MANDATA – He’s called by some, America’s number one youth motivation speaker. He talked to Line Mountain students today, and he’ll talk to the public tonight. His message is about suicide prevention and mental health awareness. Jeff Yalden held emotion filled assemblies at Line Mountain High School Tuesday, talking to high school and middle school students. The message comes after the district lost a student to suicide recently.
One of Yalden’s objectives was to urge students it’s their responsibility on self-care, “You need to learn to spend more time there where it’s uncomfortable, because nothing changes if nothing changes. We want acceptance, it’s a natural thing. I want to challenge you to start doing this…spend more time looking in the mirror at who you are, and when you take care of who you are, I promise how you look takes care of itself.”
And that message seemed to sink in with most students, including 17-year-old Junior Riley Heim, “If you don’t accept the way you are and how you are as a person, you really can’t expect other people to feel the same way about you. I know I’d like to be more aware and be able to help people more.”
16-year-old Kerri Ferster, “He combined real-world actions that we have to understand, but he put sensitivity in with it to combine the two. I’m pretty sure it made an impact on everyone’s lives that were here today.”
