Cloverleaf High School junior Michael Martin earned a second-place award in the 2015 Stomp Out Suicide Youth Video Contest, sponsored by the Medina County Coalition for Suicide Prevention.

Martin was a member of the award-winning team of Cloverleaf High School Drama Club students who entered the 2014 video contest. The competition invites local students to create a two-minute video that raises awareness about the warning signs of suicide and teaches others how to help when someone is in need. Filming the previous year’s video was a meaningful experience, Martin said, motivating him to enter the contest again and try to come up with an idea that addressed the issue of suicide from a different point of view.

“My overall goal is to help people,” Martin said. “I won’t know for sure, but I’m confident at least one other person will be impacted by it. Then I will have accomplished my goal.”

The video, titled “The Letter,” was filmed at Cloverleaf High School with the help of art teacher Adam Michel. Martin is shown at a desk composing a letter to a fellow student who is experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. In a voiceover, Martin reads the text of the letter as it is being written, assuring the fellow student he or she is not alone and that others care. The letter gives the phone numbers for Alternative Paths and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, where help is available. After finishing the letter, Martin slides it into the fellow student’s locker.

“I know I’m only one person,” Martin writes in the letter, “but sometimes all it takes is one person to make a difference. Just one person to bring light, love and joy into someone’s life. One person to Stomp Out Suicide.”

Martin is the son of Eric and Karen Martin of Westfield Center. Please click HERE to see Martin's video, as well as the other top finishers, on You Tube.