Editor's Note: This event was originally schedule for Saturday, June 14 but was postponed due to weather. The story that follows has been updated to reflect the new date.

Northview juniors Mackinzee Staggs-Rogers and Ashley Jones aren’t new to organization.

As the founders of Project Break the Stigma, which is also their ongoing project through the Northview High School DECA club, they’ve spent the last year promoting awareness of mental health and teen suicide through mental health discussions at the high school, sponsoring a basketball game last winter and partnering with the Northview choir on fall and spring concerts.

But the co-founders have their eyes on something bigger this coming weekend for their inaugural pickleball tournament on Saturday, July 12 at Forest Park.

“Our goal is to get 100 participants. In total, that would be either 50 singles and 50 people playing doubles or whatever combination of that,” Stagg-Rogers said. “We just want to have 100 people registered by the end of the day.”

For the duo, it’s a way of not only getting people out and moving on what they hope is a beautiful summer day, but more importantly it’s about spreading awareness about mental health, particularly among teenagers.

Neither young is shy about her own mental health

“Mackinzee and I are both mental health survivors,” Jones said. “As teenagers it can sometimes feel like adults or parents, grandparents or those surrounding you don’t understand or they don’t really feel sympathy for you. They sometimes talk about it like, ‘Oh, it’s just a phase. It will pass,’ but that is not always true.”

Staggs-Rogers added that it’s important to know that it even affects kids who might look like they have it all together.

“For me personally, the specifics behind the pickleball tournament is we’re really focused on athletes, since both of us are student athletes,” Staggs-Rogers said. “It can be very hard in high school to go through the pressure of practices and games every other day and be expected to reach full performance level at all times.

“Both of us are cheerleaders, and cheerleading is meant to seem as if, ‘They’re perfect, they’re always happy,’ which isn’t always true,” she continued. “Even on some of our other sports teams, everybody sees the great things they’re doing, and they’re winning, and they expect them to be happy. They might be happy with that win, but that doesn’t always mean they’re not struggling.”

And so this is an athletic competition. The event, which will take place at the Forest Park pickleball courts, will actually be two tournaments — singles and doubles. Registration fee is $10 per person (so $20 for a doubles team) and in each single-elimination bracket, the overall winner will take 20% of the entry fees for that tournament.

“We wanted to be able to create an event for mostly adults and teens in our community so they can be aware and know that their children aren’t faking this mental illness or just going through a rough time at that moment,” Jones said.

Registration forms are available on the Break the Stigma Instagram feed “project.breakthestigma” or by contacting reedmic@clay.k12.in.us or 812-264-2580.

Forms can also be obtained on the morning of the event.

That morning, singles registration forms may be turned in between 8:30 and 9 a.m., with that tournament starting at 9:15. Doubles registrants have until 11:30 a.m., with play beginning at 12:15 p.m.

Participants under 18 years old need a signed waiver from a parent or guardian, so they should either have waivers (available with the registration forms) already signed or have a guardian with them that morning.

There will be two vendors on site, Sweet Sips Mobile Drink Trailer as well as a cotton candy stand.

There will be other concessions for sale at the event.

Project Break the Stigma also has event T-shirts on sale through A+ Printing and will have some for sale that day, but these will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additionally, for participants there will be limited pieces of equipment available to use, but they should plan to bring their own paddles.

Given that this is a student-run tournament and organized as part of an ongoing school project, the organizers emphasize that there should be no use of alcohol, drugs or illegal substances.

“We must keep this event family friendly and although we are not on the Northview campus, we will still follow the Northview Code of Conduct for participants and spectators,” the rule sheet states. “This includes no tolerance for bad sportsmanship. Kindness is key, and this is for fun!”

Jones and Staggs-Rogers believe this will get their DECA year off to a good start. They will continue organizing community awareness events through January 2026, when their 20-page essay that includes their planning, timelines, budget, execution and outcomes is due.

After that, DECA judges read over it and in March they learn how they did during the state competition. Last year, Project Break the Stigma was in competition with projects from other schools centered on causes such as breast cancer, autism and veterans issues.

“For our division, we have to place top 3 in community awareness to move on to Internationals, which will be in Atlanta, Ga,” Staggs-Rogers said. “We really would like to place in the top three and make it there.”

Having already been through the process once, they are now focused on making it even better.

“We actually did this project last year, so this is the second year with this specific project that we’ve decided to grow,” Staggs-Rogers said. “So we’ve gotten back our feedback, and we hope to use that information to make this year better.”

Of course, the real goal is to promote awareness of the issues of mental health and suicide, particularly for teens. This event should certainly help.

“We wanted to focus on a sporting event that we can bring awareness to athletes specifically,” Jones said. “We had a basketball game that we had last year and are planning to do again this year, which helps with that as well.

“In athletes right now it’s growing even more — sports performance anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia — it’s all coming together,” she added. “And at the age we’re at, since our brains aren’t fully developed, it’s even more able to take over and consume our lives.”

Only by shining more awareness on these issues can Jones and Stagg-Rogers reach their goal of breaking the stigma of mental illness and bring it into the open.