Last Saturday, March 27th over 3500 particpants gathered at Sam Lena Park in Tucson to celebrate the realilty of mental health recovery and to reduce stigma for people with mental illness.  The Opening Ceremony began with the Presentation of Colors by the Air National Guard.  Then Betsy Bruce and Mike Rapp introduced Honorary Chair Rodney Glassman who sang the National Anthem.  Councilwoman Karin Uhlich also greeted the crowd with words of encouragement and Judy Johnson from the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona spoke about the importance of proper treatment and the success of Southern Arizona’s single biggest awareness building event, NAMIWalks.

Mark Stein from KOLD News 13 cut the ribbon and the walkers were off to the sounds of the Seven Pipers Scottish Society Bagpipe members.

Almost 100 volunteers assisted in organizing and implementing the huge event including NAMI Southern Arizona and NAMI Southeastern Arizona volunteers, members from local Kiwanis clubs, Rincon High School, Pima and Cochise Colleges.  Mental health provider services provided information and several local restaurants donated food and refreshments. The crowd was also entertained with Karaoke, Japanese Drummers and Folklorico Dancers. Over fifty local businesses and organizations proided sponsorships of cash and in-kind donations.

Local mental health providers CODAC and La Frontera had super size walking teams of over 300 particpants each.  Other huge teams were in attendance from University Physicians Healthcare, COPE, Intermountain, and the University of Arizona’s Health and Wellness Center.  Some teams walked in memory of a lost one or in recognition of a family member living with a mental illness.  Community College teams participated as did teams from local churches, law enforcement agencies including the Pima County Attorney’s office and the Veteran’s Administration Healthcare.

NAMIWalks Southern Arizona is the single largest fundraising event for the local NAMI affilliates in Tucson and Sierra Vista.  The event has enabled the organizations to increase the programs and services tenfold over the last four years.  NAMI services include educational classes, support groups, advocacy, Crisis Intervention Training, Speakers presentations and resource specialistists in English and in Spanish. Total donations for 2010 are down from last year, but participation is still growing increasing awareness and building the National Alliance on Mental Illness profile in our communities. One in four families are affected by mental illness and NAMI is here to support them. 

All services offered by the non-profit are totally free of charge.  Donations of support are still being accepted at the Walk website at www.nami.org/namiwalks/AZ/Tucson or by calling the office direct at 520-622-5582.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under brain disorders, depression, General Mental Health, mental illness, recovery, schizophrenia, stigma. Tags for this post: bi-polar, brain disorders, crisis intervention, depression, disability, healthcare, homeless, medication, mental illness, NAMIWalks-Changing Minds One Step at a Time, PTSD, recovery, stigma, Suicide, support, therapy, treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.