Hope for Help club plants pinwheels for mental health awareness

Jeanette Blain | News Editor | [email protected]
Photo credit: Julie Ostler | Assistant Photo Editor | @jules1lo

The Hope for Help club planted 600 red pinwheels in the grass around campus, Oct. 5-9, to kick-start their “Your Story Matters” campaign.

The goal of the campaign is to help raise awareness for mental health issues.

Adrian Lopez, club president, said that the club wants to let people know that they are important even if they are going through difficult challenges.

Lopez said that over 600 million people around the world are living with mental illness. Each pinwheel used in the campaign represents one million of those people.

The club isn’t only set up to help people struggling with mental health issues. They also try to provide guidance to family members and friends.

“If you have a family member, for example, and you don’t know how to help them,” Lopez said. “We help people understand what they can do in those situations.”

In addition to the pinwheels, the club plans to have a mental health fair, to be held in the Hall of Flags Oct 13-14, where students can meet with representatives from different organizations.

The club will also host a benefit concert Oct. 24 featuring local artists Foreign Figures, Coral Bones and Aubree Liz.