Lehigh Valley teen/suicide survivor raises $3K for mental health awareness

A Northampton teen has raised just over $3,000 for mental health awareness in the Lehigh Valley.

Rayne Solt, 14, hosted a “Miles for Mental Health” 5K run/walk last month benefitting the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an organization working to increase mental health advocacy, education, support and public awareness.

While over $2,000 went to the alliance, Solt gave $500 to Valley Youth House’s Camp Fowler, a therapeutic, challenge-based adventure camp located in Orefield, and $500 to Project Silk, an LGBTQ inclusive drop-in program that offers free health services.

The event was held Sept. 12 at the Ironton Rail Trail in Coplay.

The event was part of Rayne’s National Honor Society leadership project at 21st Century Cyber Charter School, but it’s also about breaking down stigmas around mental health, Rayne said during an interview before the event.

Rayne attempted suicide last year, but survived, and they gave a speech at the start of the event that detailed their own struggle with mental health and depression.

“There are people who are dying like [every] 40 seconds, every day, because they feel that they are alone, and they feel like they can’t talk about their mental health,” they said. “And I just hope that, with my run, I’ll hopefully break down [some of that] stigma, even if it’s just a little — even if it’s just in my community — just so that we don’t have that happen so often.”

More than 700,000 people die by suicide every year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, which breaks down to one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. And, in 2019, Pennsylvania ranked fourth in the nation for suicide, with 1,896 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And suicide impacts youth, especially LGBTQ youth, too.

For instance, 16.2% of students across the commonwealth had seriously considered attempting suicide, according to the 2019 Pennsylvania Youth Survey. And, 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth, according to The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

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Morning Call reporter Molly Bilinski can be reached at mbilinski@mcall.com.

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