Cranky Cares: Suicide Prevention Wrap

About a year ago a wonderful lady approached us about a project involving wrapping her truck in graphics advertising the National Suicide Prevention Hot line. She had been personally touched by this cause when her brother committed suicide a few years ago. Knowing how many people this wrap could potentially save (people could anonymously call in on the road), Cranky teamed up with MacTac, a material manufacturer to donate the material, installation, and design of this wrap to Dani as a dedication to her brother and the cause. The incredible design was created by one of the Cranky designers, Thien Lu - thank you Thien! Read the letter below Dani wrote to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline outlining her story. We just completed the project on May 15, 2008. Thank you Dani for giving us this opportunity to help you and the many others who need this service.

Hello,

My name is Dani, and I am writing to request your involvement with a community-service project I am working on. Please excuse me for being so forward, but I would like to just go ahead and jump right into it, so as to not waste your time.

My brother, Jesse, killed himself, two years ago. I gave myself permission to pretty much do nothing for the past two years, in order to grieve. I have done that, and it is now time for me to involve myself with something productive and positive. During the past two years, I have been thinking about what I could possibly do for others in the hopes of preventing other family members from the experience I have had to endure and, better yet, could I possibly keep even one other person from committing suicide.

According to national statistics, someone commits suicide every 8 seconds, yet suicide is the most taboo subject of all the mental health issues which plague our society. I don’t believe suicide should be a taboo subject, so in order to encourage people to talk about suicide and, possibly save lives, here’s what I’ve come up with to address that belief - “wrap” my truck with information about suicide and, most importantly, put the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline crisis hotline number on my truck so that anyone who sees my truck, at any time, can have instant access to help. Between my job as a freelance interpreter, along with my travels to campgrounds and hiking trails all over the United States, I drive approximately 200-300 miles, per day, so my truck is exposed to thousands of people, each day. I want to encourage people to talk about suicide, if they need to, so if I wrap my truck with the logo and crisis hotline number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, think of the potential I would have to be of service to anyone out there in the public who may be struggling, and just seeing the information on my truck could possibly be the exact information they need in order to get help. I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, so I certainly can’t help anyone on that level - but, I can drive a truck! Essentially, my truck would become a moving billboard exposing the crisis hotline number to thousands of people, each day, along with offering exposure to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

I have already secured the Companies needed in order to make this project happen. First, I have a commitment from Scott Cowart of the Company named “Cranky Creative”, which is based in Durham, North Carolina. This company does the actual wrapping of vehicles, and they have expressed an enthusiastic interest in participating in this project. Secondly, Cranky Creative has discussed this project with the international Company “Mactac” (the manufacturers of the actual wrapping material), and they have made an enthusiastic commitment to this project, as well.

As far as the information advertised on my truck getting exposure, that is no problem - as I stated, earlier, I drive several hundreds of miles, each day. I travel between Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina for my work, and I travel the entire Country while hiking and camping. I can not possibly begin to tell you what it would mean to me to be able to drive around every day thinking that maybe, just maybe, I may be helping to prevent a family from experiencing the tragedy of suicide. If you think this would be a meaningful project that you would like to become involved with, I would certainly welcome your collaboration.

Thank you, kindly, for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dani

P.S. - To contact me, you can reach me via my e-mail: info@thecaptioningalternative.com