COMMUNITY MARCHES FOR MENTAL HEALTH
Blue skies and sunshine welcomed more than 100 people gathered at Parc Simon in Rockland, for a Mental Health Awareness Walk organized through the joint efforts of Club Joi/Junior Optimist International (Saint-Pascal-Baylon) and the Canadian Mental Health Association
Blue skies and sunshine welcomed more than 100 people gathered at Parc Simon in Rockland, for a Mental Health Awareness Walk organized through the joint efforts of Club Joi/Junior Optimist International (Saint-PascalBaylon) and the Canadian Mental Health Association. ''It was better than I expected,'' said Yanic Lalonde who, with his fellow Club Joi member, Kassandra Simard, coordinated the event. “We were expecting maybe 50 people.”
The walk raised about $ 1600. Prior to the start of the walk, special guest speaker, Raymond Saint-Germain, talked about his struggles with mental health issues. A frequent and popular public speaker at schools and various functions around the Prescott-Russell region, Saint-Germain overcame substance abuse problems, severe depression, and other mental health challenges during his youth and later adult life.
“What I have endured are most people’s worst nightmares,” Saint-Germain said, “but I survived.”
When Lalonde and Simard organized the Mental Health Awareness Walk, they had two goals in mind. The first was to boost public awareness of both mental health issues and the programs and services available to help people recognize and deal with problems like depression, constant stress, and other worries. The second was to help raise funds to support mental health research and support projects.