Active Minds Wins Pepsi Refresh Everything Project

Send Silence Packing to go on a 10-City U.S. Tour this Spring

March 24, 2010 – During 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, Active Minds finished in 4th place among more than 200 entrants and will receive a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. Alison Malmon, founder and executive director of Active Minds, says, “We couldn’t be prouder or more humbled by all of the work done on our behalf and dedication to our cause. This grant will go to support the first-ever tour of Send Silence Packing, Active Minds’ signature program to bring attention to the tragedy of college student suicide.”

Send Silence Packing is a traveling public education display of 1,100 donated backpacks representing the number of college student lives lost to suicide each year. The display puts a ‘face’ to the young lives lost to suicide with the message that preventing suicide is not just about lowering statistics. It’s about saving the lives of students, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters and friends across the nation. Send Silence Packing was unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2008 and has since been on display on the campuses of The University of Pennsylvania, Virginia Tech, and George Washington University.

The spring tour will kick-off at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia on Tuesday, April 6 and travel to nine different states before concluding at The Ohio State University in May. See below for a complete list of tour dates and locations, and visit https://www.activeminds.org/sendsilencepacking for the most up-to-date location specifics.

The 2010 Send Silence Packing Tour:

  • Tuesday, April 6 – James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)
  • Friday, April 9 – St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO)
  • Monday, April 12 or Tuesday, April 13 – Oklahoma City, OK
  • Friday, April 16 – University of Nebraska at Kearney (Kearney, NE)
  • Monday, April 19 – University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY)
  • Wednesday, April 21 – Montana State University (Bozeman, MT)
  • Monday, April 26 – University of Minnesota Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN)
  • Wednesday, April 28 – Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
  • Thursday, April 29 – Daley Plaza (Chicago, IL)
  • Wednesday, May 5 – The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH

Active Minds, Inc. is encouraging families and friends impacted by suicide to sponsor a backpack in memory of a loved one. Visit https://www.activeminds.org/shareyourstory to submit a story, picture, note or poem that will be placed on a bag.

About Active Minds, Inc.: Active Minds is the leading voice college student mental health and supports a rapidly growing network of nearly 250 student-run chapters on colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. All chapters work towards one goal: to create a campus culture where it is OK to speak openly about mental health and seek help. A national non-profit headquartered in Washington D.C., Active Minds empowers students to use their voice to change the conversation about mental health one campus at a time. To learn more, visit https://www.activeminds.org.