The Ridge Road Alliance brings together three local high schools: Red Bank Catholic, Red Bank Regional, and Rumson-Fair Haven to raise awareness for mental health/wellness, suicide education and prevention. 

 

 

A death by suicide of a high school student in the Two River area in 2017, prompted 7 students from three local high schools, Red Bank Catholic (RBC), Red Bank Regional (RBR) and Rumson-Fair Haven (RFH) to make a change. They put their school rivalries aside and created the Ridge Road Run 5K for Suicide Prevention. The first race was held in May of 2018.

 

Today each high school has an ambassador program. Ridge Road Ambassadors are committed to ensuring suicide prevention education and mental health/wellness initiatives as well as raising general awareness of suicide and mental health in their schools and greater school communities.  The program is run through The Source Foundation. It’s yearly fundraiser is the Ridge Road Run 5K. The 2024 5K will be held on May 5th and will be hosted at Red Bank Regional High School.  https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/LittleSilver/RidgeRoadRun

Ambassadors are responsible for a variety of tasks that include but are not limited to promoting mental health awareness/wellness resources, marketing and creating content for the 5K event for all social media platforms and print materials, creating and selling promotional t-shirts, giving input and feedback on what is needed in their school, meeting with their school-based group as well as altogether as one RR Ambassador program.  

RBR Ambassadors have presented information to students in the school building, spoken to the public at sporting events (football, basketball, ice hockey), and promoted suicide education and prevention with balloon arches teal/purple (suicide awareness) during the school day and at back-to-school night. They also created an interactive bulletin board with positive post-it notes. Students could take a note if they needed it or wanted to pass it on to someone in need. Every staff member received 3-4 post-it notes to spread positivity in their classrooms. They also launched an anti-bullying campaign “be a buddy, not a bully” and relayed valuable information through social media. For more information or to make a donation, please visit ridgeroadalliance.org

To sponsor or register for the Ridge Road Run 5K visit: https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/LittleSilver/RidgeRoadRun