Kathi Sullivan, co-founder of Sullivan’s Message, shared her story with the freshman and sophomore classes about dealing with alcohol abuse on Wednesday, March 19 during an advisory block. She spoke about how the effects of alcohol abuse changed her life when her daughter, Taylor Sullivan, passed away after consuming too much alcohol and drowning due to her impaired senses.
Sullivan has been publicly speaking for over 15 years and spreading awareness about alcohol abuse through her daughter’s story. Kathi’s husband and co-founder of Sullivan’s Message, Chris Sullivan, usually talks about drug addiction related to his experience as a former NFL player alongside her, but he was not able to speak at WA due to time constraints.
“Chris speaks about mental health with kids in high school and about how they hide their feelings behind the substances,” Sullivan said. “He also talks a lot about when he was growing up, he grew up in an Irish Catholic family that didn’t talk much. He had like a family who loved him enormously but there was no open line of communication. So he at parent nights especially, says to have conversations, because you really never know what’s going on.”
Kathi and Chris created Sullivan’s Message with the goal of educating students and parents alike on the steps that people can take to reduce the risk of an incident such as Taylor’s. According to Sullivan, there are many things that parents in particular can do to make sure their child is safe. This includes always staying in communication even when they think their child couldn’t possibly be involved in any harmful activities, as only one night of bad decisions could end someone’s life.
“When I lost Taylor there were so many things that I learned as a parent. I was always a good parent, but there was always that ‘not going to happen to my family’ mentality. When it did happen to my family, I realized there was just so many things that I [should] have paid more attention to, and then maybe I wouldn’t have been in that circumstance,” Sullivan said. “I also think a lot of it is about communication. [Parents should] communicate and let [their kids] know. Just have that open line of communication, God forbid something goes wrong.”
Although the Sullivans were not able to give their full presentation at WA due to time constraints, her message was nevertheless able to influence many of the student spectators.
“She didn’t come to simply say ‘Don’t drink,’ she came to tell her story, and that was more impactful than anything else,” sophomore Omkar Naluvala said. “She really spoke from her heart and showed how much pain could come from a silly decision.”
Many students attended a meeting with her in the gym after the presentation to talk and donned the pink Sullivan’s Message awareness bracelets. According to Sullivan, it was at this meeting that she met the people most affected by her message, and the first time she had done a post presentation meeting of that manner in 16 years.
“I was a little worried about it at first, because I thought, ‘I don’t know if they’re going to come down to the gym to grab the bracelets,’ and I didn’t want people to miss the opportunity to grab one if they wanted one. I will say, I stayed there for an hour, and they just kept coming and they kept coming,” Sullivan said. “It ended up being nicer because the kids didn’t feel pressured to come. They only came if they wanted to. I’m going to actually suggest it to schools now, because I think it gave the kids who have anxiety and won’t come up to a big crowd like that at the bottom of an auditorium, the chance to be able to come in and just, you know, grab [a bracelet] and leave.”
