SANDPOINT — Giving someone their 15 minutes could save a life.

This is the message that Washington Elementary students are trying to promote through their #YouMatter movement.

"This Design For Change project has shown me how big of a problem suicide is in our community, and also that children are able to make a difference," said Washington sixth-grader Will Clark.

Washington Elementary's DFC students, both second- and sixth-grade groups, explained their projects to family and community members during the school's DFC Night on May 9. During the presentation, the audience got a sneak peek at the videos that were included in the final submissions to DFC this week.

Sixth-grade teacher Ann Dickinson said they will find out at the end of May whether or not either of the teams will represent the United States at the global conference in Taiwan in November. Last year's sixth-graders, who chose suicide prevention as their project after learning several local youth had committed suicide over a period of just two years, were chosen as the U.S. ambassadors for the conference in Spain.

The #YouMatter movement is the project of the current sixth-grade team as they carry on the mission started by their DFC predecessors of suicide prevention. The second graders tackled safety issues at the intersection outside of their school.

After a preview of the videos, the students set up at stations to explain the four steps of the DFC process — feel, imagine, do, and share.

Will and his classmate, Jett Longanecker, explained the feel stage is the first stage of the design thinking process, where they research and gather information from the internet and people who are "wise on the subject," such as Catherine Perusse from NAMI Far North and Spencer Smith, the school resource officer.

"It is called the feel stage, because this is the stage where we empathize with the people affected by the problem we chose, so, in this case, suicide," Jett said.

Sixth-grader Via Vachon said the imagine stage is about "brainstorming ideas that could be put into action." To do so, she said, both groups used several "idea tricks" to gather their thoughts, such as a white board and a conspiracy wall, which is a board they could arrange sticky notes on.

Second-grader Colton Dickinson said when his group was in the imagine stage, they were looking at the intersection and saw a lot of "bad stuff" happening, such as people parking in crosswalks, driving too fast and not stopping for kids.

"So we imagined having rainbow crosswalks to fix it, flags to fix it, and pedestrian lights to fix it," he said.

After deciding and imagining their projects, Will said the do stage is where they implement some of their ideas, and both groups embarked on several tasks throughout the year. Many of the tasks the do and share stages coincide, as sixth-grader Livia Owens explained that the share stage is where they "spread the word" about their projects.

The sixth-graders, for example, did a candy cane kindness challenge just before winter break, made a kindness chain to go around the school, and flew down to Boise to meet with legislators. They also designed a #YouMatter clothing line, which is available to the public for purchase. Jett designed the logo for clothing, which he said was a combination of some of the initial designs the group had come up with. The logo included the words #YouMatter, with the M resembling a the image of a heartbeat on a heart rate monitor.

The clothing can be ordered online at team44apparel.com/collections/design-for-change-youmatter. Proceeds help the students spread their message and expand DFC in Sandpoint.

Dickinson said this is her third year teaching the DFC elective, and as the time goes by, the kids become more creative and the projects get bigger.

"Every year, the kids amaze me with what they are able to accomplish," Dickinson said.

The second-graders put their ideas out there by writing a letter, on a very large sheet of paper, to the city regarding their concerns over safety in the intersections outside their school. They met with Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon, and the following week, at the March 21 council meeting, the second-graders were invited to take their concerns and possible solutions to council.

"They go big," second-grade teacher Charlene Hitchcock said of the kids. "We had some great ideas out there ... When we talked with Chief Coon and some of the City Council people, we found out we were $10,000 to $20,000 short of some of our big dreams, so we decided to go a little bit smaller."

One idea the kids were passionate about was the rainbow crosswalks in the intersection outside the school to make them more visible. Hitchcock said she has heard rumor it is being discussed by City Council members.

"We will just have to wait and see," she said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.