Thursday, May 2, 2019
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 44
What’s your My Why? Lloydminster’s My Why Revolution presents The Mother Series TAYLOR WEAVER
EDITOR
..................................
What started out as a dream in the summer of 2017 for Kristen Traverse and Jessie Mann has evolved into a life-changing experience for the two as well as the many individuals and families they have worked with over the years. The dream was quite simple. Meet new people in the community who have gone through some tough times, share their stories, create conversations and reduce stigmas through these educational and inspiring stories. The two first met and worked together at the 2017 Inspiring Women’s Conference and immediately clicked. It wasn’t until that summer they really reconnected at the Lloydminster Hospital when Mann was overcoming a broken pelvis and multiple broken vertebrae in her back following a barrel racing accident. Traverse, a registered nurse who in 2015 had a
cryptogenic stroke that left her with aphasia and apraxia, was there to support Mann as a nurse and friend, which is when the My Why concept began to take shape. “During the downtime, we started dreaming about meeting inspiring people in the community,” said Mann. “We are constantly inspired by people in Lloydminster and surrounding area and we wanted to spend more time with them and give them a platform to tell their stories.” “We immediately hit it off because we have the same passion for doing things that are out of our comfort zone and building others up,” added Traverse. “Jessie is such an absolute force and inspirational woman you cannot help but love.” The two knew they couldn’t do it all on their own, and brought on Kim Capiral of Narra Studios
to bring the magic to life and started envisioning how they could turn these tough times and pain into something that could make a difference. It wasn’t long before My Why Revolution was a registered organization and a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
“We felt if we really threw ourselves behind this passion, that together the three of us could really tell brave, inspiring and educational stories from some of the many truly remarkable people we live with here,” said Mann. With a strong belief in
Taylor Olivia Photography
Project Sunrise, the team approached Malcolm Radke, CEO of the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation, and with support and guidance from Radke, the group devised a three-part campaign to share the stories of people facing mental health struggles and addiction. “A big part of breaking down the stigma involved in mental health and helping people realize what local support is available is storytelling and helping people see what a real challenge this is for everyone, so on the storytelling side, they’ve really done a great job finding individual stories of people right here in the region who deal with these things,” said Radke. “It’s your neighbours, your coworkers, friends, family members, anyone you walk by on the street. They’ve done a great job of pulling out the emotion and making people feel the impacts of the
various mental health challenges people face.” To date, the series has included “Jordy’s Story” and “Tyler’s Story,” which can both be found on the My Why Facebook page, and “The Mother Series” is being released this month. In honour of World Maternal Mental Health Day, the Meridian Source will be publishing stories, written by My Wh y Re vo l u tio n, about four of the women in The Mother Series. “Our event in May is the largest we have taken on so far. We will feature nine women on their motherhood journeys and share their stories through the Meridian Source, Prime Time Local News, social media, a trailer released May 1 and a full feature film to come at the end of the month. We launched the event on May 1 (Maternal Mental Health Day) at the event at Home Hardware with the Mother’s First group,” said Mann. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4