After the tragic passing of Lane Burrows in 2019, the Live4Lane organization was created to honor him. This year, the Live 4 Lane organization awarded three $6300 scholarships to Gabby Guambo, Caelan Jones (DHSPress’s Editor- in- Chief), and Tina Yao.

The scholarship amount is in remembrance of Burrows’ freshman year football jersey number, 63. Part of the money for the scholarship was raised during the Live4Lane memorial walk held on October 9th in honor of Burrows’ birthday, and another portion was donated by his mother, Maranda Heil. “We hope the scholarship will open opportunities for the recipients to impact the community best and help reduce the mental illness stigma,” Heil said.

Applicants were required to explain their role in mental health, how they would use the scholarship to advance their role in mental health, and create a mental health resource of some kind (an article, infographic, informational video, blog, or art).

Guambo is planning to attend NOVA, then transfer to VCU and major in psychology and education. Jones will be attending the University of Oregon, playing division one women’s lacrosse, and majoring in journalism and international relations or business. Yao will be attending the University of Virginia, and plans to study political philosophy, policy and law.

Guambo and Jones were both members of the Live4Lane club, and helped to organize and participated in the candlelight vigil held in Lane’s honor, the student athlete mental health night, and Live4Lane walk.

The scholarship “means a lot of things, obviously, to honor Lane Burrows and continue his legacy wherever I’m going,” Jones said.

The winners of the scholarships were being decided by a panel of eight people with professional backgrounds in the medical health field, education, finance, technology, and public affairs.

In recent years, student athlete mental health-related suicide has become increasingly prevalent. “That’s obviously a very scary thing to think about. I’m going into this environment where I could be seeing a lot more stress. And I could be experiencing different things that could harm my mental health, my teammates, and my friends’ mental health, so I really wanted to be able to go to Oregon, and be able to assist other student athletes and help even myself with mental health struggles, reducing stress and the worries of being a student athlete,” Jones said.

After experiencing the loss of her middle school club lacrosse coach Morgan Rodgers to suicide, Jones became more involved with mental health efforts through the organization created in Rodger’s honor, Morgan’s Message. “Being able to carry on [Morgan’s Message], and even help build that organization at Oregon, and just help other athletes is what I really want to be doing, so the scholarship means a lot to me,” Jones said.

Yao was not part of the Live4Lane club, but started a non-profit called Happy Miracles which aims to help students with mental health struggles, and create monthly workshops for students to get help and lessen the burden. “The scholarship is truly a blessing, as I am able to further my education and continue to pursue something related to mental health…Mental health is a big part of my life and it’s difficult to see people around me struggle with [it] but not get help,” Yao said.

In addition, Happy Miracles is raising money to provide support for students who are afraid to seek mental health resources, can’t afford them, as well as raising mental health awareness.

The scholarship will be continued in future years if funds from activities such as the memorial walk and donations allow for it. Donations can be made on the Live4Lane website.

“It’s so important to support each other. High school is a hard time. It’s four years of transitioning, and then the last year of transitioning is so big, you make so many decisions and [are under] so much pressure. I hope that everybody gives themself grace to go through that transition. By understanding mental illness and what a mental crisis is, we can help, even if it is just reaching out to resources to help someone in need,” Heil said.

The Live4Lane club  at Dominion has a focus on helping to organize and spread mental health awareness, and holds mental health-oriented events and activities. Donations to the Live4Lane organization from activities such as the walk, or direct donations will determine the scholarships for next year.

The 24/7 national suicide and crisis hotline can be reached by texting or calling 988, and can provide assistance in English and Spanish.