By Dana Finkler
Collegiate Staff Writer
GRCC Women’s basketball guard Jordyn Priestly along with a group of friends launched a twitter page called @Reasons2B_happy, as an awareness campaign about depression, suicide, support for the troops, and other issues.
The page was launched this past month after the group of friends lost a close friend in a car accident this past summer.
“I only knew her for a few months and she impacted my life that much,” Jordyn Priestly said. “She was such a good person and I’m trying to live through her and I think she would be very proud of all of us”.
Shortly after launching the page, they were featured on a Fox 17 newscast.
The group consists of Priestly at GRCC, Caila Ferro at Cleveland State, and Courtney Beltran at Michigan State and has began to acquire many supporters throughout the country.
Priestly has big aspirations for the campaign, but is taking everything one step at a time.
Some of the short-term goals of the group are to raise awareness through Twitter and Facebook and future plans include creating bracelets and t-shirts with their logo to promote the idea.
Eventually the group would like to sponsor a booth for welcome weeks at colleges and get speakers to come campuses nationwide.
Recently, the girls received word of a possible sponsorship for a billboard in downtown Grand Rapids.
While the group acknowledges they are not experts in any of the fields, they urge anyone who has a serious problem to seek professional help.
“Sometimes the simplest things can make anyone’s day. Like opening a door for someone, smiling at someone instead of looking at the ground, or picking up a paper for someone who dropped it on the ground,” group member Caila Ferro said.
After only having the page for up for nearly a month the group has 160 followers on Twitter and 142 likes on Facebook.
The group urges followers to tweet the page with facts on the issues, quotes, or stories on what makes people happy.
On Facebook they’d like people to post pictures and videos in which they would like to make into a video.
The group is taking donations and it is a non-profit campaign.
“It’s exciting to see all the support and we hope to make it something big,” Priestly said.
