Thousands of encouraging roadside signs have been planted around the world, and it’s all thanks to one woman who felt helpless in the face of mental illness.
Amy Wolff was first encouraged to start planting the encouraging signs after she had a heartbreaking discussion with a friend in May 2017. “We were hanging out with friends when one of them mentioned the growing number of people trying to kill themselves in our community,” says Wolff. “I wasn’t a doctor. I didn’t know of anyone suffering from thoughts of self-harm. What could I do?”
Then Wolff got the idea to start planting encouraging signs in people’s yards. For the following two weeks, she and her kids started knocking on people’s doors across their town of Newburg, Oregon and asking if they could put up signs with messages like “Don’t Give Up” and “Your Mistakes Don’t Define You”.
Wolff then started receiving messages from other people in the community wanting to buy the signs. Within a few days, Wolff had sold over 150 of the yard signs. That night, Wolff’s husband created a website to sell the signs.
“Within a year, we had news media in Dallas, Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland cover our movement,” she added. By the fall of 2018, Wolff set up the Don’t Give Up organization for her signs. Since she planted her first sign two years ago, she has shipped the organizations messages of encouragement to all 50 US states and 26 countries in 6 languages.
With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, the messages that Wolff has received from sign owners are meaningful. One message from Frank reads: “I just had a woman knock on my door. She began to cry and thank me for the signs in my yard. Her son had tried to kill himself and these signs were in the yard the day they came home from the hospital.”
7. What led to Amy Wolff taking action to help people with mental illness?
A.Her friends suggestions. |
B.The things done by “Don’t Give Up”. |
C.Her own experience of fighting against mental illness. |
D.The increasing self-killing events in her community. |
8. Why have thousands of encouraging roadside signs been planted across their town of Newburg,Oregon?
A.To sell the signs to other people in the community well. |
B.To help the people trying to kill themselves in Wolff’s community. |
C.To offer the helpless people with mental illness courage and confidence in life . |
D.To make a website to sell the signs meaningful. |
9. Which of the following best describes Wolff?
A.Honest and hard-working. |
B.Creative and warm-hearted. |
C.Humorous and easy-going. |
D.Cheerful and strong-minded. |
10. What can we learn from Wolff’s story?
A.To save oneself is to save others. |
B.Many hands make light work. |
C.Make selfless devotion and seek no rewards. |
D.It pays to try new things. |