Garden City, N.Y. - On Wednesday, April 12, Northeast-10 Conference women's lacrosse student-athletes will be taking a shot at mental health by participating in a conference-wide Morgan's Message Day, in support of the organization which advocates for the mental health of student-athletes.
All NE10 women's lacrosse programs competing that day will participate in the event. The full schedule is below:
Southern New Hampshire at American International – 4:00 P.M.
Assumption at Franklin Pierce – 4:00 P.M.
Le Moyne at Saint Anselm – 4:00 P.M.
Saint Rose at Adelphi – 5:00 P.M.
Saint Michael's at Bentley – 7:00 P.M.
Additionally, Adelphi's men's lacrosse team, which plays immediately following the women's game, will also participate.
Morgan's Message was created by the family and former teammates of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke University lacrosse student-athlete who died tragically in July 2019 after battling mental health struggles, with the mission of eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health, normalizing conversations about mental health, and to ensure that mental health is treated equally to physical health for all student-athletes.
"Morgan's Message is important because mental health affects all athletes no matter the level of talent," said Adelphi senior Meghan Pickel. "It has allowed for me and the student-athlete community to take a step back from being competitive and become aware of our mental battles, giving us an opportunity to speak up and find commonality among each other."
The goal of the day is to facilitate and encourage conversations around mental health, in hopes of breaking the stigmas surrounding those conversations and ultimately saving lives. According to a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, while nine in 10 Americans say they would do something if they were worried about someone's mental health, only a third say they are willing to talk about it with others.
Increasing the latter number is the challenge in which student-athletes hope to succeed.
For more information about Morgan's Message, visit their website at www.morgansmessage.org.
