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What is Send Silence Packing?

Suicide claims the lives of more than 1,100 college students each year, and each one of those deaths touches us all. Send Silence Packing is an aggressive campaign by Active Minds Inc. to promote a dialogue about mental health issues on campus and combat the incidence of student suicide.  Active Minds hopes that by empowering students and the student voice in mental health awareness, we will see the day when mental health issues are widely discussed, and the number of tragic deaths due to suicide is reduced to 0.

Send Silence Packing is an exhibit of 1,100 backpacks representing the number of college student lives lost to suicide each year.  Active Minds Inc. has collected and continues to collect backpacks and personal stories in memory or in honor of loved ones impacted by suicide.  By displaying backpacks with personal stories of loved ones that put a ‘face' to lives lost to suicide, Send Silence Packing carries the message that preventing suicide is not just about lowering statistics, but also about saving the lives of students, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters and friends across the nation.  Contributions serve as a meaningful outlet for survivors' grief as well as a powerful way to raise awareness and work towards suicide prevention. 

In April 2010, Send Silence Packing Send Silence Packing traveled on it's first ever multi-city tour! The program departed from the Active Minds national office in Washington, DC and traveled to campuses in 10 cities across the country, as far west as Montana. Check out the Spring 2010 Tour Blog to meet the road trip staff, see pictures of the displays, and read about the impact of Send Silence Packing across the country.

Get Involved - Share Your Story

• To contribute a backpack or personal story of someone lost to suicide to be placed on the bags of our display, fill out our secure online form here.

• Donate to Active Minds, Inc. By supporting our work,you will help Active Minds continue to bring this important program to campuses and cities across the country.
  


• Every display location needs volunteers to pull off the great event. Check back here for future display locations and dates.

"I have a story on my son's backpack.  His name is Eric Hagen.  He died 2-1/2 years ago at age 17.  He was a person everyone liked.  Intelligent, creative, kind, nice-looking and going to college to be a Structural Engineer.  He graduated high school a year early and received many scholarships. He was an awesome young man.  I have attached a picture of him and also the backpack.  It means a lot to us that your organization is doing these displays.  Thank you!"      - Donna Hagen  

Where Has Send Silence Packing Been?

10 City Tour - April and May 2010

For the entire month of February 2010, supporters of Active Minds lent their voices and votes to Active Minds, Inc.'s Send Silence Packing program in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Competition.  As a result, we finished in 4th place among more than 200 entrants, qualifying us for a $50,000 grant to support our first-ever multi-city tour of Send Silence Packing. 

Over the course of 6 weeks, the display traveled to James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA), St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO), Oklahoma City, University of Nebraska at Kearney (Kearney, NE)University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY)Montana State University (Bozeman, MT), University of Minnesota Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI), Chicago, and The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH).  Visit the Send Silence Packing Tour Blog to follow the route. 

George Washington University - November 13, 2009

Send Silence Packing was displayed at GWU as part of the Active Minds 2009 National Mental Health on Campus. Many were moved to tears by the powerful display. They paused at the backpacks that featured stories of those lost to suicide, reflecting on the life of a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter or a friend.

 

Virginia Tech University - October 13, 2009

 

  

 

University of Pennsylvania - November 2008

 

In November 2008, Send Silence Packing traveled to the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Active Minds National Conference.  Penn students and student mental health advocates from across the country had the chance to feel the deep impact of the program.  At Penn we were able to literally 'send silence packing' with a live music performance by Liquor Boxx.  The band joined Active Minds in actively promoting a dialogue around mental health and working together to prevent suicide on college campuses.

 

 

National Mall in Washington, DC - April 24, 2008

 

The inaugural display of Send Silence Packing was held on the National Mall in Washington, DC on April 24, 2008 and was visited by over 10,000 people.  Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) was a special guest speaker at the event, high-lighting his support of Active Minds and the need for silence to be packed away on college campuses, on Capitol Hill, and in all our homes.