Torrey Pines event brings community together around mental health, suicide awareness

Torrey Pines High School students hosted “Miles & Smiles,” a teen‑led kindness and fitness fundraiser on campus on Dec. 13.

The event benefited the Endurant Movement, a local nonprofit created in memory of Encinitas teenager Anthony “Ant” Tricarico, who died by suicide in May 2024 at just 16 years old. Through Endurant, his parents Neal and Samara Tricarico are working to heal their broken hearts by helping others, supporting North County schools and families on teen mental health, suicide prevention and neurodiversity inclusion.

In the last year, Endurant chapters have formed at Torrey Pines, San Dieguito Academy and La Costa Canyon High School. Torrey Pines juniors Emma Beckwith and Sara Messenger, leaders of the Torrey Pines club, helped put the Miles & Smiles event together with PALs (Peer Assistance Listener Support), the campus leaders in teen mental health.

On a foggy morning, participants gathered to log miles by walking or running, with pledges collected for every mile completed. For the Smiles part of the event, people were encouraged to take on a kindness challenge—writing cards, painting a kindness rock, making a friendship bracelet or affixing words of affirmation or quotes to a kindness tree.

One of the founding principles of Endurant is that awareness is the cure, bringing people together to shine a light on what is often a silent struggle, hidden behind a smile or only talked about behind closed doors. The Tricaricos hope that by telling Anthony’s story, the most difficult story to tell, can lead to real change, ensure that no one suffers alone and possibly save a life.

“Ant is our beautiful blessing, our son,” said Neal. “Bright, intelligent and lived to be a junior at San Dieguito High School where by all accounts he thrived.”

He had lots of friends and did well in school, carrying a 4.6 GPA and taking AP classes. Athletic and motivated, he would go to the gym before school at 5:30 a.m. to exercise and after school was always either training for a half marathon, marathon or a Spartan race.

While from the outside he appeared to be thriving, his parents struggled with him. When Anthony was seven years old, he was diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The family went to different autism centers, where Anthony learned “how to navigate an emotional world without emotional capabilities.” “That seemed to be good for him, so much so that he graduated out of it before he went to high school, which was important to him because he didn’t want to share that he had autism. He didn’t want an IEP and special treatment.”

Most of his friends didn’t even know about his diagnosis.

Anthony’s depression started during the pandemic. He wasn’t able to be with his friends, his fitness routine was disrupted and he couldn’t enjoy his favorite outdoor activities like fishing. During his freshman year, he told his best friend that he was having suicidal ideation—thankfully, his friend didn’t keep it to himself and told his mom, who shared it with the Tricaricos. They tried in many ways to save his life over the next two years, including an inpatient facility, but Anthony seemed to lose hope.

“The night, March 24th that Anthony hung himself, a passerby found him and first responders revived him but he was down for 30 minutes and he had significant brain injuries. That started a nine-week journey for us where he was at Rady Children’s and we were fortunate to live across the street at the Ronald McDonald House,” Neal said. “During this time, the love and support from our community, the North County community, was extraordinary. Every week someone led an all-faiths welcome prayer circle. The love from the community that was poured into us across all denominations…was just received as pure love and light.”

After his initial ASD diagnosis, experts had prepared the family for some of the challenges Anthony may face but they never mentioned the correlation between the diagnosis and suicide. It wasn’t until after Anthony passed that they learned the troubling statistic that children between 12 and 18 with an ASD diagnosis are nearly 30% more likely to take their own lives. “As soon as we found that out, it became a moral obligation for us to close this gap,” Neal said.

One year after his passing, they launched the Endurant Movement.

Torrey Pines Endurant Club leaders Emma and Sara never met Anthony personally, but both have been involved in Mental Health First Aid and are part of PALs.

“Just from hearing the stories that Neal and Samara have shared, it really does paint a picture of the amazing person he was and I just feel really inspired by their movement and turning their pain into purpose,” Sara said. “That’s been super powerful to me and the reason why I feel so passionate about teen mental health as well and why I want to support Endurant in everything that they do.”

The girls participated in Conversations for Change, an Endurant-led teen panel talking about mental health in Solana Beach in May. After learning about the fledgling Endurant podcast, they recorded some guest spots, became teen ambassadors for Endurant and took over leading the Endurant Club at Torrey Pines, which had been founded by Anthony’s sister Bellina.

Neal said while the Endurant Movement initially started very specifically to close this gap between neurodiversity and suicide, something shifted when the teens came and did the panel. The teenagers shared that what they needed was to create safe spaces like Endurant Communities where they can safely interact and talk about the topics that are important to them—things like mental health, body shaming, suicide and inclusion. The teens had the idea that they could not only be guests on the podcast but also lead episodes and direct the conversations themselves.

“What I love about Endurant is that they make such a priority to reach out to teens,” Emma said. “We actually get to have a voice and say what we think which is such a cool opportunity that a lot of teens don’t get to have.”

“We feel Anthony through the teens because they’re saying the same things,” Neal said of the teens’ honesty.

A garage at the Tricarico home was transformed into a recording studio thanks to a generous donation from Tony Robbins (Neal used to be on his executive leadership team) and the teens now record their own Endurant show every other week. On the alternating weeks, the podcast features experts in the field and the Tricaricos share their personal experiences, stories of healing and purpose and how they keep going despite their unthinkable loss.

“The more authentic the conversations can be, the more real, the more we can further the awareness and help to destigmatize and to help save lives,” Samara said. “It’s kind of a simple yet profound message, being able to have the difficult conversations. We’re being called to step into this and to share our story authentically and vulnerably in hopes that people can find a safe space to share their own struggles…. Being that it is community-driven, what you find in community is that the energy of giving and receiving is the same. When people come with the spirit of helping others, they find that they’re also helping themselves and it just becomes this beautiful ripple effect where everyone is given strength.”

The adult leadership at Endurant had the idea to do a fitness-based fundraiser like Miles & Smiles and pitched the platform to the teens but they weren’t sure they would be able to pull it off as it was coming together so last-minute, at such a busy time at the end of the year. A couple of weeks before the event, they went to Torrey Pines prepared to tell the students that they didn’t think it was going to work.

To their amazement and surprise, about 30 teenagers between Endurant Club and PALS had planned and mapped out the entire event. There were 45 teams registered to participate across various school clubs and sports teams, sponsors lined up and activities coordinated.

With love and care, the teens had figured it out—Miles & Smiles would cap the end of PALS’ “Stress Less Week” leading into finals. The busy end of the year ended up being kind of the perfect time for this kind of event.

“This time of year is very stressful, especially for high schoolers but honestly anyone in general,” Emma said. “While the holiday season can be so filled with joy and excitement, it’s also a time that can feel quite isolating. At the end of the day this is a community event that’s meant to bring the community together, no matter if you’re in high school or an adult, no matter what stage of life you’re in, to all stand for this cause that we all believe in that needs to be talked about so much more in schools. Teen mental health, destigmatizing it on campus, is a huge part of both of our missions with Endurant and PALs.”

“It was quite last minute so it really amazes me how much our community really cares and to see all these people come together,” she said. Sara too was impressed by what they were able to accomplish and said she hopes this could be an annual event, growing bigger each year with collaboration from the other Endurant Communities.

To see Anthony remembered in this way was emotional for Samara and Neal.

“This is what it’s all about,” Neal said. “We have tons of parents who are cheering us on and showing up for us personally in meaningful ways. But this…It’s almost indescribable how it feels. It feels transcendent.”

To learn more, listen to podcasts and follow along with Endurant visit endurantmovement.org

YouTube: @EndurantMovement 

TikTok: @endurantmovement

Instagram: @endurantmovement