After son's suicide, Bay Area man turned grief into action by connecting teens with vital resources
DANVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- After his son died by suicide, Elliot Kallen made it his mission to connect young people and their families to critical mental health resources. He launched A Brighter Day, a charity that teed up for its 7th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at Crow Canyon Country Club on Monday morning.
Money raised will go toward providing resources for teen mental health and teen suicide prevention. It's an effort close to Kallen's heart after his son Jake, a sophomore at the University of Montana, died by suicide.
If you or your child needs help right away, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), call 911, or take your child to the nearest crisis center or emergency department.
"In his note to us, he wrote, 'Mom and Dad, I've been thinking about this for a long time. I never would've told you how I felt. I never would've asked for your help... and I never would've taken your help,'" Kallen recalled. "So we knew, on the plane ride home, with his body under the plane on Southwest Air, we had to make a difference. We had to do something."
Kallen is the founder and president of A Brighter Day Charity, turning his hurt into help and his pain into promise.
"When we started the charity seven years ago, we helped in the first four years, about 2,000 people with our resources," he described. Mostly teens, according to Kallen.
Now, he said the charity is helping 5,000 to 10,000 families a month.
VIDEO: Bay Area mom opens up about losing LGBTQ+ child to suicide in hopes of helping other families
No doubt, demand has only grown. The U.S. Surgeon General recently called for more research to be done to determine the extent of mental health impacts on young people who use social media.
Kallen said such platforms leave teens susceptible to social pressure and opinions from peers.
"It's horrible what's going on - much of it is caused by social media," he said. "By the TikToks and the Facebooks and the phones of the world. As much as you would like to be able to get a book report done in five minutes from your telephone, there's far more negative than there is positive on this."
However, he's hoping events like the charity's signature golf tournament will drive awareness and action. It's an effort he understands carries great weight, especially with how many people are impacted.
SUICIDE PREVENTION: Local resources for those in crisis
"It's your second cousin, it's your grandfather, it's your father, it's your brother," Kallen described. "Hopefully not your child. But everybody has some type of depression or suicide experience now with their family. That didn't exist, certainly when I grew up."
He continued, "If it did exist, nobody knew about it. But now we know about it and at least we're talking about it."
To be connected to A Brighter Day Charity, click here.
Additional fundraising events are scheduled, including a Car Show at Broadway Plaza for Father's Day Weekend.
If you or your child needs help right away, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), call 911, or take your child to the nearest crisis center or emergency department.
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