Dam Worth It is a campaign at Oregon State University that was created by gymnast Taylor Ricci and men’s soccer player Nathan Braaten, in order to bring awareness to mental health issues in collegiate athletics. 

Beginning in the 2019-20 school year, two new OSU student athletes, Evan Munn and Lindsay LaMont, will hold the leadership positions in the program. The future leaders of Dam Worth It are looking to better the campaign with their personal experiences.

According to Evan Munn, a fourth-year human development and family sciences student and goalkeeper for the OSU Men’s Soccer team, said there is a stigma around mental health right now and people are afraid to talk about it. One of his goals for the future of the campaign is to get more people talking about the issues of mental health. 

“The first step is admitting you may have a problem. In sports, there is sort of an epidemic of a lot of mental health issues that aren’t being addressed for a plethora of reasons,” Munn said. “The Dam Worth It campaign was started up to bring attention to it and to get us to start talking about it.”  

Munn added that as a result of the positive impact he has seen Dam Worth It have on himself and other athletes, his goal as the new leader for the campaign is to utilize their platform in athletics to extend their resources to all of the students at OSU. 

“Now it’s time to focus here and really get after it on campus because there is a problem on campus. We are not blind to that and we are also not blind to say only athletes have these unique issues,” Munn said. “Opposed to hitting 400 student athletes, we want to hit 30,000 students and hopefully that will  keep stemming out.”

OSU Women’s Soccer goalkeeper Lindsay LaMont is a fourth-year student studying nutrition with an option in dietetics and a minor in psychology. According to LaMont, her goal as the new president of the Dam Worth It campaign is to make sure people’s voices are heard and she wants to make a difference on campus. 

“I think I can be a voice for a lot of people who have experienced the loss of a parent as well as sexual abuse and rape. I also want to make the topic of losing a loved one something that people can talk about,” Lamont said. “This is a platform for not just myself, but others to use, to share their stories and become closer as a community at OSU.”

Lamont added that Dam Worth It has helped her feel more comfortable in her own skin and wants to help other students across campus feel the same. 

“To me, Dam Worth It means hope. I’ve been in situations in my life where I didn’t have a lot of hope and this campaign has shown me the power of my story and the positive effect it can have on others,” Lamont said.