Molly McAuliffe wants to end the stigma around suicide.
After losing her father, Paul “Stump” McAuliffe, to suicide this past year, McAuliffe started a fundraiser selling T-shirts that will benefit regional suicide prevention outreach groups in her dad’s memory, including Northeast Suicide Prevention Initiative and NAMI Scranton.
The shirt features a sunflower, a symbol of hope those who struggle with their mental health.
“Sunflowers grow toward light, and we need those with depression to seek light instead of hiding in darkness,” said McAuliffe, of Scranton. “(The) semicolon represents when someone could have chosen to end their story but chose to keep going (instead).”
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The T-shirt design features a sunflower and semi-colons, both symbols related to mental health.
This fundraiser is the beginning of what will be a memorial foundation in her father’s name, an initiative that aims to promote awareness and education on suicide prevention.
The T-shirts can be purchased at shop.shopnunzis.com/keepgoing/shop/home until Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 8:30 a.m. Over 180 shirts have already been pre-ordered, McAuliffe said.
Gia Mazur is an award-winning staff writer and beauty obsessive who joined The Times-Tribune’s Lifestyles department in 2015. She’s a product enthusiast who can’t live without an eyelash curler. A proud Virgo, Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Pillow Talk is her go-to. Contact: gmazur@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9127; @gmazurTT
