A NIGHT for NAN recap
By Senior Peer Mentor Ridha Abidshah
The Night for Nan fundraiser was truly a night full of hope. Everything from the environment to the atmosphere was full of heart and the spirit of giving. The room was full of such wonderful people working and wanting to make a difference and help the cause of promoting mental health awareness and suicide prevention in our local schools.
Being a Senior Peer Mentor attending the event, I felt as though I was a celebrity or superstar, not to mention we were all given pink stars to wear making us stand out. My fellow peer mentors and I were thanked several times for all that we do and for being there to support The NAN Project. Being thanked by everyone made me feel so appreciated and valued.
The spirit of giving was definitely present and the silent auction was a hit, raising over $12,000. Altogether, A Night For NAN raised over $75,000! The speeches by Ellen Dalton (co-founder), 3 peer mentors (Mike A, Kayla S, and Lizzie M), and Senator Joan Lovely were extremely heartfelt and some in the audience even started tearing up. Overall it was an amazing night for an amazing cause, in the company of such wonderful people.
I am proud to call myself a Senior Peer Mentor for The Nan Project as we work together to eliminate the stigma of suicide and mental health. Bringing all these voices alive and above a whisper.
Welcome to the NAN Line!
Hey friends!
If you’re here, that means you’ve taken an interest in The NAN Project, for which we are so grateful! Everyone at The NAN Project is excited to have you guys involved with our organization and interested in learning how together we can reduce the stigma around mental health and help prevent suicide!
This blog will keep you updated around what’s going on in The NAN Project. To begin with, I’d like to talk about what the NAN Project is all about and what we aim to achieve.
The NAN Project is an organization dedicated to reducing suicide by promoting the conversation around mental health and emotional well-being. There is an urgent need to open up this discussion as numbers around suicide are staggering – we lose over 40,000 Americans each year to suicide; it is the second leading cause of death among young people; over 1 million people attempted to end their lives in the United States in 2016.
The NAN Project was founded in 2015 by Ellen Dalton and Jake Cavanaugh with the goal of providing relief and resources to those affected by mental health concerns and/or suicide. It has been a steep learning curve, but after almost two years we have really gotten the ball rolling. We are now provided our services to over a dozen schools across Massachusetts and have many exciting events and projects taking place simultaneously.
The NAN Project is always looking to recruit individuals who have personal experience with mental health issues and who share the same dream of helping others who are struggling! As a NAN Project member, we head in to local schools to share our comeback stories with students, speaking about ways that they too can help themselves find healing and ways to cope amidst their own battles! This opens up the topic and makes talking about mental health concerns something that everyone feels more comfortable doing. To learn more details, check out our website www.thenanproject.org.
Stay tuned for our next blog post where we will be revealing our newest project that we are working really hard to have completed by August! It is our hope that this project will help provide hope to high schoolers who are struggling with depression and/or suicidal thoughts.
Thanks for reading, friends! Come back soon!
Your fellow NANNer,
Heather Rotman