NAMI Oxford

NAMI Oxford put together a wonderful, committed team which raised $9,662. The top fundraising team in the state consisted of Michael Danahy, Hanne Gaycken, Karsten Gaycken, Mary Harrington, Clarice Ivy, and Carol Van Besien.

How did we do it? We conducted a variety of fun activities and reached out via email, phone, and social media to family and friends all around the country from Wisconsin to New Hampshire and back again to Mississippi. Donations came from eight states in all.

Our top attraction was a YouTube video featuring Mary Harrington playing a variety of songs at the piano. Mary chose well-known pieces that related to mental illness. (Visit NAMI Mississippi’s YouTube channel to see the videos at namims.org/youtube.) Other team members displayed their talents by walking the dog, doing treadmill, and making pottery. You can see the pics on our Facebook page at facebook.com/namioxfordms.

Mary Harrington plays piano!

Source: NAMI Mississippi/YouTube

Tuesday Newsday, which is NAMI’s nationally distributed newsletter, featured a story about our Oxford walk in the Oct. 27, 2020 edition.

We reach out not only to local residents but also military families as far away as Columbus.

One of our faithful supporters deserves special recognition. Loretta Rogers has worked as a housekeeper for 44 years for one of our NAMI families. During that time, she lived through the mental health turmoil in that family, so she decided to do fundraising for our 2020 Walk.

She did it the old fashioned way, nothing digital or virtual about it: shoe leather, paper and pencil, knocking on her neighbors’ doors, getting a dollar or two at a time.

Here is a partial list in her own hand of some of the small-donor gifts Loretta Rogers collected and recorded.

Tirelessly, she campaigned for NAMI in both her community and her congregation and raised more than $600! Especially noteworthy is that the donations came from nearly 50 individuals. With contributions ranging from $1 to $100, Loretta dedicated herself to raising funds and -- just as importantly -- to raising awareness of NAMI’s mission and services.

Mary Harrington of the Oxford affiliate awards Loretta Rogers a plaque for her dedication and generosity!

In other news from Oxford, we continue to hold conference call meetings for our two support groups. We reach out not only to local residents but also military families as far away as Columbus. For details and updates, check out our Facebook page as well as namims.org/oxford. And we are proud of our own Mary Harrington, who has been elected to serve as President of the NAMI Mississippi Board of Directors.

Submitted by Michael Danahy, NAMI Oxford Affiliate Member At Large