‘A Celebration of Life’ is the only place you should spend your Wednesday

Every 15.2 minutes there is a suicide in America. Even more devastating that this statistic alone, 1 in every 12 college students plan to take their own life, and 1.5 in every 100 of those plan to carry it out. Yes, that might be your classmate sitting next to you as you are reading this article, a close friend, sorority sister, fraternity brother, or even a teammate. Suicide is real and a tangible threat.

On May 22nd, 2010 the world lost a loyal, compassionate, inspiring, and unbelievable person. Kyle Craig, a former member of the Vanderbilt Community, took his life after battling mental illness. Kyle is just one of many who has battled a harsh mental illness.

“He loved life too much to be the suicidal type”

Dillon Rolnick, a junior at Vanderbilt and former member of Beta Theta Pi, considered Kyle one of his role models and childhood friends.

Dillon spoke about Kyle’s legacy and the impact he had on him.  

He said: “From what I knew of Kyle, he loved too much of life to be what I thought was the suicidal type. He loved music— listening to it, writing it, performing it for others. Being a little kid when he was in high school, I always got a good laugh out of the fact that hew as in a band with his glasses-wearing Chemistry teacher.

“He was perfect at the Peddie School, Recruitment Chair for his fraternity, and captain of his lacrosse team. So, when I learned of his suicide, a wrench was thrown into the system. My brain kept repeating – this doesn’t happen to people like Kyle.”

Dillon also said, “These things, though tragic, happen. God knows I’ve felt the weight of overwhelming pressure before. Unfortunately, it is no easy job to read a friend’s struggles, no matter how close you are to that person. Probably a large part of the problem is the stigma that exists against mentions illnesses because it prevents individuals in need from seeking the help they deserve.”

It’s for these reasons Dillon and his former fraternity brothers of Beta Theta Pi are teaming up with the Minding Your Own Mind Foundation to bring awareness of the overwhelming prevalence of mental illnesses in our community and give us all a chance to hang on to the memory of such an incredible soul like Kyle.

Bringing awareness

On Wednesday, April 20th at Centennial Park from 4-7 pm, Vanderbilt will celebrate the 6th annual Celebration of Life in honor of Kyle Craig, who took his life in 2010.

All proceeds will be donated to the Minding Your Mind Foundation, which provides young people with resources to handle mental health issues, and sends guest speakers to schools nationwide to open lines of communication.

The goal is not only to raise awareness for the Minding Your Mind Foundation but also raise awareness of the importance of mental health within our community.

“What I did not realize is how rewarding it is when you realize you can ask for help”

This year’s event chair is Liam Cronin, a senior at Vanderbilt University. He has put extensive time and energy to making this 6th annual Celebration of Life the best one yet.

After sitting down with Liam and discussing this year’s event, it’s clear how passionate he is about raising awareness for such a fantastic cause and also celebrating the life of one of his good friends.

He said: “What I did not realize until introduced to the legacy of Kyle Craig and the Celebration of Life, is how helpful and rewarding it is when you realize you can ask for help. I have had this event make a personal and significant illness.”

“Serious illnesses can not be solved by talking things out, but open lines of communication can be the turning point to receiving the correct help. This event, while the somber reminder of life’s fragility, will be a celebration of how amazing it is as well. If this cause creates the spark for just one person with a mental illness to get proper help and avoid what happened to our friend Kyle Craig, then we will have succeeded.”

He also talked about the purpose of Beta still having this event.

“When we were kicked off campus we didn’t want the cause of the event to die. We thought it was an excellent opportunity to let the cause grow and spread to a wider base while also making it sustainable. So we created a separate student org. that involves students across all houses, non-greeks, and athletes. Since we were just approved as an on-campus organization we will also hold the event back on campus next year.”

Where will the proceeds go?

All the proceeds from this event will go to the Minding Your Mind Foundation. This foundation and event will go towards creating programs for educating communities of adolescents and young adults about mental health issues.

Their goal is to reduce the stigma and destructive behaviors often associated with mental health concerns. Treatment is available, yet only 3 out of 10 individuals needing help seek help. Minding Your Mind Programs move away from crisis based response to prevention through education.

The silent auction

This year’s event will feature Nappy Roots and Satchmode. There will be live music, food and also a silent auction featuring some awesome prizes.

Some of these prizes include: a Syracuse lacrosse helmet signed by the entire team, and a Rick Pitino Louisville basketball and autographed 2013 National Championship Jersey; a signed men’s Vanderbilt team basketball, a signed baseball by Dansby Swanson, a signed bat by the 2014 Vanderbilt National Championship Baseball Team. 

Wrapping up with some concluding thoughts, Liam said:  “We want the event to be a real celebration of life. The number on the check to minding your mind is, of course, hugely important, but we also want to create an event that appropriately honors our friend Kyle.

“We want to give the alumni something to come back to. This event should be a 3 hours stretch in a beautiful setting to remind people of their great friends and how wonderful life can be. The most valuable contribution people can bring their full presence: physical, mental, emotional.”

 So come and celebrate the unbelievable life of Kyle Craig, enjoy great food, raise awareness for an incredible organization this upcoming Wednesday, April 20th from 4-7pm at Centennial Park.