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Walking to End the Stigma of Mental Health
By Tim Clark — HEAD ABOVE WATER
Recently I was fortunate enough to participate in the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) 5K walk. It is a fundraiser, some people pledge money and other people walk, a partnership of sorts. It is more than that, though, it is a truly noble, almost impossible effort to raise awareness and acceptance of mental illness. “End the Stigma” was this year’s theme.
I was there because the family of a friend of mine has been touched by mental illness. Her quiet resolve and inner strength are inspiring. I haven’t managed to raise a lot of money but I have received donations from New Zealand and Great Britain which has to be some sort of accomplishment. I donate to my wife and she donates to me so we don’t go empty handed. And we walk.
The walk takes place at Wolfe Park, an appropriate place, on one side are the wealthy, with sprawling homes, lawn services to care for their stunning lawns, neat, laser-cut hedges, manicured bushes and award-worthy gardens. Cross the tracks and there are the people living on the edge, rundown buildings, bodegas and a painful lack of hope. There are fewer places in the city with such stark contrast and mutual exclusion, so similar to the feelings regarding mental illness.
