Suicide Prevention Goal for Bridgewater Field Hockey

The Bridgewater-Raritan High School field hockey team each year plays for a different foundation—and this year, the girls are giving their all for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The team will be participating in the organization’s Central New Jersey Walk to benefit the organization Sept. 30.

For Christen Piersanti, senior goalie on the team, this cause is especially meaningful, and she will be walking for her aunt, Lori Tovarlaza-Pultorak, who died earlier this year.

“I believe it is important to teach the young women of Bridgewater-Raritan field hockey and lacrosse about the importance of giving back to society,” said Kathie DeBonis, coach of the field hockey team. It brings a positive charge, and some will begin to seek out more opportunities to give as they leave BRHS.”

In past years, the team has chosen other foundations to support, including those for pediatric cancer, breast cancer, autism and Livestrong.

“In the spring, the girls picked the foundation in which they wanted to support,” DeBonis said. “They researched the foundation and what it stood for.”

“The girls wear the foundation’s colors as their warm-up shirts and some years they wear matching shoelaces,” she added.

For this year, according to Piersanti’s mother Jolene, the team has a goal of raising $1,000 for the foundation to support research, education and prevention initiatives to reduce the loss of life from suicide.

The team, Jolene Piersanti said, held a car wash to raise funds earlier this year.

At this point, Piersanti said, they have raised about $900.

And in terms of the walk, there will be about 60 people from the varsity, junior varsity and freshmen squads, as well as about 30 friends and family members who will be walking too.

DeBonis said she is proud to have the girls take part in helping these foundations, and hopes they continue to do so in the future.

“We try to instill how giving teaches one to be more thankful, as well as allowing us to receive more,” she said. “Hopefully these life lessons can continue on with them for the remainder of their lives.”

For more information about the foundation, to donate or to become part of the team walking, visit the field hockey team’s fundraising page.