By Amber Brenner –
“We live in a broken world. The vision is hope, and hope is real.”
For many, February 11 means nothing. But for some Penn Manor girls, it was a day of support.
“To Write Love On Her Arms Day” comes once a year. Many people have heard of this event, seen it on clothing or wristbands, or encountered it somewhere but most don’t understand the depth of these words.
“To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
“To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to directly invest into treatment and recovery,” said Jamie Tworkowski, founder of TWLOHA, on his website.
Every year, those who support the cause of TWLOHA are encouraged to show their support by wearing purple and writing the word “love” on their forearms. There was even a Facebook event for a reminder to those who had forgotten.
Most of the people who were “attending” the event on Facebook failed to wear purple or to scribe love across their forearms. But for one Penn Manor sophomore, this was not the case.
“I support the cause because it means a lot to me,” Chelsea Miller said. “I know how they feel sometimes, and it means the world to me that there are things like this out there.”
Miller wore a purple tee, and a “Love is the Movement” hoodie taped a homemade TWLOHA sign with lots of quotes and pictures, and carried around a bag of candy to give to anyone who was wearing purple.
“I don’t care if they didn’t wear purple for TWLOHA day,” Miller said. “It still shows support, and it counts to me.”
Kim Blake, a junior at Penn Manor, also agreed.
“I fully support the cause of TWLOHA,” Blake said. “It should be a national day when everyone wears purple. They made announcements to wear Manheim Central’s colours after the deaths of their kids. Why couldn’t they do that for TWLOHA day? It shows support for millions of people, not just a few specific kids. People need help sometimes, and they just don’t want to find it.”
“We live in a broken world. The vision is hope, and hope is real,” Tworkowski posted on his website.
“We were never meant to do life alone,” Tworkowski concluded.