ALAMOSA — Kids at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley [BGCSLV] in Alamosa and students at Alamosa High School have been planting lilies lately, thanks to a collaboration with the local Woman’s Citizenship Club and their partnership with the Yellow Tulips Project. But there’s a whole lot more being planted than lilies.

The kids are also planting hope.

The Yellow Tulips Project is a youth-driven initiative focused on raising awareness and smashing the stigma surrounding mental illness. As described on the Yellow Tulips website, founder Julia Hansen was in middle school and, until her sophomore year in high school, felt alone in dealing with her own depression. The deafening silence and stigma that surrounds the topic kept her from reaching out for help. It took the tragedy of losing her two best friends to suicide when she was a 15-year-old high school sophomore for her to find her voice and to speak out.

Hansen and her mom, Suzanne Fox, had an idea – to create a space for determined youth to eradicate stigma, build community, and inspire productive conversations about how to combat the rising rates of suicide.

The Yellow Tulip Project was born from this vision. “But it doesn’t end until we’ve smashed the stigma and made every person struggling aware that there is help and hope,” Hansen says.

The idea of de-stigmatizing mental health has already been a focus at Alamosa High School for the last few years, thanks to the efforts of Brock Benton. Benton, who graduated last year, founded and got funding for a group called “Minds in Shape”. In 2024, Benton told the Valley Courier, “Mind in Shape is dedicated to destigmatizing mental health issues and empowering students through accessible resources.”

Woman’s Citizenship Club members Charlotte Ledonne, Salai Taylor, and Sherry Perdue saw a perfect fit with the Yellow Tulips Project and AHS’ Minds in Shape, ultimately collaborating with students and sponsors of Minds in Shape to plant lilies on school grounds.

“Woman’s Citizenship Club is part of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, which is an international organization,” says Charlotte Ledonne. “Yellow Tulips is, nationwide, one of their projects. I approached Tom Hays [AHS] and Cassidy Meehan [SLVBGC]. They were on board and have been working with their kids on what is mental health and how can you improve your mental health.”

When asked why the Woman’s Citizenship Club picked this project, Ledonne says, “Children and adults keep their feelings to themselves, so they become depressed and anxious. This is just one way we can share hope when the lilies come up every year. It’s a different way to approach the topic. It’s active and gets people engaged.”

“While tulips are the symbol of the Yellow Tulip Project,” Mollie Heredia told the Valley Courier. Heredia, along with Tom Hays, is a sponsor of Minds in Shape. “Lilies were chosen instead due to their better suitability to the San Luis Valley’s climate. These flowers will bloom in the fall, serving as a vibrant reminder to the community of the importance of mental health and suicide prevention.”

Two weeks ago, high school students alongside LeDonne, Taylor, Perdue and others planted their lilies. 

On Friday, kids at the BGCSLV planted theirs.

Cassidy Meehan, BGCSLV Director of Social-Emotional Learning, said, “We’ve run three programs, every Friday for three weeks. The first was positive self-talk and affirmations. What does it mean to have positive self-talk.  ‘I am strong. I am kind. I am confident.’ They each made decorated cards with their own affirmations and then made some they gave to friends.

“Last week,” she continues, “we talked about mental health. Everyone has mental health. It’s not a bad thing to struggle with mental health, so how do we take care of our mental health? Getting enough sleep, eating well, not using your phone too much.”

When asked about teaching those concepts to kids who are eight to ten years old, Meehan says, “They know what it means to be down or depressed. They bring up terms like bi-polar – we don’t talk about that so much as they know people who are struggling with that. So, how do we teach them to care for their own mental health, even if they can’t care for others? Not everybody is familiar, some identify more with the topic. But we focus more on what to do to feel better. We made stress balls and also made posters that say things like ‘Just breathe, talk to a friend’, things like that. We’re going to print them off and put them up at all the sites.”

Meehan adds, “Hope is also a big part. We talk about life could be better but there’s always hope. That’s what the flowers are about, reminding kids there is always hope. Most of the kids have been here for the whole 3 weeks, not just for the flowers, so they have a greater understanding of what planting the lilies means.”

“I really like Miss Cassidy’s programs,” says Ayden, one of the kids planting lilies. “I like the different ways, like if you’re in a bad mood. I really liked the posters. And I made cards for my friends.”

“The project doesn’t just highlight the importance of mental health awareness,” says Heredia. “It fosters meaningful intergenerational connection as members of the Woman’s Citizenship Club work alongside local youth to create visible, lasting impact. [At AHS] the team is dedicated to providing mental health resources and promoting a stigma-free culture within the school. Together, with the support of community partners like the Woman’s Citizenship Club, they are planting seeds of hope—both literally and figuratively—for a healthier future.”