The Jae Foundation will be impacting the Natrona County School District this fall. Natrona County high school seniors and faculty members will be receiving a pair of cowboy boots they get to pick out for themselves. The boots are a small part of the Jae Foundation experience as they strive to increase mental health awareness and work on suicide prevention.
Students and Faculty will all be impacted through a three part story about Jae Bob Bing.
The foundation was started by Jason Vickery after his childhood best friend Jae tragically committed suicide in 2016. After his passing Vickery made a commitment that something good would come from this tragedy. The two grew up in Pinedale Wyoming loving the outdoors and Jae’s parents owned a western apparel shop in the center of town. Jae always had cowboy boots on and after many years of deciding what the foundation was going to be about, Vickery found his spark.
Vickery began buying cowboy boots for some of his friends at the cowboy shop in Pinedale. While gifting boots, he was able to open up to people and began having conversations about mental health and boot checks. This became the focus of the foundation that has impacted many people.
As mental health continues to be a rising problem in Natrona County, students can look forward to a potential solution with the Jae Foundation.
Student Council President Emerson Levin has already seen the presentation from Jae’s Foundation and believed it was a positive experience that Trojans should look forward to.
“By wearing the boots the Jae Foundation provides us with, students should be excited to support and represent an amazing cause,” Levin said.
The foundation targets seniors as they are at a major turning point in their lives. Seniors face many pressures with school, and not knowing what their future holds.
Teachers in the district are also receiving a free pair of boots and will see the Jae Foundation presentation at the end of this month. As student council advisor, Kelly Walsh teacher Beth Williams has already gone through the training and can give teachers an idea on what to expect.
“When we see presentations in large groups I don’t think teachers or students get a lot out of it, with the Jae foundation and smaller groups of people it felt more intimate and touching, it was easy to pay attention and listen,” Williams said.
Providing over 1,000 students and 500 teachers with cowboy boots is no easy task. This is being accomplished with community partners of the McMurry Foundation and Natrona Collective Health Trust. Both have donated $100,000 to get seniors and teachers boots. Another $50,000 is being raised by anonymous community members.
The Jae Foundation is looking to be a resource for people in Wyoming and Idaho for the rising problem of suicide in the community.
