Recent high school graduate Madison Jewett carries Cameron Gallagher's legacy with her

RICHMOND, Va. — Madison Jewett says an early focus on mental health helped shape the role she would take on with Cameron K Gallgher Foundation in high school.

"I started just learning about mental health in my middle school days because I had a few events in my life when I actually started going to therapy for a while," Jewett said. "And that made me more aware of just how mental health impacts everyone. Through middle school, I got to learn more about how it impacts me, how it impacts others. And then once I got to high school, I was able to put it in action and join Speak Up Club and really advocate for that for other people as well.

The Trinity Episcopal graduate says the Foundation's SpeakUp clubs are able to reach students exactly where they are.

"Foundations like the CKG make it so it's not awkward to talk about it, or people aren't scared to talk about it," said Jewett. "And I think one of the biggest things when it comes to mental health is stigma. There's just an idea that if you go to therapy or if you have mental health problems, then you're different or there's something wrong with you. And I think that's the problem."

The 18-year-old Jewett says the clubs avoid jargon and cast as wise a net as possible.

"We focus on empathy and connection and positivity," she said. "So we do fun activities like chalk messages and we like to make uplifting posters that we post around the school. It's not just about like, 'oh, here's a list of terms, here's a list of like diagnoses.' It's more of 'Let us create awareness through empathy and through our connection with others.' Some of the best feedback I get is just putting a smile on people's faces. So I think for the club, we met every 2 weeks, and the best feedback for me was just seeing how people got out of their school life and just like hung out with other people and it made them happy.

As Jewett starts her college life at Princeton, she says she has a sense of who Cameron Gallagher was, that 12 years after Cameron's sudden death at age 16, her impact on the world continues even on those who were too young to know her.

"I feel like I know the love that she wanted to share in the world and the legacy that she wanted to leave behind," said Jewett. "And one of the things that CKG event always has is they have either little note cards or little banners with some of her favorite quotes. Through those, it helps me just feel the love that she wanted to share with the world and her happiness, too."

The SpeakUp 5k event is Saturday, Oct 3, at 9 a.m. at Byrd Park. You can sign up here: https://runsignup.com/Race/VA/Richmond/SpeakUp5kRichmond

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