By Stephanie Froese

Group pleased with event tackling youth issues

Jan 17, 2011 | 5:18 AM

A crowd of about 400, mostly youth, packed into the theatre at the Rawlinson Center on opening night of the To Save A Life movie this weekend.

The event put on by the Prince Albert Community Services To Save a Life Group was a gateway to open up discussion on various youth issues including suicide and bullying.

The evening was set up so that volunteers from a variety of groups were available to help answer questions or give people information about some of the very real issues shown in the movie.

“The heart of To Save a Life is to start conversations, is to be a bridge or liaison to all these other groups, to all the resources and to the community groups and all the agencies,” said Gen Klingenberg, coordinator of the event.

“Our heart is to also go to other communities and other schools to bring the movie to bring the message of hope and help them realize they are not alone.”

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Klingenberg said the response this weekend was fantastic.

“It was great to see that the kids would go up to the different booths and talk to the different organizations about what kind of helps are available for them.”

Issues such as suicide, self-injury and bullying shown in the movie had a focus on high school students, but Klingenberg said these things impact pretty much everybody.

“You know were aware of seven suicides just over the holidays and some that are directly affected within our community. There was one student that went to (a local high school) that committed suicide a week ago. So it’s a direct impact.”

Klingenberg said even though the movie event is over, they will continue to address these issues that affect the community.

To get involved with the To Save a Life group contact Gen Klingenberg at graciagen@hotmail.com

sfroese@panow.com