Seneca Valley's Hope Squad Paints to Lift Up Classmates and Prevent Suicide
The Seneca Valley High School library was recently filled with hope, paintings and over 120 students in grades 7-12.
The occasion was a union of the Hope Squad and The Positive Painting Project, two groups with a common goal: promoting mental health awareness and preventing suicide.
Members of the Hope Squad, a national peer-to-peer organization that aims to reduce suicide through education, training and peer intervention, painted preprinted, uplifting messages of hope and encouragement. Their finished paintings will be displayed throughout the schools on Seneca Valley’s secondary campus.
Together, they took up the work of the Positive Painting Project.
The Positive Painting Project was founded by Todd and Alisa Whysong of O’Hara in memory of their daughter Katie Whysong, the youngest of their four children and a talented artist who battled depression and anxiety. Tragically, she lost her life to suicide at age 15 in March 2021.
“It used to be cancer that we didn’t talk about, but depression is the same way,” Mr. Whysong said. “Social media has really made it difficult for people battling depression and anxiety.”
In 2022, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people aged 10-14 and 25-34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When Katie was in eighth grade, she got an idea to paint positive messages of inspiration and share them with her peers.
“She loved to combine art and mental health,” her father said. “Her idea was to spread positivity on the walls of her school, especially the bathroom walls. She always said they were so bare.”
Katie reached out to her art teacher about the idea, and they got started around the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit. That time was particularly hard on Katie, Mr. Whysong said.
“We are carrying on what she started, just a little bit differently. We are trying to create an environment where people feel like they can reach out ... and let them know it’s OK not to be OK.”
Soon after Katie’s death, the Whysongs contacted Nanci Goldberg, her former art teacher at Dorseyville Middle School in the Fox Chapel School Area District. Goldberg immediately brought in fellow art teacher Mackenzie Seymour. And, together, the two came up with the idea and corresponding designs for canvases screen-printed with six uplifting messages: “No feeling is final,” “You matter,” “Never, ever give up,” “You are not alone,” “It’s OK not to be OK” and “Hold on to hope.”
The messages are preprinted on the canvases and, once the paintings are completed, they are returned to the school and displayed on the walls.
After a presentation by Mr. Whysong about The Positive Painting Project on Feb. 20, the students got to work painting.
Meet The Hope Squad
The painting project (paintpositive.org) is one of several Hope Squad initiatives at the Butler County school district, said Hope Squad advisor Katie Smolter.
Now in its third year, Hope Squad has roughly 80 members at the high school and another 40 at Ryan Gloyer Middle School. All are nominated by their peers as great listeners who are easy to talk to and naturally supportive of struggling students who need a friend.
Hope Squad members are trained and mentored to “check in” on fellow students. They do not provide counseling or therapy; they simply serve as a connection to the help that’s needed. The group has monthly educational meetings where they learn listening and coping strategies, not only for their peers, but for themselves as well.
“Students take on stress and the feelings of others,” Smolter said. “They also work on self-care — the ‘practice what you preach’ motto — and learn to focus on their own feelings in addition to helping others.
“We want the message to be ‘we’re here, we care.’ We are all different, but we have a lot more in common that we think. Just because your hard is not my hard doesn’t mean that it’s any less hard.”
Gavin Cress, 17, of Zelienople and Iliana James, 17, of Cranberry are both Hope Squad members. Cress has been a member since its inception.
“The first lesson that I received was one on self-care,” he said. “It’s kind of like what they say on the airplane: Put on your oxygen mask before helping others.”
Cress said Hope Squad was a natural fit for him as fellow students occasionally approached him to talk and share their feelings. Now, he said, he is more aware is approaching people first.
“It’s second nature to feel that we should reach out to others. This program taught me to be kind to everyone. I hope that I made someone’s day better.”
This is James’ second year in the Hope Squad, and she believes other students are more likely to approach her now. She said she doesn’t hesitate to approach others and check in with them to say, “Hey, how is your day? What’s going on? You seem a little off today.”
If Hope Squad members believe that a classmate is in danger of harming themselves or putting themselves in danger, they will report the incident so that the student can get help from a trained adviser.
James experienced one of those situations. When she was recently out with friends, one of them shared that she was receiving text messages from her boyfriend that were “concerning and unsettling.” James reported the boyfriend’s name to Sprigeo, an online reporting system that allows students to report anything from bullying to mental health issues.
School administrators and trained professionals monitor the system at all times and review every report. James is grateful that she had the training and access to Sprigeo so that the situation could be handled by a trained professional.
Cress agreed. “While we don’t always know what happens with the issues that we report, we have to trust that things will be taken care of by the professionals,” he said.
In addition to Seneca Valley, there are at least five other school districts in Western Pennsylvania that host Hope Squad programs, Smolter said.
She wishes all schools would implement the program.
“It’s so very easy to be isolated. We want to normalize communication about mental health. It’s OK to be stressed and overwhelmed, but we can support one another. And it needs to be a full community effort from all of us to help these students.”
A broad brush
The Positive Painting Project, which is 3 years old, has reached over 50 Western Pennsylvania schools in over 40 districts and neighboring states.
In addition to its painting positive messages, it also offers other initiatives designed to support mental health as well. And the Katie Whysong Scholarship for the Arts provides tuition for an art class for local students who may have access to art enrichment.
In 2023, a public art piece, “The Telephone of the Wind,” was installed in Millvale, inspired by the 2021 novel “The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World” by Laura Imai Messina (Harry N. Abrams, $15.05).
The red telephone in the backyard of The Maple Leaf at 115 Sedgwick St. is open to the public as a place for all of those hoping to reconnect with lost loved ones. It’s a place to tend to pain and heal wounds..
Mrs. Whysong, a teacher in the Seneca Valley School District, is proud of her husband for his efforts to honor their daughter.
“Todd took the ball and ran with it. After Katie died, I knew I had to do something, but I just couldn’t think of what. Then Todd reminded me of Katie’s love for art and the project that she had envisioned. And we never looked back.”
Since the Whysongs initiated The Positive Painting Project, he says that several people battling mental health issues have approached him to talk, which was their goal. As fulfilling as that is, he says there is more work to be done.
“Katie should be enjoying her freshman year of college,” he said. “Too many families are like ours. It’s important that we have environments where kids feel safe talking.”
Originally published at https://www.post-gazette.com/life/goodness/2025/03/05/katie-whysong-positive-painting-project-hope-squad-suicide-seneca-valley-high/stories/202503050003
Share
