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Birthday Campaign

Ring The Bell

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For my birthday this year I ask that people make a donation to Mental Health America, an organization dedicated to helping all Americans achieve wellness by living mentally healthier lives. As someone who has struggled with both depression and anxiety for a great deal of my life and having gone undiagnosed for many years this charity is one that I am very passionate about. MHA provides prevention services for all, early identification and intervention services for those at risk. During the early days of mental health treatment, asylums often restrained people who had mental illnesses with iron chains and shackles around their ankles and wrists. In the early 1950s, Mental Health America issued a call to asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles. On April 13, 1956, at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Md., Mental Health America melted down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope: the Mental Health Bell. Now the symbol of Mental Health America, the 300-pound Bell serves as a powerful reminder that the invisible chains of misunderstanding and discrimination continue to bind people with mental illnesses. Today, the Mental Health Bell rings out hope for improving mental health and achieving victory over mental illnesses. For my birthday, I want to help others ring their bell.

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