When Jennifer Dugan wrote her message of hope on the walkways of Drew University in 2005, she wasn’t trying to start a national movement. She was just trying to cope with a personal tragedy.

But her message of hope resonated with the students at the New Jersey college and has since been adopted as part of a national suicide prevention campaign.

Dugan wrote three simple lines:

“You are loved.”

“You are wonderful.”

“You are beautiful.”

The campaign inspired by those words has reached Madison College. The Gay Straight Alliance at Madison College took part in the National “You-Are-Loved” chalk project on Oct. 10.

A suicide prevention campaign, the chalk project tries to help college students with supportive messages.  The national project is in its third year, but this was the first time a group at Madison College participated.

Steven Rauscher, president of the Madison College GSA club, said this is another way that the group can “give students the knowledge that they are not alone and give them a feeling of belonging.” Rauscher said they “pretty much want to show love and support and make a difference to those that walk by.”

Dugan said she feels her message is one that can help people cope with life’s challenges.

“The original chalk messages in a way were kind of almost a coping mechanism of not wanting people to feel kind of what I and my friends were feeling at that point,” Dugan said. “When I originally stated writing the messages I didn’t expect it to become a campaign.”

Drew University’s LGBQT group, The Alliance, used her idea every semester because they thought it was a powerful way to reach people. According to the official webpage of the project, www.chalkmessages.org, “LGB youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youth.”

After her graduation in 2008, Dugan and a friend took the event nationwide. Harnessing the power of the Internet, Dugan put the event on Facebook and said that it just took off. Fifty colleges participated in the event in 2009.

The GSA group at Madison College is proud to be a part of this national event and hopes to continue to participate in the future.

Dugan added that she is going to go back to school in the future to work on a degree in counseling. She studied English in school and didn’t see herself involved with a cause of this nature before graduating.

“I’ve gotten more involved with the cause, so it’s probably where I’ll end up going eventually,” she said.

For more information about the Gay Straight Alliance at Madison College please go to http://matcmadison.edu/club-directory and scroll down, or ask to join the group on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MadisonCollegeGSA/