Annual Hope Fair held

Students from all five Preble County school districts gathered Friday, May 8, at National Trail schools for the annual Hope Fair, an event focused on mental health awareness, suicide prevention and promoting positivity among youth across the county.

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The event was organized by Hope Squads representing Eaton, National Trail, Preble Shawnee, Tri-County North and Twin Valley South schools. The fair served as both a celebration of the year’s efforts and a fundraiser to support Hope Squad programming for the upcoming school year.

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Hope Squad Advisor Maddy Roell of Gebhart Counseling said approximately 175 students participate in Hope Squads across elementary, middle school and high school levels throughout the county.

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“We really just want to promote mental health awareness, suicide prevention in our community,” Roell said during an interview at the event. “And then this is also a fundraiser for us to have the money to continue Hope Squads next year.”

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Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer prevention program designed to help students recognize signs of emotional distress among classmates and connect them with trusted adults when needed. Roell said the program has become increasingly effective as it has expanded within local schools.

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“The longer they’re there, the more they see, the more they know, and the longevity really proves itself,” Roell said. “We get reports back all the time of the Hope Squads doing what Hope Squads are meant to do. They are noticing signs. They’re seeing things. They’re hearing things from their peers, and they know how to get an adult to intervene.”

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Roell emphasized that student members are not expected to act as counselors or therapists, but rather as trained peers who know when to seek adult assistance.

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“Adults do get involved whenever we do have a suicidal student, either posting suicidal things, saying suicidal things, anything like that,” she said. “Kids obviously aren’t meant to be counselors or therapists, but we’ve been able to manage all situations that come across us.”

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She added that while exact statistics are difficult to measure, school leaders have noticed an increase in awareness and intervention efforts as more students become educated on recognizing warning signs.

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“A lot of times those numbers feel a little scary the more we get,” Roell said. “But maybe it is that we’re just training kids to see things, and we’re able to intervene more often than we would have.”

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In addition to suicide prevention and mental health awareness, Hope Squad training also focuses on self-care and preventing emotional burnout among student members.

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“A lot of our lessons are about mental health and looking out for your friends, but we have an equal amount of lessons about self-care, about compassion fatigue, about what it looks like to have burnout,” Roell said. “We want to make sure that they know if this is too much, we take a step back and how to take care of yourself in order to prevent it becoming too much.”

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The HOPE Fair rotates annually among the county’s school districts. Roell thanked National Trail staff and counselors for hosting this year’s event.

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“They have been a breeze,” she said. “I want to thank Michelle Gebhart and Gebhart Counseling for being the best and having the Hope Spot advisors that work on this every day.”

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Originally published at https://www.registerherald.com/2026/05/22/annual-hope-fair-held/