Jamrich Hall on the campus of Northern Michigan University is filled with backpacks displayed on Monday as part of the traveling “Send Silence Packing” exhibit. The purpose of the exhibit is to raise mental health awareness and inspire action for suicide prevention. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — Backpacks were scattered throughout a first-floor lobby of Northern Michigan University’s Jamrich Hall on Monday, but they had nothing to do with transporting books across campus.

They were there to “Send Silence Packing.”

That was the name of the traveling exhibit that stops at college and university campuses across the United States to raise mental health awareness and inspire action for suicide prevention.

The exhibit was presented by Active Minds, a nonprofit organization that supports mental health awareness and education for students.

Chloe Wilkinson, one of the student organizers and a member of the student committee Mind Your Health, said NMU’s Active Minds chapter held the event.

September was National Suicide Prevention Month.

“That’s why we’re holding this exhibit,” Wilkinson said.

The exhibit certainly was eye-catching.

“There’s a thousand backpacks here that were donated by people who lost someone to suicide,” Wilkinson said, “and some of the backpacks have the actual stories about the individual.”

The next stop on the exhibit tour was scheduled to be Michigan Tech, she said.

“We’ve had a lot of people come by, even just saying ‘thank you’ for bringing something like this,” said Sadie Knill, another student organizer. “It’s such a stigmatized topic that people are so afraid to get into, and it’s something that really needs to be talked about more.”

About 200 of the backpacks on display, she noted, were labeled with specific names of people who died by suicide, with their friends and families specifically donating them.

Some of the backpacks, she pointed out, were the actual backpacks used by those people who died by suicide, with some still containing their belongings.

“It makes it really real,” Knill said.

One backpack label had a story from a best friend in high school.

The anecdote was particularly poignant.

It read: “When I think of all that lies in the future, it breaks my heart that she will not have the same things.”

Visit activeminds.org/ sendsilencepacking to learn more about the exhibit that, according to the website, had its inaugural display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2008.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.