Max Wijangco loved skateboarding.
Snowboarding too. And sneakers (a bona fide “sneakerhead,” his mom, Jill Wijangco, would call him). But the skatepark — that was his home.
It had been that way since Max found skateboarding at 7 years old and has continued to be a home for Max’s memory in the two and a half years since he died at 15 by suicide in March 2022.
Now, for his family, friends and community members in and around Naperville, it will be a place to learn.
This Saturday, a “Skate Talk” will be held at Naperville’s Frontier Skate Park. Free and open to the public, the event will be a discussion with professional skateboarders focused on mental health. The idea is to take heavy topics like suicide, stress regulation and how to stay mentally fit and look at them through the lens of skateboarding.
Max’s Mission, a nonprofit started to provide support for suicide loss survivors by the Wijangco family in the wake of Max’s death, put the talk together. The hope, organizers say, is to engage people and especially younger community members — those like Max — who may not otherwise be seeking out or have the opportunity to raise these hard conversations.
Max’s Mission was borne out of Wijangco and her family feeling alone in their loss. They “realized right away that there weren’t a lot of people like us in the community — people who have had a loss by suicide,” Wijangco said.
With Max’s Mission, they’re working to change that, through events like the Skate Talk but also other initiatives, too. The nonprofit, for instance, runs a monthly support group for anyone who has lost someone they know to suicide. It also delivers baskets to those that are newly bereaved by a suicide loss.
Beyond that, Max’s Mission runs an ongoing online project called “Say Their Name,” where survivors of suicide loss send photos and information about their deceased loved ones for the organization to post on its social media accounts.
The nonprofit is also in the early stages of donating mission-driven artwork to the Naperville Park District. An initial proposal for the idea was brought to the Naperville Park Board last week.
As introduced, Max’s Mission would commission murals for the park district to install at Centennial Skate Park. The murals would pay tribute to the skating community while weaving in elements of hope and encouragement to those struggling with their mental health.
“We wanted to do something where we could reach the kids and the young adults at the skatepark,” Jill Wijangco said, “and give them a message of hope that they may not be able to get anywhere else.”
Saturday’s event will run from noon to 6 p.m. Before dialogue starts, attendees will have the chance to show off their skating prowess in a skateboard contest.
Discussion is set to begin at 3 p.m. and will feature a presentation by pro skater John Gardner. Other pro skaters Wes Kremer and Brandon Turner also will be in attendance. The event will round out with a few hours of open skate time with the pros.
Gardner, who is coming into town from out of state for the talk, says he’s hoping to impart a sense of understanding, agency and comfort to attendees through his presentation.
“At the very least, I want people to come away from this talk with more courage to ask for help … and with tools to better navigate stress and the challenging situations that we all have to go through in life,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
Gardner, 32, officially went professional with his skateboarding career in 2021, though he’s been skating for most of his life, he said. Through his tenure, the sport has taken him around the world. But it’s also brought him face to face with a wide breadth of people, facing a wide breadth of mental health challenges, he said.
“I’ve met a whole bunch of people that were struggling with things internally,” he said. And they resonated with them, Gardner said.
Having dealt with his own bouts of suicidal ideation — and watching two friends die by suicide — Gardner knows firsthand what it feels like to navigate periods of stress and mental strain. As he traveled and met more people that had faced or were managing similar challenges, he found himself sharing tips, techniques and encouragement that helped him.
In fall 2023, Gardner decided to leave professional skateboarding and commit to this new path full time, he said. He is now pursuing his masters in social work.
Gardner says events like Saturday’s are important because they give people space to grieve what they’ve lost and process what they’re going through but also see that they’re not isolated in that experience.
In that sense, Jill Wijangco imagines the talk will be as empowering as it is educational. She’s hoping to build the kind of community support that she didn’t have when she and her family lost Max. Really, that’s been the goal since they started Max’s Mission.
“It’s a way to create awareness that wasn’t already there,” Wijangco said.
In whatever capacity Max’s Mission operates, the chance to connect with and help survivors of suicide loss is something Wijangco can’t quite quantify.
“I don’t know how to describe how deeply meaningful it is,” she said. “But it’s more meaningful than anything else that I do on a day-to-today basis.”
The Skate Talk especially will be “extremely rewarding” when it comes to fruition, Wijangco said. The event has been in the works for a year. But beyond that, it would have meant the world to Max.
“He would really love this,” Wijangco said. “This would be the biggest deal to him.”
