Our First Fundraiser

Last weekend we held our first official fundraiser for Start Day One. The fundraiser was to start promoting our "Mental Break" campaign for kids. What we are wanting to do is to get out to the local schools, middle and high schools in the area and have an assembly where we can talk to kids about our approach to mental health and suicide.

Kids today have a lot of pressure on them, and they all need that mental break! Lord knows I need to take a 10-minute break every day to clear my head and focus on what I need to do and how I am going to handle certain things. Putting things into the right perspective and taking a deep breath and then conquering it all! 

The event was held at the Colts Neck Inn, and it was a "drop ticket" auction type fundraiser, wherein we had about 56 amazing baskets of gift certificates, gourmet chocolate, candles, wine, doggie goodies, jewelry, designer handbags, sports memorabilia, etc., etc!

Delicious appetizers were passed around, along with some hot dishes for people who attended, in hopes that they would stick around and buy lots and lots of tickets to help us raise enough money to do what we are planning with Mental Break. (It worked!) Although we had hoped we would have raised a little more than we did, we are overly happy with the outcome and how many people came out to support our cause.

The next step for us is to get videos and literature made so we can send it out to the schools and to let them understand our approach to suicide and mental health for kids. We want them to understand that we have a totally different, proactive approach and want to get to these kids long before any thoughts of suicide ever cross their minds.

Perhaps get "champions" of the school to be ambassadors for Start Day One. The kids in school that everyone likes to get on board with us and help to continue to spread our thoughts long after we are gone from the school.

With your help and support, we believe that we can make a difference in these kids' lives.