On Wednesday, April 24, East Lansing High School will host a Mental Health and Wellness Summit. This event will be full of resources, games, workshops and more to raise awareness for mental health in East Lansing. Heather Findley, the District Mental Health Coordinator, created this event alongside the Mental Health Advisory Committee.
“We are extending this to the entire East Lansing, the greater community,” Finley said.
This summit is a product of the Mental Health Advisory Committee wanting to be more action-oriented, according to Findley. They, along with others on the committee, feel as if the committee and what they stand for has not been heard in the way they expected.
“Even though the work [the Mental Health Advisory Committee] has done has been really influential, we thought okay, we want to do something to bring together our entire community,” Findley said.
Besides adults on the committee, Nyx Zoll (10) has been part of the planning committee as well as in charge of the writing workshop. Zoll’s desire to contribute came from their own experiences with mental health. With their preferred way to cope with mental health being writing, they wanted people to experience the relief they got, in hopes that it would help others as well.
“I started writing poems about things happening in my life,” Zoll said. “I realized it was helping relieve the emotions in me.”
Another contributor channeling from their own experiences is math teacher, football coach and Mental Health Advisory Club member, Mark Foster. He has a presentation on mental health and the ways he dealt with it called “Mental health issues with that guy? Never. Not Mr. Foster!” that he is planning to give at the summit.
“I just overheard a student say, ‘Mr. Foster gets depression? Right, like he’d ever let that happen,’” Foster said. “And I just gotta shake my head. Like, if you only knew.”
Foster, who has been dealing with mental health issues since 1999 never kept his issues a secret. Whenever there is an appropriate time, he finds himself talking about the subject with students, administrators and teachers. Foster feels as if now is a better time than ever to share his story, hoping someone can relate.
“I had to do some thinking and rethinking about [the presentation] it,” Foster said. “Do I want to do this or not? What really came down to is I felt like hey, if it’s gonna help one person, forget about me and my worries, helping that one person is more important.”
As the date draws near, everyone involved in the creation and marketing of this event are excited in seeing the fruits of their labor. Their biggest hope is that the necessary attention mental health deserves is brought forward.
“I’m looking forward to helping the community the most,” Zoll said. “Seeing people experience this event and find the help they deserve.”
The event will take place in the lower half of the high school, starting with snacks being provided at the concession stands and arts and crafts in the student union. Throughout the hallway and gymnasium areas, participants will find multiple local resources for mental health. Foster’s presentation will be in room 155, and there will be even more rooms to discover.
“I hope that this is something we can continue to build upon,” Finley said. “I don’t want this to be kind of a one-and-done. We’d like to see other ways we can continue to expand what the committee is able to support.”
