Two weeks ago, Gunn High School’s wellness staff and Student Executive Council hosted a full week of activities to commemorate September as National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.

According to Wellness Commissioner Melody Song, planning for the event began at the start of the school year, and she chose to dedicate a week to activities for the cause.

“The idea that I had was to write letters to each other, and I knew that we couldn’t do that all in one day, so just the nature of the activity lent itself to being over multiple days rather than just being on one day,” Song said

Along with the letter writing, a banner with positive messages written by students was hung off the Wellness Center, and a screening of “You Are Not Alone” — a short film exploring mental health and how isolating it can be for individuals — was played during PRIME at the Wellness Center. The Wellness Center staff also hosted a Q&A event where students could ask mental-health-related questions to a panel of officials.

Song hopes the week’s activities show that Gunn High’s community is home to many caring individuals and encourages everyone to turn their good intentions into kind actions.

“What I want everyone to remember is that you have to remind other people of this [being there for each other], because walking up to your friend and saying ‘I’m here for you’ is awkward and not something that people do every day,” Song said. “We need to find ways to remind other people that we are there for them.”