Since I embarked on this journey three months ago, I've seen some pretty heroic acts of compassion and humanity. Total strangers reaching out, from all around the globe!, in order to attempt to save a total stranger's life. There's been success stories that I've seen personally. There's been some where the situation is now-stable but still touch-and-go. No one said this was going to be easy work.
Today, we see the first publicized case of two teenagers reaching out to save a life. Seventeen-year-old Danny Manes and 19-year-old Gary Ramirez worked feverishly for over 5 hours to talk a fellow teen, who had been posting suicidal messages that caught Danny Manes' eye, down from suicide. Their hard and determined work paid great dividends when they received a message from the distraught teen thanking them for their help. Heroes are born everyday.
Manes and Ramirez are just two of hundreds, maybe thousands!, of people, young and old, male and female, gay and straight, black, blue, and, green, working ardently to make a difference by reaching out to people in need, in particular teens with suicidal ideations. Manes and Ramirez have a facebook page, Hopeline4Teens, that is set up specifically for helping troubled teens.
And, there's BrettJ93 (don't know his last name) who has the youtube video where he's reaching out to the same demographic. And, according to him, they're reaching back now that they know who to reach for. The video is marvelous work and has gotten several thousand views since I first wrote about it earlier in the week. It needs 100 times that many! So, keep sharing it.
The army continues to grow. There are many, many people putting forth an amazing amount of effort in their quest to make a difference. And, it's paying huge dividends.
Danny Manes and Gary Ramirez, stand up and take a bow. We commend you. Great job! Thank you for your dedicated efforts.
Other sources of social media help and outreach:
Wipeout Homophobia on Facebook
STOP Teenage Suicide
ABC: Anti-Bullying Coalition
Suicide Support
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
