Daytona 15-year-old racer makes donation to Halifax Health to stop suicide
News-JournalOct 08, 2019
For 15-year-old
But for the
"It's just something that affects a lot of people, especially in high school," Dye said. "That's one of the main times where this (suicide) really impacts people."
Since 2009, 27 children have died by suicide in Volusia and Flagler counties, according to the
In 2018 more than 500 people attempted suicide in Volusia and Flagler counties, and 152 of the attempts were fatal. That amounted to a suicide death every 2.5 days, according to data The News-Journal collected as part of an effort to analyze every incident in which a person was shot in Volusia and Flagler counties that year.
[NEWS-JOURNAL INVESTIGATION: The Truth About Shootings]
And Dye, along with his father
"Daniel's not only an outstanding race driver, but he wants to make a difference with the students and let them know it's OK to seek help," said
Earlier this year,
The Dyes' donation will help fund the efforts
[READ MORE:
As part of collaborative Race to Stop Suicide campaign with
"I had a family member of one of the teams come up to me, give me a big hug, and started to cry a little bit about the deal we were doing because her son tried (to die by suicide) twice," Dye said. "He's a survivor. It was really cool to be able to talk to her about that. It's awesome that it didn't happen and she still has her son."
Dye said his stock car, which has Race to Stop Suicide printed in bold black letters on the hood, has become a conversation piece at the tracks.
"People seeing that is actually breaking the barrier and actually be able to talk about it," he said. "Since you see somebody out in public with a pretty good following talking about this kind of thing, this kind of breaks that conversation barrier."
In order to make the connections and start the conversations, Dye has been pulled from school more days than he can count. But his teachers, along with
"We are very proud of Daniel and what he's doing," Svajko said. "It's a topic that not everyone wants to talk about but has to talk about. Having someone his age out there in the forefront bringing this out there to be discussed and de-stigmatizing it, is awesome."
The conversation about suicide isn't just limited to Volusia County. Dye's racing has taken him to other states like
"Other communities face this conversation about mental health,"
___
(c)2019 The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Visit The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla. at www.news-journalonline.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.