"The National Alliance of the Mentally Ill" (NAMl) Eastside chapter celebrated its many years of community service October 10th with a GALA dinner event at the Redmond Marriot. The theme was "Healing Through Connection." Over 100 attended with many stories shared of personal struggles and recoveries. I connected with several attendees about personal bipolar stigmatization.
Over ~ $97,000 was raised, mostly during an energetic auction. The auctioneer, Jonathan West was very entertaining and effective. He's a radio talk-show host for "warm 106.9." He was a class act with his own story to tell. Some of the items auctioned were: Seahawk vs. 49er tickets, an AirB&B overnighter, Alaska Air tickets, a Woodinville winery taste, Kraken Club ticket seats, restaurant dinners, dinner deserts and mental health wellness baskets.
The event attracted several of our elected officials: Don Constantine and Sarah Perry were honored and gave speeches. Roger Goodman and Osman Salahuddin dined with the crowd.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (Text, Call, or Chat)
info@nami-eastside.org
--Bob Yoder, NAMI member
10/10/24
