Year 1                                                  1998-1999

The first Yellow Ribbon project hosted Dale and Darlene Emme from Colorado who, in a series of ten school and community presentations, shared the experience of losing their son to suicide.  In so doing, they helped to enhance community awareness and move suicide from a taboo subject to being accepted and openly discussed.  The program promoted awareness of alternatives and gave people a way to reach out by equipping them with Yellow Ribbon cards.  These cards were intended to speak for a person in distress when unable to find the words, and they also supplied the recipient of a card with a list of phone numbers of agencies to contact for help.  Thousands of Yellow Ribbon brochures were distributed during and following the presentation.  A concentrated effort was made to make local agencies and organizations aware of the meaning of the Yellow Ribbon symbol, and numerous 18” yellow ribbons were given to local helping agencies to display on their doors.  A massive award winning media campaign surrounded the six weeks surrounding the presentations and it was made known that any door displaying a yellow ribbon was a source of help for suicidal people.