WALTHAM, Mass. - On Wednesday, April 12, Northeast-10 Conference women's lacrosse student-athletes will be participating in a conference-wide Morgan's Message Day, in support of the organization which advocates for the mental health of student-athletes.

All NE10 women's lacrosse programs competing that day will participate in the event. Bentley is hosting Saint Michael's at 7:00 PM.

Morgan's Message was created by the family and former teammates of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke University lacrosse student-athlete who died tragically in July 2019 after battling mental health struggles, with the mission of eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health, normalizing conversations about mental health, and to ensure that mental health is treated equally to physical health for all student-athletes.

The goal of the day is to facilitate and encourage conversations around mental health, in hopes of breaking the stigmas surrounding those conversations and ultimately saving lives.

Courtney Dermody, a junior on the Bentley women's lacrosse team, has been instrumental in creating awareness for Morgan's Message on Bentley's campus.

"My goal in bringing a chapter of Morgan's Message to Bentley's campus was to continue the conversation of destigmatizing student-athlete mental health," she said. "The importance of mental health has gained societal traction within the last few years, but acknowledgement is still lagging within the athletic world."

"Much of the issue is rooted in the fact that mental health struggles are not a physical ailment that can be seen, even though they often accompany injuries," she continued. "Morgan's Message provides resources to athletes that are struggling, letting them know it's okay to express what they are feeling, and that their teammates share in their struggle and are a valuable support group. Our dedication games focus on elevating the chapter's profile with a fun twist of specially designed t-shirts and bracelets that raise awareness of the issue within the entire athletic community, while signaling to the individual athletes that they are not fighting alone."

For more information about Morgan's Message, visit their website at www.morgansmessage.org.