May is over can go to https://theishcompany. com.