photo by: Kathy Hanks

Jordan Ott, 17, a Lawrence High School Junior and Amy Hill, director of teen services The Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, talk about the event Ott is planning. “We Got Your Back - Suicide Awareness Walk,” from 1 to 4 p.m., March 23, 2019, at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, 2910 Haskell Ave.

Jordan Ott felt an urgency to make more people aware of what triggers a suicide and possibly stop one person from taking their own life.

“It seems like suicide is only talked about when it happens,” Ott said. “Then it’s too late.”

That’s why the 17-year-old Lawrence High School junior is working hard to organize “We Got Your Back – Suicide Awareness Walk,” from 1 to 4 p.m., March 23 at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, 2910 Haskell Ave.

“I feel we can come together as a community to fight the suicide epidemic,” he said. “This is for the whole community, I want adults to come too.”

Originally scheduled to be outdoors at the LHS track in February, Ott was forced to move the date because of a winter storm that weekend.

Moving the event indoors will leave one less thing for Ott to worry about as he coordinates all the details.

He has been meeting with members of the Douglas County Suicide Prevention Coalition, Headquarters Counseling Center, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, who have agreed to participate. Counselors at LHS are also supporting the event, Ott said.

“The layout I came up with includes different stations and walking around the gym,” Ott said. When kids register he plans to divide them into groups and they will spend 15 to 20 minutes at each station.

Ott said he hopes all middle and high school students attending both public and private schools in Douglas County will attend. There is a “We Got Your Back – Suicide Awareness Walk,” event page on Facebook, and through it, Jordan said he has heard from a mother in Baldwin who lost her teen to suicide.

A soft-spoken teen, Ott said he will speak that day about losing his older brother Isaiah to suicide in 2013.

Jordan was 11 at the time. But, he’ll never forget answering the phone when his mother called with the horrific news. He wished he could have known how his brother was feeling.

“I don’t want others to experience this,” he said.

Motivated by the loss of his brother, Ott is also very concerned with the growing number of suicides. He hopes the event will help those who might be personally struggling to get the help that will be available that day. There will be counselors available and private areas for those who want to talk.

“I want them to know they are not alone,” Ott said. He also wants others to be aware of what they can do to help.

“I want to get more people aware of how big this problem is, ” Ott said. He hopes those who attend the event will learn to look for signs they wouldn’t normally see.

“You could walk down Mass St. and see all these people and they are masking how they feel,” Ott said.

Lawrence Shirt Factory is making T-shirts for the event and Ott has worked out an arrangement that the proceeds from the sale will go to the Landen Lucas Foundation- Sports for Life, which provides sports fees, equipment, and shoes, for many students who need financial help to participate in sports. Lucas is a professional basketball player who played on the KU Jayhawks men’s basketball team 2013 through 2017.

Ott, who played on the LHS basketball team this season, says participating in sports has been therapeutic for him.

Amy Hill, director of teen services The Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, has been working with Ott.

“My job is to support Jordan’s vision for the day,” Hill said.