‘It’s OK to not be OK’: Bracelets to promote mental health awareness among high school athletes

EmpowHER of the Palm Beaches, a nonprofit organization based in West Palm Beach, has teamed up with the Junior League of the Palm Beaches to create bracelets for high school athletes in Palm Beach County to promote mental health awareness.

The women-led organizations are leading the project to help athletes acknowledge their feelings and find a voice to speak up regarding their mental health. They plan to distribute 1,000 handmade bracelets to Palm Beach County high school athletes on March 30.

Geanine Wester, EmpowHER president and founder, the organization had several program mentors, mentees and board members contribute to the cause.

“We do an advocacy project each year and the girls that participate in our program can give back to the community,” she said.

Wester said the beads of the bracelet are color-coordinated and signifies a link to another person. The black beads are for strength and self-control. The purple beads represent imagination, creativity and free spirit. The green beads signal growth, harmony and freshness. The white beads represent new beginnings, clarity and understanding. The blue beads are for serenity, reliability, stability and inspiration. The red beads represent life, health, love and passion. The orange beads signal warmth, happiness, success and optimism. The yellow beads are for uplifting, happiness and cheerfulness.

“We have seen Olympic and professional athletes struggle with mental health,” Wester said. “We started researching the percentage of high school athletes who suffer as well. They are unable to compete at high performance because they are frustrated and mentally exhausted from overtraining. We wanted to send a message that it’s OK to not be OK and we have resources to help you get better.”

EmpowHER has completed several advocacy projects in previous years, including providing 2,500 socks to the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County. They led the charge for behavioral health specialists to provide services to students at all schools after the Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Parkland. They have previously provided comfort toys to the Center for Child Counseling in Palm Beach Gardens. They also have donated welcome kits with toiletries as part of the initiative, 100 youth in 100 Homes in 100 Days.

Alexandra Chase serves as the president of the Junior League of the Palm Beaches. According to her, the Junior League of the Palm Beaches and EmpowHER are similar with their missions and goals to bring change within communities through the development of women leaders. Chase said she was honored to join the efforts to team up with mentors and teenage girl mentees from EmpowHER for their 2022 advocacy project, which is focused on creating positive reminders about mental health for student athletes. They are in contact with athletic directors and expected to reach at least two schools in each region in the county.

EmpowHer is an organization of women with a mission to create change in their communities by connecting women and girls, finding strength of character and leadership and to influence and transform the political, business and power structure within communities.

The Junior League of the Palm Beaches organization consists of women who promote voluntarism and improve communities through action and leadership of trained volunteers. The organization is made up of 600 volunteers who dedicate over 2,000 hours every year to training its members while also supporting over 20 community nonprofit partners.