SV Hope Squad uses art to battle mental health stigma
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Todd Whyshong from the Positive Painting Project talks with students at Seneca Valley as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in a painting project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Xavier Mueller, left, works on a painting as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in a painting project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Sarah Ghaffar, left, and Mardo Shaker work on their paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Rocco Piccolino works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Anthony Hernandez works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Anthony Hernandez works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Jacob Southwood works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Charlie Peterson works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Charlie Peterson works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Charlie Peterson works on his paintings as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Owen Craft works on his painting as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Mia Grant works on her painting as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Rohin Jayaraman, middle, shows his finished painting to his friends as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Liliy Young, left, and Ellie Stewart play around as they work on their project as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Liliy Young, left, and Ellie Stewart plays around as they work on their project as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Students from seventh to 12th grades get their creative juices flowing as Seneca Valley Hope Squad members participate in the Positive Painting Project in the high school library on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
Todd and Alisa Whyshong founded the Positive Painting Project in loving memory of their daughter, Katie. Her memory, as well as her love of art, inspired the goal of using visual art to promote positive mental health and suicide prevention.
The community-based nonprofit came together with student members of Seneca Valley Senior High School’s Hope Squad on Thursday, Feb. 20, to create uplifting messages art and the battle stigma surrounding mental health issues and suicide.
In the school’s library, 100 students listened to Todd Whyshong talk about his daughter and the idea behind the project, before creating artwork with positive messages. The art will be displayed throughout the hallways of the high school.
The Hope Squad is a national peer-to-peer program focused on suicide prevention through education and peer intervention. Hope Squad members, who are nominated by classmates to be part of it, are meant to be students who are easy to talk to and good at listening and being supportive of peers who are struggling. At Seneca Valley, it includes around 100 students from grades seven through 12.
The main themes of the project are empathy, hope, kindness, strength, compassion, courage, gratitude and grace.
“I think it’s a place where a lot of people are able to gather together. Here you find this community where everyone is comfortable sharing with each other and reaching out to each other,” said Rohin Jayaraman, a senior and student adviser. “If you’re experiencing something, you know you can go to Hope Squad.”
Hope Squad members’ ability to talk to and listen to others can help their peers deal with dark or suicidal thoughts.
Katie Smolter, a special education teacher and faculty adviser for Hope Squad, said with students dealing with heavy emotions and experiences, teachers found there was “such a need in such in such a large school.”
“What we find is that students are more likely to talk to one another. So when they’re stressed and they’re overwhelmed, they’re not necessarily telling mom or dad, or a guidance counselor, they’re sharing struggles with a friend,” Smolter said.
Smolter said the Whyshongs previously had visited Seneca Valley for a mental health round table with teachers and faculty members, who shared with the Hope Squad how wonderful they are.
“I think these kids do really well with these types of conversations. I think that sometimes, as adults, we’ll say ‘that conversation’s too tough.’ But it’s not, and we expect them to be adults a lot of the time, so let’s let them have these opportunities,” Smolter said.
The Positive Painting Project’s mission includes providing opportunities to create art with positive expressions of thoughts and feelings, and using art to break the stigma around mental health conversations. Part of this includes holding events at schools or festivals where students can participate.
Todd Whyshong said the project was largely the idea of his daughter Katie, who had reached out to a teacher and guidance counselor a year after being diagnosed with major depressive disorder. In addition to being someone who knew to use methods such as breathing exercises and liked being able to help her friends through tough times, she wanted to use art to combat the stigma of mental illness.
“The whole idea started when we saw some people online in California or somewhere, they had painted the walls of the restaurant with positive messages. Katie was always drawn to art, that was her preferred method of expression,” Whyshong said.
Katie died by suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the project has taken off, its message has included getting students to understand they aren’t dumping problems on someone when they look for a person to talk to. They also are telling that person “you are someone I can talk to.”
“This project is just us carrying on what she (Katie) started at the beginning,” Whyshong said.
On the Positive Painting Project’s website, a quote from Katie Whyshong reads: “You are everything to someone. You are enough.”
As students painted inside and around the outlines of a heart that read “you matter,” they talked and laughed with each other while listening to a Spotify playlist created by Alisa Whyshong specifically for positive painting.
“Talk about your mental health struggles. Talk about it, talk about it, talk about it,” Todd Whyshong said. “When you open up about your struggles, others open up about theirs. And sometimes that’s what it takes.”
Whyshong talked about a friend of his who compared the conversation around mental health to the way people used to talk about cancer. It may have been taboo at one point, but over time we’ve broken the stigma of talking about person issues people are going through.
“No one would question if you were at the doctor or the dentist earlier in the day, no one would ask why you went. But if you saw your therapist earlier in the day, they might wonder what’s wrong, or at least worry,” Whyshong said. “And that’s the stigma that needs to come down, so people can feel more comfortable asking for help.”
This story was updated at noon, Feb. 21 to reflect the correct spelling of Rohin Jayaraman. A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled his name.
