Jay Walkers Challenge

Jay Walkers Challenge presented by the Endowment for Community Leadership
Endowment For Community Leadership

About Jay Walkers Challenge

The Jay Walkers Challenge is a virtual event to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention.

​Each September, teams of Jay Walkers from around the globe take on The Challenge to collectively complete 800,000 steps between September 1st and 30th -- that's one step in honor of every life lost worldwide each year to suicide

Take your daily steps wherever you are! Past participants have walked in their neighborhoods, at the gym, on a walking pad while working, around the house doing chores, on trails, on the beach, on the job, at the airport...there's no limit to how the daily challenge is completed!

In addition to walking, teams commit to raising $1200 to support suicide prevention measures that work.

Jay Walkers will also help spread the message that talking openly about suicide is one of the most powerful ways to prevent it.


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Get Started in Five Easy Steps


STEP 1: Register as an individual for Jay Walkers today!
  1. Click REGISTER in the upper right hand corner of this page.


STEP 2: Start or Join a Team
  1. Once you've completed your individual registration and personalized your fundraising page, head back to the main Jay Walkers page and select START OR JOIN A TEAM in the white box of in the right side of the banner at the top of the page.

STEP 3: Encourage Others to Register as Team Leaders
  1. Help us expand our Jay Walkers community by inviting friends to participate too! 
  2. Share the Jay Walkers Challenge page link where they can register. 
  3. Check out THIS RESOURCE for more help!

STEP 4: Review the Resources and Activities
  1. Team Leaders, see Team Leader Toolkit Preview under Get Involved. The full Team Leader Toolkit can be downloaded HERE.
  2. Check out the Participant Toolkit Preview for more information about Walking, Talking, Fundraising , Recruiting, and other Challenge Activities. The full Participant Toolkit can be downloaded HERE.


STEP 5: Work with your team to Set Goals for Fundraising and Challenge Activities
  1. Complete the Challenge Activities that can be done now.
  2. Consult the Participant Toolkit for a complete orientation to the Jay Walkers Challenge.
  3. Make a plan to complete those that are available in September.

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Jay Walkers Priorities

Jay Walkers will work together with their team to do all of the following:


  1. Complete 800,000 steps between September 1st and September 30th. That may sound like a lot, but, for a team of 12 people, that's 2222 steps a day. 2222 steps is equivalent to one mile and most people can walk a mile in 30 minutes or less.
  2. Raise funds for suicide prevention efforts. Each participant is encouraged to raise at least $125 -- that breaks down to a $25 registration donation plus $100 of peer-to-peer fundraising. Peer-to-peer fundraising (often referred to as P2P) just means you're asking your friends, family, co-workers or others to donate to the cause with you. We'll provide you with fundraising templates for emails, scripts for phone calls or personal asks, and other tricks for achieving this goal.
  3. Recruit new Jay Walkers. The more Jay Walkers we have, the sooner we will achieve our vision of ending suicide.
  4. Start Conversations about suicide to create awareness about suicide prevention and inspire others to do the same. One of the best ways to prevent suicide is to speak more openly about it. We'll provide you guidance on how to get these conversations going. This may be the hardest Challenge Activity we ask you to do, but it is by far one of the most important!

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Registration

Participation in the Jay Walkers Challenge is free, as we believe everyone should have the opportunity to join this movement, regardless of their current financial situation. 

However, if you are able, we kindly invite you to donate $25 per person (or $50 per household) at registration to support Jay Walkers general operations. Your contribution will ensure we can grow Jay Walkers into a successful organization that will make a difference!

Entry donations will be used for Jay Walkers general operating expenses. 


Quick Note about Registering your Family

Can I register my entire family at once? Or do I have to initiate multiple registrations?  

You can register your entire family at once. However, you will need a unique email address for each participant you register.

If you have young children, consider making a free gmail account for them before beginning the registration process. A unique email address will allow your children to participate fully in all challenge activities like logging steps.


For more information about achieving the max donation of $50 per household, please see the sign-up form on the registration page.


Can I register my entire team at once?

We discourage multi-person registration for anyone who is not a family. The ideal arrangement is that each team member initiates and completes their own sign up.

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Fundraising

Teams are challenged to raise $1200 in peer-to-peer (p2p) fundraising to support evidence-based suicide prevention initiatives. 

For teams of 12, that's $100 per team member. 

To help you reach this goal, we offer support and inspiration in our step-by-step Jay Walkers participant toolkit.

Every dollar raised through team fundraising will be directed toward evidence-based suicide prevention programs and initiatives, which will be chosen with the guidance of our Jay Walkers Advisory Committee. 

In addition, Jay Walkers will help spread the message that talking openly about suicide is one of the most powerful ways to prevent it.


Date

Starts at:  August 31, 2025 11:00 PM
Ends at:  September 29, 2025 11:00 PM

Location

,

Contact

Erin Gallagher
jaywalkerschallenge@gmail.com

Why Participate?

When you join the Jay Walkers Challenge you join forces with a global community of individuals committed to identifying, supporting, and promoting suicide prevention measures that work. 

Your active participation will contribute to our overall impact. The larger our community, the greater our success will be to capture attention for the cause of suicide prevention, influence mindsets about the cause, and contribute to innovations in treatment and prevention.

Who Can Participate?

Jay Walkers is a virtual event so anyone anywhere can participate!

The Jay Walkers community must involve every population impacted by suicide. Therefore, we seek out the participation and perspectives of individuals of all ages, races, nationalities, ethnicities, veteran status, ability levels, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic classes, and personal experiences.

About Jay

Jay Walkers gets its name from Jay Gallagher, who lost his life to suicide in 2016 at the age of 18. 

Jay was a well-rounded young man with a variety of interests. In high school, Jay was a member of the improv comedy group and the Engineering Club. He was also a four year member of the Golf team and the Hockey Club. One of his friends remarked, "Jay managed to be a jock and a drama kid and a nerd all at once and he was [darn] good at it!"

Jay wanted to study Engineering in college and was accepted at all his top schools. We know, however, that Jay had his heart set on being a Hokie, so we’re certain he would have joined the VT Class of 2020 in the fall of 2016.

Jay had so much life to live and so much love to give, yet the stigma of suicide prevented him from asking for the help he knew he needed. 

Let's join together as Jay Walkers in memory of Jay and others like him and take steps to end suicide.


Thank you for your support!