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January 2010
Welcome to this issue of CONNECTIONS from the KARLA SMITH FOUNDATION.
Welcome to the January 2010 issue of CONNECTIONS, the e-mail newsnotes from the KARLA SMITH FOUNDATION. Feel free to forward these notes to anyone on your e-mail list. For copies of this edition as well as previous CONNECTIONS, go to our website:
www.KarlaSmithFoundation.org.
KSF has many reasons to be grateful and hopeful as we begin a new decade. At the top of the list are all of you, the people who encourage, support, and inspire us to continue our work of providing hope for a balanced life to the family and friends of anyone with mental health problems or who lost a loved one to suicide. Your continuing interest demonstrates the need for KSF, and we are grateful.
Our Dinner/Auction was a wonderful evening with the largest crowd yet (275 people), an exciting auction, inspiring testimonies, and the presentation of the first Karla Smith Awards. We also previewed the sixty second, BringChange2Mind, TV public service announcement about erasing the stigma of mental illness and which features Glenn and Jessie Close. To add to the success of the event, KSF raised over $50,000 to continue and expand our services. Thanks to the committee who planned and ran the dinner/auction and to all of you who attended and/or contributed items and donations to this gala.
The Karla Smith Award is given to a person or persons who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to the mission of KSF. We believe that KSF continues the best of who and what Karla was – and is. The people we recognize with the Karla Smith Award represent and express her heart which is also our mission. This year the award went to Kathy Mueller, the first person to attend a KSF support group meeting and who has volunteered countless hours as well as her expertise helping with the finances of KSF. The award also went to Pat and Carolyn Dellamano who tragically lost their only child, Nick, to suicide at age 25. The Dellamanos, regular attendees at our suicide survivor support group, sponsored a very successful golf tournament this summer in memory of Nick and donated the proceeds to KSF. We are happy to provide the Karla Smith Award, and we congratulate the 2009 recipients.
The KSF website continues to receive hits from all over our county as well as many international areas. One consequence of this activity is continuing e-mail correspondence with a number of people who seek our help. The website is one of our primary ways to fulfill our mission of providing hope to the families and friends of anyone with mental health problems or who lost a loved one to suicide.
Our Dinner/Auction connection with Glenn Close led to an expanded role for KSF in the national BringChange2Mind campaign. One of the missions of KSF is to erase the stigma of mental illness and suicide, and the BC2M campaign does exactly the same. The fit between KSF and BC2M is too perfect to ignore. As a result, on December 1, Tom, Fran, Kevin, and Emily had a three hour, business lunch in New York with Glenn Close, Kenn Dudek (president of Fountain House) and Nancy Evans (executive assistant to Glenn). We discussed the role of KSF in the campaign and brainstormed about future projects of BC2M. We left the meeting convinced of their sincerity and dedication to the campaign and reenergized to do our part to ensure the success of this much needed project.
Recently Fran and Tom spoke at the Belleville area Teachers’ Institute and the Belleville region Catholic priests meeting. These presentations have led to many follow-up contacts, including our first Home Visit with an elderly mother who lost her son to suicide. If you know of a group who would benefit from a KSF presentation or a Home Visit, please let us know.
We are now partners with BC2M. Check our website (www.KarlaSmithFoundation.org) for a link to the BC2M site and you will find our logo on their homepage, along with the major mental health and suicide prevention organizations in the country. Their site had about 3 million hits in the first week of the campaign, and they now have about 6,000 Facebook fans. Among other things, this national exposure introduces KSF to many people.
On a practical level, KSF responds to emails generated by the BC2M campaign. Most of the emails that we get through BC2M are from the family and friends of people with mental health problems. They come from all over the country, especially from areas where the PSA is running often. We send a personal response to each email, tailoring our comments to each situation. In effect, we are approaching these contacts as an extension of our support groups. We are not surprised but this experience verifies the need for KSF throughout the country.
In order to strengthen our organization, KSF is happy to announce that we have moved to our next phase of growth. We hired our first, part-time employee. Emily Smith now serves as the KSF Director of Development and Marketing, and, as those of you who attended our Dinner/Auction know, she is a very talented and professional leader. We knew from our beginning in 2005 that there would be a time when KSF would, hopefully, mature to the point of needing a staff to help implement our mission and to build for the future. With the advice of our Advisory Council, we feel that now is the time to begin that process, and we are convinced that Emily is the right person. We consider this a major milestone in the unfolding history of KSF. Thanks, Emily, and welcome!
KSF is now on Facebook! Become a fan today and use our discussion forum to share thoughts about mental illness and suicide survivor support.
KSF has a new website provider, a St. Louis-based company called The Net Impact www.thenetimpact.com. The design and feel of our website remains the same, but The Net Impact will help us grow and increase our presence on the web. They have been a pleasure to work with through the transition and we look forward to partnering with them for a long time.
Please contact us at any time with your comments, suggestions, or questions about KSF. You can reach us through e-mail at KSF@KarlaSmithFoundation.org or call at 618-628-3129. We appreciate your continuing support as, together, we provide hope for a balanced life to family and friends of anyone with a mental illness or who lost a loved one to suicide.
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