Wonderful news this week from the IRS. The good news is that the Sadie Walker Foundation has been formally classified as a tax-exempt 501c(3) private foundation. Thank you for everyone who has helped us get this far.

In terms of our activities, there’s been quite a few. We recently presented on Teens and Social Media at the Look Ahead Conference for parents of children with disabilities in Arlington, TX. Earlier this year we presented on the same topic for SAGE, a PTA group based in Richardson, TX. Last month we participated in a weeklong television series produced by CW33 which exposes the epidemic of teen suicide in North Texas. In April we also served as panelists for a conference hosted by Crime Victims Council of Dallas County. It is a blessing to be able to share our story, and share what we have learned with so many people.

More importantly that all of this however is the outreach we are doing with kids in Dallas. Earlier this year we partnered with NAMI-Dallas. NAMI provided a wonderful young speaker and we worked with Richardson High School to round up about 60 youth leaders. We stuffed them full of pizza, had some laughs, and then presented them with a powerful message of hope.

Of this group a smaller subset identified themselves as being particularly committed to the issues of mental health, self harm, and suicide prevention. We communicate and meet regularly. They’ve come up with a name: “Stand For Sadie”. Next these kids designed a t-shirt with a positive message. We’re currently working on a whiteboard video to be narrated in each of the different languages they speak — English, Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, Urdo and more! Its wonderful. Some of these kids knew Sadie, some may have friends who battle self-destructive behavior, and some are just good kids who want to help.

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