Morgan’s Message
Former Kettle Run High School students Jordan White and Lily Von Herbulis are “ambassadors” for Morgan’s Message, an area nonprofit.
You just never know what a classmate might be going through.
It’s a lesson Jordan White and Lily Von Herbulis came to know well during their past four years at Kettle Run High School in Fauquier County.
Since they were freshmen, they’ve served as “ambassadors” for Morgan’s Message, a Fauquier-based nonprofit dedicated to reducing the stigma around mental health, particularly with student athletes.
Morgan Rodgers
Morgan’s Message namesake Morgan Rodgers, right, played lacrosse at Duke before dying by suicide.
It was founded in 2020 to honor Morgan Rodgers, a Kettle Run alumna who went on to play lacrosse at Duke University. But after suffering a serious knee injury, Rodgers went into a debilitating depression, one she managed to keep hidden from her family and friends. In July 2019, she died by suicide.
No one saw it coming.
That includes White, who as a seventh grade lacrosse player had been coached by Rodgers. “You never would have known she was going through anything at all,” White remembered. “She was always happy, she always had a smile on her face.”
As part of the first group of Kettle Run ambassadors for Morgan’s Message – which now has chapters on more than 1,800 high school and college campuses – White and Von Herbulis have seen firsthand how more willing young people are to talk about their mental health concerns.
“It’s definitely a much more open conversation,” said Von Herbulis, whose role included engaging classmates on the subject. “At first, I was worried that I’d give a presentation on anxiety and people would just be sitting there looking at me. But people were super open about sharing their stories.”
Athletes would talk about performance anxiety or how hard it could be mentally to recover from an injury. “I’ve seen a lot of people go through injuries and have something they loved taken away from them,” said White.
Athletes and non-athletes alike would open up about the pressure of keeping their grades up. “I saw people at Kettle Run who I never would have imagined were struggling,” said Von Herbulis. “These were people who outwardly looked so confident and were always so put together when it came to academics. But they would come to me and tell me they were struggling with stress over grades.”
White and Von Herbulis didn’t rely solely on monthly meetings to spread the word about mental health awareness and advocacy. They arranged sporting events, before which they shared Morgan Rodgers’ story. This past school year, they organized a “Wellness Week” that included a visit from therapy dogs and ended with a sale of Morgan’s Message T-shirts and a yoga class with a mindfulness therapist.
But no matter the approach, the message was always the same: Don’t be afraid to reach out if you need help.
“I always tried to start with, ‘It’s okay to feel that way. I understand whereyou’re at,’” said Von Herbulis. “And I tell them, ‘Find a support system that can help you. Just talk to someone.’”
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Gen Stressed
A series on the mental health struggles of today’s generation of teenagers, the urgent need for more support in schools and how families can get help.
