The Pleasant Valley High School art club has finished a project that encompasses the theme, “We All Have Stuff”. This theme was introduced by Mike Mickle, the President and CEO of Mickle Communications. This theme was created in order to address the issues we have with teen depression and suicide.
As our art club took on this project, they made sure that the murals depicted the overall message. Avery Lanning, the president of art club described the message, people will always be faced with difficulties, but that does not make them worthless. — Avery Lanning
The two murals turned into two different but relating scenes: a sunset in the city and an aurora borealis above a forest of trees. There scenes show the unique worth of everyone which is not affected by their faults.
Mickle’s plan for these murals were have schools first create these artistic descriptions of the theme, and then have them displayed in the halls of the schools for students to access. With these murals, all the students will have an opportunity to write down the difficulties they are facing in their personal life in an anonymous way. That way the people that are depressed can look at the murals and realize that their life still mean something.
Before coming up with this solution, Mickle was investigating what the real issue was, he realized, “It’s our responsibility as parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, teachers, coaches and friends to help [teenagers] understand that [suicide] is not the only way to end the pain.”
These murals not only help the people that are depressed, but also everyone else. This helps others realize there are people around them struggling and that they can help make them feel better.
The art club supervisor, Aimee Peters, expressed her enthusiasm to help in this cause, “It’s going to be so cool to see what people write on these murals!” Students should realize that there are people in their lives that struggle with the difficulties of depression and suicide, so that they have a chance to know that nobody is alone, in their situations.
