My Very First Blog

I have to admit, I have never blogged before so I hope I have the correct blog courtesy, format, style, etc. to make it interesting and appealing to all who are reading it. Normally I would go on other blogs and study their blogging style, what's popular and what's not, pictures or no pictures---you know the drill. But, because of a lack of time for such an endeavor I have decided to wing it!! Just a sidenote, I am comma happy in my writing so please don't allow it to distract you :).

So far I am in my 4th week of interning here at CARES and so far it's been a great new experience. I'm taking that most of you who come across this website already know about CARES and their mission ,events, and everything that goes along with it. But in case some of you have stumbled across it, or google it, or things like that let me explain.

CARES stands for Community Awareness in Recognizing and Educating on Suicide. Our mission is to educate and support the members of the community in suicide prevention. For youth, we have special programs like "In-the-dash" which is a 30 minute curriculum offered to Middle and High school students and another program called High School Challenge where groups of teenagers have a performing arts competition. Also, we have something called the Youth Leadership Task Force where representitives from the local high schools meet, have fundraisers, and bring suicide awareness back into their schools. For the public we have a resource center in Cape Coral that offers referrals and information to anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide or may be suicidal themselves. Additionally we have an annual 5k Walk/Fundraiser taking place November 31st (A SHAMELESS PROMOTION: to sign up or fundraise the walk, just go to www.active.com/donate/careswalk and follow the instructions). We have many more events and programs so to find out about them in detail visit www.caresprevention.org, or our facebook or myspace page. But basically, we are an agency that literally cares for the people of Southwest Florida and want to offer hope, resources, and education to those who are hurting.

Like I said I am an intern here, coming from FGCU, and will be blogging every Tuesday and Friday until May. So please continue to check in and see what's going on and get an inside look into a day in the life at CARES.

(ANOTHER SHAMELESS PROMOTION: I attached our new PSA for you all to view so please give it a look. It's very touching!)