ROCKPORT – In J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” teen protagonist Holden Caulfield imagines his place in life as standing in a field of rye, catching playing children before they fall off a nearby cliff.

The reader comes to see Holden’s vision as ultimately impractical and immature.

But at Camden Hills Regional High School is a teenager who is a real “gatekeeper,” practically and effectively working to save lives.

Katherine “Kit” Dickey, an 18-year-old senior from Camden, is one of seven young people honored for community service by WLBZ-TV 2’s “Teens Who Care Awards.”

The daughter of Rebecca McNeal and David Dickey of Camden, she is being recognized for her part in creating a group at the school called Lifelines that is devoted to preventing suicides among students.

It’s not a hypothetical concern at the Rockport school.

The community experienced a string of suicides and accidental deaths nearly five years ago. One suicide occurred when Dickey was in the eighth grade; two more followed when she was a freshman. Like most in a small town, she knew the victims.

The school brought in counselors to help students deal with the grief, and community groups mobilized to address the problem, but Dickey saw a need for more.

“I happened to be reading ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul,'” she said in an interview last week. The book included a description of the Yellow Ribbon Project, a national teen suicide prevention effort. Dickey brought it to the attention of her English teacher, April Totman.

Dickey, Totman and two other students investigated and learned more about the Yellow Ribbon Project.

“Basically, it’s to get people aware of risk factors,” Dickey said.

Health teacher Harry Reed and psychologist Rosemary Fetterman completed the Yellow Ribbon Project’s “Gatekeeper” training so that they in turn could train Totman and the student members of Lifelines.

“We talked about how you would approach a friend and what you say to them,” if they were exhibiting warning signs of suicide, “and what you wouldn’t say to them,” Dickey said.

Gatekeeper training is now part of the school’s health curriculum, which means that every student in the school learns its tenets.

Dickey said she recently completed the training a second time and was surprised at how much she had forgotten.

For students, Gatekeeper training does not prepare teens to intervene or counsel their friends. Rather, it shows them when they need to refer at-risk friends to adults, she stressed.

“Lifelines is the link between the person that needs help and the help,” she said.

Though all teens are susceptible to suicide – and more likely to act if another suicide has occurred recently in the community – Dickey said those who do not have good coping skills and who are also impulsive are at greater risk.

Lifelines is now an established group at the school with a dozen members. It meets weekly after classes.

The group has created a pamphlet listing facts, risk factors and warning signs of teen suicide. Members also have handed out green ribbons to students at the start of the school year – “a sign of hope,” Dickey said – and gave out Hershey kisses and other small gifts as a way of showing students someone cares for them.

“Each year at the end of the year we make up a bulletin board,” she said. The information highlights information about preventing suicide.

Among teens, May has a high suicide rate, probably because students begin to feel stress about final papers and exams, and, in the case of seniors, about graduating and leaving the confines of the school community, she said.

Lifelines is putting together a packet of information members will give to seniors at the close of the year, she said.

Many colleges worry about freshman suicide, as students adjust to the academic rigors while, in some cases, being away from home and family.

Lifelines’ current project is creating a Web site.

“We’ve thought about bringing Lifelines to other high schools,” Dickey said.

Dickey will be presented with the award – which includes a $1,000 college scholarship – on April 11 at a ceremony at the Portland Museum of Art, with Maine first lady Karen Baldacci delivering the keynote address. WLBZ 2 and its related station in Portland, WCSH 6, will broadcast a program about the award winners on April 23.

Guidance counselor Judy Ottman said Dickey “quietly leads and follows through with her beliefs,” without making a show of her efforts. “She’s really effective, a leader,” whom other students seek out.

Ottman described Dickey as an independent girl who studied in Romania during her junior year.

Dickey has not yet decided where she will attend college, but is leaning toward Simmons in Boston.

Totman praised Dickey, and said the award was deserved.

“Kit is someone who wasn’t afraid to tackle the issue of youth suicide, wasn’t afraid to stand up in front of her peers to talk about it, and isn’t afraid to do all she can to help make a difference in the lives around her,” Totman said.