PostSecret.com is oddly addictive.

The popular website displays postcards mailed anonymously to creator Frank Warren, revealing people’s secrets – everything from sexually deviant thoughts to suicidal musings – and its pull is almost voyeuristic.

University of Calgary student Taylor Peterson is one of millions who looks though the secrets regularly, but one entry changed her outlook and led her on a campaign to bring Warren to speak at her school for a $20,000 fee.

The entry was a photo of a busy street with an X marking the spot that read: “This is where I was when I knew I wanted to step out into the traffic rather than keep struggling alone. It is now one year on to the day. I still don’t know why I didn’t go through with it but I’m glad.”

“That secret made me realize how close I had been … I could have been a statistic,” Peterson said. 

So when her general studies class posed the question, “How are you going to change the world?” Peterson suggested raising funds for the Centre for Suicide Prevention and bringing Warren to speak at the university.

“It seemed like a pipe dream,” said fellow group member Kait Bohan, but after exchanging emails with Warren’s publicist a speaking engagement was set up for today. And even better, Warren waived his appearance fee.