Happy Spring from the Hilinski’s
Hello From Our Hilinski's Hope Team!
It took us some time to write this newsletter, sometimes we just get stuck. It seems as if the end and beginning of every year since Tyler passed starts and ends the same: we try to avoid the holidays but we are getting better at finding the joy in past memories and those we create each season. Then January 16 hits and it takes us a few weeks to start moving again.
And move we did...
…all because of your support and belief in the mission of Hilinski's Hope! The past few months we traveled to Big Sky, Montana for the Sports Psychologist Conference, where we presented Hilinski's Hope Game Plan. The responses have all been positive and we are grateful for the schools joining us early in this effort.
From Montana we flew to Oklahoma to speak with student-athletes, coaches, staff and Athletic Directors at the University of Tulsa. Then a quick stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for Kym's Mental Health Marathon.
Capitol Hill
Two days later we were on Capitol Hill meeting with legislators to discuss how they can help support the mental health of our student-athletes. We are grateful to Sean and Michelle for introducing us to Chadwick Carlough - Chief of Staff to Jerry Carl. Chad was so amazing, setting up breakfast with other “chiefs” and so many meetings with both U.S. Congressional Representatives and U.S. Senators - it was such a positive 3 days! Much more to come as we ask for support for all our student-athletes mental health needs.
We left Washington, DC for Georgia and Berry College where we held meetings over two days with coaches, their staff, athletic trainers, AD's, SAAC, and student-athletes. Our Tyler Talks are always very emotional but we are so very grateful to share Tyler's story and the journey of H3H. Our hope: that our words will change and save lives.
We received an email when we got home from an athlete on the lacrosse team, his words touched our hearts:
"I've never seen such a large group of people focused on one thing. Especially people our age, focusing and being locked in to one thing can be difficult. But no one was on their phone or looking around, everyone was hanging onto every word. All I know throughout the entire hour was I wanted to run up and give you both the biggest hug ever."
It's these emails and messages that keep us going.
Then tragedy strikes and we are so lost. Losing Katie Myers to suicide, a beautiful woman, a Stanford soccer player, with so much life ahead of her really shook us. We so wish we could bring Katie, Tyler, and all those we've lost to mental illness back. Since we sadly can't do that, we will keep our promise to our student-athletes: raise awareness, END the stigma, and fund programs that support the mental health of our athletes.
We feel fortunate to include high schools in the work we do and are motivated to help students of all ages. On April 1st, Tyler's Aunt Christine shared Tyler's story and the work we do at Hilinski's Hope with the students at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, CA - which includes more than 400 students participating in sports. We thank Blake Bryson (senior student-athlete) and Mr. Reynolds (principal) for bringing us to campus and we look forward to continuing to work with them for years to come.
Covid interrupted our travel plans the first part of the year and we had to reschedule our visits to Northern Arizona University and Lehigh University to the end of April. We'll be at NAU on April 20 and in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for our Tyler Talk with Lehigh on April 26. We're looking forward to meeting with the wonderful folks at these universities!
With love and hope,
Kym and Mark Hilinski
