Hundreds of community members gathered at Marquette on Sunday night for “One Thing I Wish You Knew,” an event that put the mental health conversation on center stage. Co-hosted by REDgen and The Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, it showcased four local teens who shared their mental health journeys.
The night kicked off with a vendor fair, where a variety of Wisconsin organizations related to the cause were providing mental health advice and resources.
The focus of the night was the four keynote speakers who discussed their personal and varied experiences dealing with depression and anxiety while telling the audience “one thing they wish you knew.”
Shir, Daniel, Mendi and Hannah shared how their mental health struggles have changed over the past few years.
“We can tell our children that mental health struggles are meant to be kept in a bottle, not known or felt, or we can inspire them to tell the world every single chance they get, ‘I am feeling, and that is good,’” Mendi said.
After each teen spoke, they were showered by standing ovations from the full ballroom.
REDgen, standing for resilience through education for a new generation, is an organization dedicated to advocating for youth mental health and well-being.
The Friendship Circle of Wisconsin is a local nonprofit organization whose goal is to fight isolation with friendship. They help those with addiction and disabilities, and after Covid-19, they shifted their focus to include mental health services.
The “One Thing I Wish You Knew” event was organized by Levi Stein and Lisamarie Arnold. Stein is the executive director at the Friendship Circle of Wisconsin and Arnold is the executive director of REDgen.
Both Stein and Arnold stressed the importance of events like these in what they called an ever-growing mental health crisis. They hope that students, parents, decision-makers and elected officials will attend and pay attention to these talks.
“There is a lack of opportunities for our youth to have a voice. This gives them a platform to share their stories and talk to the general public,” Stein said.
Arnold shared these thoughts, emphasizing how important it is to pay attention to youth.
“We feel that when students do their speeches, they have a chance for themselves to be seen, and for others to be seen,” Arnold said.
These sentiments were felt by Maya Sankpal-Tatera, a local high school student who attended the event.
“I feel like people don’t talk about mental health enough,” Sankpal-Tatera said. “Going here made me feel more comfortable talking about this in my own life.”
Marquette brought the event to life by providing the ballroom space and parking. The event was supported by the late President Michael Lovell, who was a supporter of the program and invited the university to do the event before he passed.
“We are very honored and privileged to carry on his legacy, for mental health,” Arnold said.
This story was written by Ruby Mulvaney. She can be reached at [email protected].
