Big Sky SAAC Makes Commitment to Advance Mental Health Awareness
MISSOULA, Mont. (July 19, 2019) – The Big Sky Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) held their summer meetings at the University of Montana from July 16-18 to discuss topics that affect student-athletes within the Big Sky Conference and across the nation.
Among the issues discussed was the issue of mental health among student-athletes and their fellow students. This year the SAAC decided to make mental health their new initiative in an effort to raise awareness on their individual campuses. The SAAC has chosen #UnderOneBigSky as the name for their initiative.
#UnderOneBigSky will focus on the areas of raising awareness, taking action, and accountability. Within these areas there will be a me, we, us emphasis in an attempt to reach beyond the student-athlete population and into their individual campus communities and beyond.
Mental Health among student-athletes has become a rising issue across the nation and the Big Sky SAAC felt it a worthy topic to make a point of emphasis this upcoming year. Earlier this year the conference office helped kick off this initiative at their Health and Wellness Symposium with guest speakers that addressed this topic.
A new executive board was chosen at this year’s summer meetings. Justice Littrell from Northern Colorado will remain on as the president and Big Sky rep to the national SAAC board. Joining Littrell on the board will be Darby Henthorn (Montana) as vice president along with Kaysie Bruce (Idaho) and Paige Donathan (Portland State) as secretaries.
Next year’s Big Sky SAAC meeting will be hosted by Northern Arizona with the dates tentatively set for July 19-21, 2020.