Suicide coalition bringing awareness campaign to Jeep Invasion in a different form
The Butler County Suicide Coalition started a trend at 2024’s Jeep Invasion when it passed out rubber ducks bearing the suicide crisis hotline phone number on their undersides to spread awareness of the resource.
Amy Cirelli, co-chairwoman of the organization, said she noticed some other organizations use rubber ducks for their purposes at the 2025 Jeep Invasion. This time, the coalition is going from rubber to stickers.
Representatives of the Butler County Suicide Coalition will be at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival Jeep Invasion Friday, June 12, passing out stickers to remind people of the crisis number — 988 — with the Jeep and rubber duck branding.
Cirelli said the coalition is always sharing the 988 number, as well as the number that goes directly to Butler County offices.
“There are people who just never come across this information, so it is important,” said Cirelli, who also is a mental health specialist with Butler County Human Services. “Since so many people come from other counties, other states, to Jeep Fest, we stuck with 988 because that is the national number.”
The Butler County Suicide Coalition is a task force created to reduce suicides through education, resources and support, and is made up of people interested in that goal.
The Bantam Jeep Heritage Fest Jeep Invasion invites Jeep owners and enthusiasts to park along Butler’s Main Street for an event that attracts thousands of people.
Rubber ducks were a good method of communication for the suicide coalition because the toy has become synonymous with Jeep owners, many of whom have scores of them lining their dashboards.
In 2024, the suicide coalition used a grant to buy 1,000 rubber ducks, which the members wrote 988 on and attached tags with Butler County’s crisis hotline, 1-800-292-3866, to spread awareness. The coalition bought about 7,000 in 2025 for the same purpose.
The coalition this year bought a few hundred stickers of different designs featuring the numbers, which members will give out for free at the invasion.
According to Cirelli, the suicide coalition is already organizing its suicide rally, which takes place in early September and found there were more suicides in Butler County in 2025 than in 2024. So she said awareness of crisis resources remains an important point for the coalition.
“It's really important. We do trainings and we always ask, ‘Who's heard of 988? Who's heard of the crisis line?’ And there's people who have never heard of any of it,” Cirelli said. “We're going to have a table. We're going to be outside CCR during the invasion with prevention materials.”
The suicide coalition had help in its purchase of the stickers this year from Greek life organizations at Slippery Rock University.
Julia Rismiller Tangeman, assistant director of SRU’s Office for Student Engagement and Leadership, said the 15 fraternities and sororities at the school hosted an event to raise money for the coalition because a member of a fraternity had recently committed suicide.
The fundraiser took place during Greek Week 2025, in memory of a Pi Kappa Phi brother who died the previous summer.
“His loss was felt throughout the entire Greek community. Friends, brothers, sisters and classmates were left heartbroken,” Tangeman said in an email. “Yet in the midst of that grief, our students found a way to honor his memory and turn their pain into something meaningful.”
In two hours, Greek life students raised nearly $5,000 for the Butler County Suicide Coalition, Tangeman said.
“More than the money raised, it was the way they showed up for one another and for a cause that mattered deeply to them that left a lasting impact,” Tangeman said.
“These students are some of the most generous, driven and caring individuals I have had the privilege to know,” Tangeman added, “and I have no doubt they will continue making a positive impact long after they leave Slippery Rock.”
Cirelli said the coalition focuses on suicide prevention and collaborating with SRU on an initiative in that vein was a good thing.
“We wanted to use that for prevention things and so we thought this fit that,” she said about the donation from the SRU organizations. “We'll take any opportunity to get the word out about 988.”
