Troy Eagle Scout Piper Jackson, center, stands with Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services associate director Brad Reed, left, and Sidney Parks and Recreation Director Duane Gaier, right, at the Sherman Park shelter in Sidney with a new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline sign.
Photo courtesy of Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services
SIDNEY — An Eagle Scout project that brought together mental health agencies and parks to promote awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number now includes Sidney parks.
Eagle Scout Candidate Piper Jackson, of Troy, conceived of a project to place signage promoting the 988 Crisis Lifeline in public spaces to raise awareness of the resource. To get it accomplished, she reached out to Brad Reed, associate director and chief of community engagement at the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services.
Jackson also designed the signage using the official logo for the 988 Crisis Lifeline and created four versions of affirmations: “You Matter,” “There is Hope,” “You Are Not Alone” and “Life is Better With You.”
While the project initially focused on Miami County parks, Reed was able to connect with the Darke County Park District and Sidney Parks and Recreation Director Duane Gaier to place the signs in all three counties served by the Tri-County Board and the National Alliance on Mental Illness affiliate.
“Sidney Parks and Recreation is proud to partner with the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services and Scout Piper Jackson to promote the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline,” Gaier said in a news release. “Because many people use our parks as a peaceful place to think and navigate life’s challenges, 988 awareness signs have been placed in high-use areas such as gazebos and parking lots.”
Jackson chose the project because she has been impacted by the suicide of a classmate’s brother and others in the community and has come to understand the need for people to have someone to call when they are having trouble seeing the light of hope.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a 24/7 talk or text line staffed by licensed mental health professionals. Calls are anonymous, and 80 percent of calls resolve the crisis while on the phone, according to statistics provided by the Tri-County Board.
“We immediately got behind this project when Piper first reached out,” Reed said. “The 988 Crisis Lifeline is still relatively new, so we look for opportunities to promote it. We had worked with the parks before, and this was a natural fit.”
Because he provides administrative support for NAMI Darke, Miami and Shelby Counties, Reed was able to get approval from the local chapter to pay for the production of the 8-by-10-inch aluminum signs using grant funds the chapter had recently received.
“It was fortunate timing,” Reed said. “NAMI Ohio had just made these funds available to us, and this project fits perfectly with the mission to promote mental health and support families in crisis.”
Jackson has been a Scout in Troop 5788 in Troy since 2019 and received her Eagle rank in a ceremony June 4. Her troop is active in the Scouting America curriculum and will complete their second 50-mile backpacking adventure at the Scouts’ Philmont High Adventure Camp this summer.
Scouting America (formerly the Boy Scouts of America) has allowed girls to join since 2019 as single-gender troops (boys troops separate from girls troops) and work toward the Eagle Scout rank. This change was implemented to provide families with more inclusive options and was formalized by the organization’s name change to Scouting America.