Ithaca

All About Margaret

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Hello, Instagram friends! Welcome Margaret McKinnis, our fall intern at The Sophie Fund, who will be posting on our Instagram account for the next few months as well as writing blog posts for the website. She is a junior at Ithaca College majoring in Writing and minoring in English and Honors. She is a nonfiction editor at Stillwater, a student literary magazine, and an assistant director of the New Voices Literary Festival. In her spare time, Margaret loves winding down with a good book, painting with watercolor, or challenging herself with a fun puzzle (preferably cat-themed). She enjoys exploring all Ithaca has to offer, whether finding a new trail or garden, or stumbling upon a new coffee shop or bookstore. Send her your ideas for images at thesophiefund2016@gmail.com.

Margaret. Instagram

Albany Honors The Sophie Fund with Mental Health Advocacy Award

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The New York State Office of Mental Health on Thursday presented The Sophie Fund with an Excellence in Suicide Prevention award for its mental health advocacy work in Tompkins County at the state’s 2018 Suicide Prevention Conference held in Albany.

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The Sophie Fund and its founders, Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack, received the state’s Journey of Healing Award for “exemplary advocacy by a Suicide Attempt or Suicide Loss Survivor.”

MacLeod and Hack established The Sophie Fund to support mental health initiatives aiding young people after the 2016 death by suicide of their 23-year-old daughter, Sophie Hack MacLeod, a Cornell University student.

“The Sophie Fund is a beautiful example of how a tragic loss can transform a community,” said New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Marie T. Sullivan.

“Scott and Susan took their painful loss and channeled it into a passion to save lives in Tompkins County. We thank Scott, Susan and everyone involved in The Sophie Fund for their hard work and commitment to suicide prevention.”

Said Lee-Ellen Marvin, executive director of Ithaca’s Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service (SPCS): “Scott and Susan have transformed their grief in just two years into a powerful force of influence for suicide prevention in Tompkins County.”

SPCS and Tompkins County Mental Health Department nominated The Sophie Fund for the award. State officials cited The Sophie Fund’s “tenacity” in securing the adoption of The Watershed Declaration in 2017, which called for intensified suicide prevention efforts in the county, and in advocating for the Zero Suicide Model to be adopted by local healthcare providers.

The Sophie Fund also has sponsored student mental health programming at Cornell University and Ithaca College; mental health first aid training; a series of bookstore readings by authors of books on mental health; and artists who address mental health and suicide themes. It is working on an initiative to support college students taking a health leave of absence. The Sophie Fund also sponsors the annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest to raise mental health awareness and raise monies for local mental health nonprofits.

MacLeod and Hack thanked the Office of Mental Health and the Tompkins County nominators for Thursday’s recognition.

“In the loss of our precious Sophie in 2016, we witnessed the profound depths of mental illness and the immense tragedy of suicide,” they said in a statement released by the Office of Mental Health. “In establishing The Sophie Fund in her memory, we resolved to do everything possible to support young people battling mental disorders. Suicide is preventable, and we also resolved to do everything we could so that we do not lose one more person, young or old, to suicide in Sophie’s adopted Ithaca–Tompkins County community.”

MacLeod and Hack also paid thanks to “the countless people who have made The Sophie Fund’s work a reality”—supporters and partners in Tompkins County, friends, family, and others in the greater Ithaca area and beyond, and the New York Suicide Prevention Office.

Sophie was born in Johannesburg and spent her childhood living in South Africa, then France, and eventually Egypt. But she adopted Ithaca as her hometown, spending five summers in the violin program of the Suzuki Institutes at Ithaca College and then enrolling at Cornell in 2010. At the time of her death, she was on a health leave of absence from Cornell and working in Ithaca’s vibrant culinary scene.

Photo caption: Sigrid Pechenik, associate director, New York State Suicide Prevention Office; Susan Hack, co-founder, The Sophie Fund; Jay Carruthers, director, New York State Suicide Prevention Office; and Garra Lloyd-Lester, director, New York State Suicide Prevention Community Initiatives

We’re Back! Ithaca’s 3rd Annual Cupcake Contest

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Love to bake? Get out the mixer, put on your oven mitts, and make a batch of your favorite cupcakes for the 3rd Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest in the Commons on Saturday October 13.

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Contestants of all ages are invited to enter this year’s competition, who will be eligible for dozens of prizes including a Grand Prize valued at $250. The contest is open to amateur bakers only.

Attention Teens and Pre-Teens: A $100 gift certificate redeemable at dozens of downtown Ithaca shops will be presented with this year’s Special Youth Award!

The contest is organized by The Sophie Fund, which was established in 2016 in memory of Cornell University art student Sophie Hack MacLeod to support mental health initiatives aiding young people.

The 3rd Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest is sponsored by the GreenStar Natural Foods Market, Alternatives Federal Credit Union, and La Tourelle Hotel, Bistro and Spa.

Sophie’s passion for baking cupcakes inspired the launch of the contest in 2016. At the time of her death by suicide at age 23, while on a medical leave of absence from Cornell, Sophie was active in Ithaca’s vibrant culinary scene. According to her family, she hoped to open her own bakery after completing her Cornell degree.

To enter the cupcake contest, contestants are asked to bring their submissions to the Bernie Milton Pavilion in the Ithaca Commons from 10–11:30 a.m. on Saturday October 13. The winners will be announced and prizes awarded at a ceremony in the Pavilion later the same day at 3 p.m.

In conjunction with the contest, The Sophie Fund is again organizing a “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaign, with monies donated this year to the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County.

Click here for all the information on contest procedures and rules, and to download a registration form.

It’s Cool to “Cool Down”

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Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca has provided our community with accessible mental health care and social services for the past 50 years. Recently, F&CS added an additional focus to its work: education. This year, it launched a children’s reading project, distributing books related to mental health free of charge for use by young readers and caregivers alike.

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One of the books is Cool Down and Work Through Anger, by Cheri J. Meiners. It provides a simple story about productively expressing emotions, and includes resources for educators and social workers to guide children through difficult situations. David Shapiro, F&CS president and CEO, says that Cool Down is an example of how to “make mental health approachable,” one of the goals of F&CS’s reading project.

Shapiro believes that mental health education is especially critical in the age of school violence. When children, especially young boys, experience hurt, they “often respond with anger, and anger leads to violence,” he explains. Stories like Cool Down, he says, provide a vocabulary for dealing with hurt and pain in new, constructive ways. “It is our responsibility, as a community, to keep our schools safe,” he adds.

Another offering in the reading project is I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness, about the practice of mindfulness, by Susan Verde. Every page, full of reassuring phrases and beautiful illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds, allows the reader to find connection with nature, and with themselves. Shapiro notes that parents in high stress situations might find value in the book themselves as they read I Am Peace to their children. Education initiatives like the children’s reading project, he adds, can create a more proactive, involved, and mental health-conscious community.

—By Sophie Jones

Sophie Jones, an intern at The Sophie Fund, is a junior at Cornell University majoring in psychology and minoring in visual studies. She skates on the Synchronized Skating Team and volunteers with the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity.

Join the Open House at Family and Children’s Service on Sunday, September 16 from 2–5 p.m. Clinical and direct service staff will introduce guests to therapy techniques and the values behind F&CS’s work. Festivities include a live performance by the Fall Creek Brass Band, catering by Gola Osteria, and a live raffle drawing for five fabulous Finger Lakes Experiences.

Click here to purchase tickets—$25 per person, children 12 and under admitted without charge.

Introducing the ACTion Faction!

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ACTion is a group of like-minded teens from all over Tompkins County that will work together to fight sexual and relationship violence. They will collaborate to educate and enlighten their peers and the rest of the community so that they can help to keep themselves and others safe.

ACTion announcement

The ultimate goal of ACTion is to make the world a safer and more aware place. If teens are aware of the signs of relationship violence, then they will be able to recognize those signs to help themselves and hopefully others. ACTion will strive to make the teenage community in Tompkins County increasingly conscious about sexual and relationship violence and what they can do to help combat it.

Additionally, ACTion will have ambassadors to help spread the word all across Tompkins County: in their schools, on sports teams, in clubs they are involved in, etc. Members of ACTion will help with events that the Advocacy Center plans, and have the opportunity to plan, or collaborate to plan, events of their own. They will be offered the chance to work with others on projects they come up with on their own, as well as work independently on projects.

ACTion will bring teens together to work toward what they believe in. It will not only be an opportunity to inspire change in the community, but a chance to meet like-minded people and find your safe place. ACTion will give teens a place to be heard, and an opportunity to have their voices amplified. ACTion will make Tompkins County a safer, more aware place.

Our first meeting is taking place on Wednesday, September 12 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Just Be Cause Center (1013 West State Street, Ithaca). To learn more and sign up, fill out this form.

—By Dani Copeland

Dani Copeland is a sophomore at Ithaca High School. She volunteered at the Advocacy Center during the summer of 2018 to help turn the vision of ACTion into a reality. 

This article is republished from The Advocacy Center by kind permission.