Messages of love and kindness and the beats of local bands filled the Ithaca Commons on September 21 at the annual Chalk the Walk kickoff event hosted by the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County (SPCS).
Chalk the Walk, among many activities marking National Suicide Prevention Month in September, included a call to action for community members to “grab your chalk, find a sidewalk” and write messages throughout the week on the themes of Strength in Connection, Hope is Real, It’s OK to Ask for Help, Resilience, and Be the Light.
“Chalk the Walk focuses on spreading awareness of being knowledgeable of your own mental health, challenging the stigma around talking about suicide, and spreading positivity and kindness,” said Tiffany Bloss, SPCS executive director. “Make others smile and feel a little less alone.”
The Chalk the Walk kickoff in the Commons kept spirits high with music by the Dart Brothers, The Galactic Wednesday Band, and AFTERMARKET.
The Dart Brothers at Chalk the Walk
Local organizations prioritizing mental health provided information about their services and answered questions from the public. They included SPCS, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Greater Central New York, Tompkins County Whole Health, Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County, Tompkins County Office for the Aging, and The Sophie Fund.
Attention Ithaca Bakers! The 9th Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest is only a month away. What creations do you have in store for us this year? What flavors can we expect? Raspberry? Coconut? Banana? Chocolate-orange? The judges can’t wait to taste your cupcakes!
The contest will take place—RAIN or SHINE—on Saturday October 19 at the Bernie Milton Pavilion in the Ithaca Commons.
(You can register online, or download a Contest Registration Form and bring it to the contest venue with your cupcakes).
Contestants of all ages are welcome and will be eligible for dozens of prizes including a Grand Prize valued at $250 and a Youth Award valued at $100. Everyone is a winner! (Open to amateur bakers only.)
Contestants are asked to submit trays of six cupcakes, their recipes, and a brief story about their creations.
The story could be about a person, place, or thing that inspired the recipe and decoration. Or what techniques you favored. Or the joy you had baking them. Was there a challenge you had to overcome in making your cupcake dream a reality? Tell us!
Contest submissions are received from 10 a.m.–12 Noon on Saturday October 19 at the Bernie Milton Pavilion. The entries will then be judged by professionals from Ithaca’s bakeries and restaurants. Judging is based on cupcake taste, decoration, and originality. Winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony at 3 p.m.
Prizes include 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Awards, as well as the Youth Award for teens and pre-teens.
The contest is organized every year by The Sophie Fund, established in 2016 in memory of Cornell University art student Sophie Hack MacLeod to support mental health initiatives aiding young people.
Sophie’s passion for baking cupcakes inspired the launch of the first Ithaca Cupcake Baking 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.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a reminder for all of us to learn more about mental illness, suicide, and what we can do to help those who may be struggling.
One of the keys is to end the stigma that too often holds us back. Many people experience suicidal thoughts, but keep it to themselves. Others may notice somebody in an emotional crisis, but are timid to ask if they are thinking of harming themselves.
Nobody is fated to take their own lives. Suicide deaths are preventable, and many recent advances enable us to better prevent them.
These advances include better screening tools for identifying people at risk of suicide, improved care management protocols, upgraded crisis response measures, and suicide-specific therapy treatment. The Tompkins County Suicide Prevention Coalition is urging local healthcare and behavioral health providers to adopt the Zero Suicide Model, which prescribes a package of best practices.
Another advance is the introduction in 2022 of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24/7. You can also call 988 if you are concerned about a loved one, friend, or colleague. Veterans and/or their loved ones and friends can call 988 and then press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
Locally, 988 calls go to the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County (SPCS), one of 200 call centers across the country. When people call or text 988, or connect to chat online, they are connected to trained counselors that are part of the Lifeline network. Trained counselors listen, understand how the caller’s problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.
Besides connecting through 988, Ithaca-based counselors can be reached by dialing (607) 272-1616.
The Lifeline is funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and administered by Vibrant Emotional Health. SAMSHA provides a Partner Toolkit to help all of us publicize the 988 number and other suicide prevention services.
According to Lifeline, numerous studies have shown that 988 callers feel less suicidal, less depressed, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful after speaking with a Lifeline counselor.
“More people are understanding what it’s like to reach out for support and are becoming comfortable with that idea,” said Tiffany Bloss, SPCS executive director. “We are here, day or night. Call. Text. Website chat. Individuals can even email our helpline. We are here.”
The latest statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control serve as a reminder of America’s mental health crisis. Despite improvements in care, we have not turned the corner in reducing suicide deaths in the way prevention tools have produced significant declines in deaths related to cancer and heart disease.
After declining in 2019 and 2020, suicide deaths increased approximately 5 percent in the United States in 2021. Provisional estimates indicate that suicide deaths further increased by 1 percent in 2022, according to the CDC. One encouraging indicator is that suicide deaths among people aged 10-14 declined by 13 percent and among people aged 15-24 by 9 percent.
Overall, suicide rates have risen more than 30 percent in the past two decades.
Take a moment to review the warning signs for suicide, as provided by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Be sure to get help for yourself or others if you see the signs. You may save a life.
According to AFSP, something to look out for when concerned that a person may be suicidal is a change in behavior or the presence of entirely new behaviors. This is of sharpest concern if the new or changed behavior is related to a painful event, loss, or change. Most people who take their lives exhibit one or more warning signs, either through what they say or what they do.
Warning sign: Talk
If a person talks about:
Killing themselves
Feeling hopeless
Having no reason to live
Being a burden to others
Feeling trapped
Unbearable pain
Warning sign: Behavior
Behaviors that may signal risk, especially if related to a painful event, loss or change:
Increased use of alcohol or drugs
Looking for a way to end their lives, such as searching online for methods
Withdrawing from activities
Isolating from family and friends
Sleeping too much or too little
Visiting or calling people to say goodbye
Giving away prized possessions
Aggression
Fatigue
Warning sign: Mood
People who are considering suicide often display one or more of the following moods:
Every year, to mark Sophie’s birthday on August 23 we launch our annual fundraising appeal. Please consider making a donation today to support The Sophie Fund’s work aiding the mental health of young people in the Ithaca and Tompkins County communities. 100% of donations go directly toward the grants we provide to mental health providers and community organizations for training and programming; and to our modest operating costs.
Thank you for being part of our collective mental health mission!
—Training in mental health and suicide prevention for Ithaca-area clinicians, social workers, and community members. This includes The Wellness Institute’s annual suicide prevention conference next March; and plans to provide targeted education in suicide prevention for primary care practices sometime this winter or next spring.
—Tompkins County’s “United in Kindness” community events in October for Bullying Prevention Month (one or more expert presentations on bullying TBD).
—Hosting our 9th Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest on October 19 to raise awareness about mental health challenges and supports.
A few highlights of The Sophie Fund’s work over the past 12 months:
Town Hall on Suicide Prevention. The Sophie Fund co-organized and provided a grant for “How Healthcare Helps Prevent Suicides,” a community Town Hall on the Zero Suicide Model for healthcare.
Suicide Prevention Training. We provided a grant to enable 82 local healthcare professionals—including the entire clinical staff at Cornell University’s Counseling and Psychological Services unit—to attend a two-day online training in youth suicide prevention featuring some of the nation’s leading experts hosted by The Wellness Institute.
Suicide Prevention in Primary Care. We collaborated with Cayuga Health and the Tompkins County Suicide Prevention Coalition to develop a future education program in suicide prevention for 40 primary care and specialty care practices.
New York State Suicide Prevention Center. We were appointed to serve on the Oversight Board for a $3.5 million Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant to implement the Zero Suicide model in Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) in New York State.
Tompkins County Bullying Prevention Task Force. In October 2023, the task force, which we serve as task force coordinator, organized its second annual United in Kindness series of community events and activities to raise awareness about bullying and domestic abuse and promote kindness and empathy; the task force also distributes to local school districts an annual guide to bullying prevention resources and activities.
Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest. We hosted the 8th annual contest in the Ithaca Commons. The contest brings together college and high school students, mental health providers, local musicians, business sponsors, and the general public to raise awareness about mental health.
Cupcake Button Campaign. The Sophie Fund’s 2023 “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaign with local college students collected $1,043.78 for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca.
Education and Resources. The Sophie Fund published online guides including Mental Health Support and Crisis Services; A Parents Guide to College Student Mental Health; and a sexual assault prevention flyer called Be Safe at College!
Compassion Corner: Nurturing the Nurturers. We provided a grant to the Human Services Coalition for a peer-support program benefiting direct human service providers.
“How I See Myself.” The Sophie Fund provided a grant to the Mental Health Association for an art exhibition featuring young artists exploring inner feelings of identity.
Story Walk. We provided a grant to the Family Reading Partnership for a community event providing free books to young readers.
Youth Mental Health Policy. New York Governor Kathy Hochul invited The Sophie Fund to participate in a virtual roundtable discussion about youth mental health and the effects of social media.
Agda Osborn Award. Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca presented The Sophie Fund with the 2024 Agda Osborn Award for community service.
James J. Byrnes Award for Excellence. Tompkins Community Bank honored The Sophie Fund with the James J. Byrnes Award for Excellence recognizing “all of the great volunteer work and dedication The Sophie Fund gives to our community.”
For more information on The Sophie Fund’s work, please visit:
Hundreds of community members turned out in Ithaca’s Stewart Park May 11 for the second annual Better Together for Mental Health, the free-of-charge fair featuring live music, dance, wellness workshops, information tables, carousel rides, face painting, story times, street food, ice cream, and cookies.
Mayor Robert Cantelmo presents the city’s proclamation to organizers Michelle Eells and Jadyn McCune
Mayor Robert Cantelmo kicked off the event with a proclamation declaring May 11 “Mental Health Provider Appreciation Day in the City of Ithaca.” The proclamation called the providers “champions of wellness, defenders of privacy, and advocates for hope and a brighter future.”
Cantelmo expressed his personal gratitude for mental health providers, sharing his own journey with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and depression.
“It is incredibly important work. I wouldn’t be who I am as a father or as a husband or as a public servant if I didn’t have the care network that I have. I am very proud today to present this proclamation,” he said.
The mayor stressed the need to continue breaking down stigma around mental health and removing barriers to access care.
Mayor Robert Cantelmo and organizer Sandy True
New York State Assemblymember Anna Kelles praised Cantelmo’s openness about his own mental health, and hailed Better Together’s celebration. She began her remarks by asking audience members to share a hug, citing research that four 20-second hugs a day increased oxytocin levels and improved quality of health.
New York State Senator Lea Webb presented another proclamation declaring May Mental Health Awareness Month in District 52.
“Together, let us embark on a journey of understanding, compassion, and advocacy to cultivate a community where every individual feels empowered to prioritize their mental well-being and seek the support they deserve,” she said.
Alan Rose and the Restless Elements
On May 8, the Tompkins County Legislature also proclaimed May as Mental Health Awareness Month in the county, and recognized “the vital role mental health workers play in providing mental health services, and the increased importance of this role amid a nationwide workforce shortage.”
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month.
At the fair, 45 mental health and wellness providers, nonprofit organizations, and companies staffed outreach tables with information on their services.
Throughout the day, music was provided by Alan Rose and the Restless Elements, Mandy Goldman, Penelope Voss, Joe Gibson and Dan Collins, Cantata Singers, Rose Alaimo and Stan Stewart.
GIAC Jumpers
Another highlight: free eats, provided by Babe’s Burger, Luna Inspired Street Food, Yxi’s Arepas & the Chef Gordito, Meg A Moo’s Ice Cream, Purity Ice Cream Co., and Via’s Cookies.
Better Together organizers, including more than 15 local organizations and dozens of artists, musicians, mental health practitioners, and volunteers, said that the vendors provided 750 free meals and 500 servings of ice cream as well as 1,000 free carousel rides for kids.
Cantata Singers
This year’s event was sponsored by Cayuga Health, CFCU Community Credit Union, Guthrie, True Insurance; partnered by Friends of Greg, The Sophie Fund, Northwestern Mutual, Sciarabba Walker & Co.; and supported by the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, Duthie Orthodontics, Health & Unity for Greg, Tompkins Community Bank, and McCutcheon, Patel, Livermore & Associates DDS. In-kind donations were provided by Wegmans, Gimme! Coffee and Ithaca Coffee Co.; along with personal donations from Carla and Steve Fontana, Gene Yarussi, and numerous others.
Stewart Park Carousel
Dan Collins & Joe Gibson
Free Hugs Ithaca and Be Kind Ithaca
Face painting at Better Together for Mental Health
Babe’s Burger
Yxi’s Arepas & the Chef Gordito
Luna Inspired Street Food
Via’s Cookies
Meg-A-Moo’s Ice Cream
Purity Ice Cream
Tompkins County Suicide Prevention Coalition
Health and Unity for Greg
Mental Health Association in Tompkins County
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Greater Central New York
Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County
National Alliance on Mental Illness—Finger Lakes
Family Reading Partnership
Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca
Tompkins County Whole Health
Chalk the Walk
Mental Health Support and Crisis Services—Tompkins County
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