EBENSBURG — After hosting a suicide prevention workshop last week, Central Cambria School District officials are planning to start a club in time for next school year that would be open to all middle and high school students, according to school psychologist Kirsten Stiffler.

“Our leaders are very, very motivated to get this up and running,” Stiffler said, noting officials have already started the preliminary planning stages to start the club and possibly bring back Aevidum leaders to do a schoolwide assembly at the beginning of next school year.

Aevidum director of outreach Mary Pritchard and students from the Northwest Area School District in Luzerne County visited Central Cambria last Thursday to conduct the workshop, which involved participation from 14 other local school districts, with 10 to 20 student representatives from each district, Stiffler said.

“Our goal as a team here at Central Cambria is to inspire students to become more involved,” Stiffler said. “The mission of this particular program is that it’s student-led.”

Instead of bringing in people to speak during assemblies, the Aevidum program encourages students to take initiative and spread Aevidum’s core message of “I’ve got your back,” Stiffler said.

The workshop lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and featured several small group activities, Stiffler said.

“We were excited to see the reaction of our students,” she said. “I feel like it was very well received and there was a lot of good feedback that came out of it.”

Eddie Mish, a junior at Central Cambria, said he was amazed by how well the Aevidum workshop helped students remove the stigma around talking about mental health.

“We all have bad days and everything, but I feel like so often we’re maybe too scared or we’re worried about what other people might think if we talk about those problems because we think it comes with a stigma,” Mish said.

As part of the workshop, Mish volunteered to dress up in a banana costume to start conversations with other students and get rid of the stigma.

The only stipulation was whenever a student asked him why he was dressed like a banana, the only response he could give was, “I’ve got your back,” which is what Aevidum stands for, he said.

“I like being in the spotlight like that and keeping a positive energy, so I took it very seriously and made sure to spread that energy the entire day,” Mish said.

Freshman Evelynn Dill she related to a lot of the personal experiences others shared.

“It didn’t feel like an assembly that we had to go to. I enjoyed being a part of it because it seemed like something that could really take off and actually make a difference,” she said.

Dill said she thinks everybody should have someone they can talk to when they’re feeling down. She loves being that person for other people so they realize they’re not alone, she said.

“It’s just unbelievable to take a step back and realize so many people are going through the same thing,” Dill said.

Dill’s excited by the possibility of the district starting a club, especially if it involves the middle school so the high school students can serve as leaders and let them know they’ve got each others’ backs.

“I think it could be a good program because I certainly could have used something like that last year,” she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.