Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year-olds in Pennsylvania, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Centre Helps says skydiving is symbolic for the type of help given to someone with emotional or mental health needs, they’re trusting in someone else, and letting go of fear so they can live freely.

“I’m very excited, so this will be a very exhilarating experience,” Vinhage, said.

That exhilarating experience Wendy Vinhage from Centre County United Way is talking about is skydiving.

On May 16th Vinhage will be one of 20 people skydiving at the Mifflin County Airport.

It’s for the “Centre Helps has your Back” event.

“We’re trying to tap into different industries in the community so we have a couple of different business owners, we have somebody from the State College Area School District and we have some different folks so that we can really spread that awareness, so that a lot of different community members become aware of the services that are available,” Leanne Lenz, Executive Director for Centre Helps, said.

Centre Helps is a non-profit in State College that provides a hotline and mental health counseling in person for those who are suicidal or in need of emotional support.

Each skydiver will raise $2,400 for Centre Helps. The funds will pay for a new hotline that now helps people nationally.

“If we can raise more awareness about those events and also through this fundraiser and get people really excited, that’s really our hope, that we can really bolster Centre helps and get the funding they need to continue this really important work,” Vinhage, said.

10 people are currently signed up to skydive. Centre Helps is looking for 10 more, plus sponsors for the event.