Jay Walkers Challenge presented by the Endowment for Community Leadership

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