UNC\u2019s first-ever fight week with The Fight Against Suicide culminated in a boxing tournament Thursday that drew hundreds of audience members and raised $145,000 for suicide prevention in Chapel Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hundreds of cheering spectators crowded towards the ring in the sold-out arena in the Durham Convention Center. It was the culmination of months of hard work by dozens of students in partnership with The Fight Against Suicide, a subsidiary of the nonprofit Sam Asbury Foundation, which hosts fight weeks at colleges across the country for mental health awareness and fundraising.<\/p>\n
Wright Hilbert, student lead for UNC\u2019s chapter of The Fight Against Suicide, said people often question the combination of boxing and mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy answer is, it gets people in the same place at the same time, rallied around a common idea, and a lot of the time the people that come to these fights are the people that aren\u2019t necessarily as willing to speak up about their mental health,\u201d Hilbert said.<\/p>\n
The fight is a chance to connect these community members with each other and with mental health and educational resources, Lexie Goodyear, lead fundraising intern and lead ambassador program coordinator for the UNC chapter of The Fight Against Suicide, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a series of adrenaline-filled fights as his friends and family cheered him on, Noah Fleming, the UNC chapter of The Fight Against Suicide\u2019s community outreach leader, emerged as the winner for the night. Fleming described the excitement as a feeling he\u2019d never experienced before.<\/p>\n
The Fight Against Suicide\u2019s mission is personal for Fleming, who was a high school wrestler and lost a close family member to suicide. After hearing about The Fight Against Suicide, he immediately looked to get involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just seemed really kind of something that I couldn\u2019t ignore,\u201d Fleming said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UNC sophomore and The Fight Against Suicide fighter Owen Vogler similarly described his interest in The Fight Against Suicide as both his passion for the cause and longtime interest in fighting. He said that he had attended an event hosted by The Fight Against Suicide at N.C. State University last year and decided he would join if it ever came to UNC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, Hilbert and his brother had just transferred to Chapel Hill from the University of South Carolina, where they helped lead mental health initiatives, including the campus chapter of The Fight Against Suicide. The brothers were inspired to take action following a suicide in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and wanted to continue their work with The Fight Against Suicide at UNC.<\/p>\n
Hilbert said his initial interest form was met with support from 40 potential fighters, eventually forming a group of 18. While many lacked prior boxing experience, Hilbert said, they grew into confident athletes under a training program coordinated by The Fight Against Suicide, both in the gym and beyond.<\/p>\n
Fight week began with a series of public events. On Monday, over a hundred students filled the Great Hall to listen to guest speaker Ray Paul Jr., chair of the National Board of Directors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which is the largest private funder of suicide prevention research nationwide.<\/p>\n
Paul said suicide prevention, especially among youth, became his family\u2019s mission following two people who died by suicide in their personal lives \u2014 Paul\u2019s son, Buck, and Paul\u2019s friend, Harrison \u201cH\u201d Coble.<\/p>\n
\u201cI picture our son Buck, or H or anyone who\u2019s taken their life just walking around college campus,\u201d he said. \u201cLooking like everything in their world is just as normal as it can be, just as happy as they can be, just have no idea the things that are going on inside their heads.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul said talking to someone about suicide does not increase their likelihood of attempting it, and he emphasized the importance of reaching out if you are concerned about someone.<\/p>\n
To learn how, dozens of students attended a Question-Persuade-Refer training at the Delta Kappa Epsilon house the following afternoon. The training, which Hilbert described as CPR for suicide prevention, emphasized that suicide can be prevented by anyone intervening at the right time with the right resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fight Night featured related videos and talks between matches, including an address by guest speaker Admiral Brian Christine, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one point during his speech, an audience member shouted at him, drawing boos from students. In response, he yelled, \u201cMake America Great Again,\u201d which was met with cheers as he and the crowd began to chant \u201cUSA! USA! USA!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christine continued by underscoring the need for mental health awareness, especially among young men, who represent the highest percentage of suicide deaths in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can teach a young man that asking for help is not surrender, that strength does not mean suffering in silence, and that sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to make a call and ask for help,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Towards the end of his speech, Christine said, \u201cGod bless President Trump and my good friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,\u201d and was met with cheers from the crowd.<\/p>\n
Christine said afterwards in an interview with The Daily Tar Heel that this was his first time speaking at a The Fight Against Suicide event, and he hopes to continue. He said he did not see his address as political.<\/p>\n
\u201cMental health concerns are an apolitical thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, fight week was deeply meaningful for many, including UNC Student Body President Devin Duncan, who is also a student ambassador for The Fight Against Suicide \u2014 something he said was an easy decision to get involved with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have hundreds of students in our community, and they\u2019re all going through different things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Goodyear said the fight was one of the most impactful things she\u2019s been a part of, and that she looks forward to The Fight Against Suicide\u2019s continued promotion of mental health resources at UNC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want everyone to understand that the work we\u2019ve done in the last seven months has been only the foundation for the work that is to come,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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