Mental health can be a heavy topic, so NAMI Southeast Ohio lightened the mood — with a 5K, a walk, a raffle and a dog costume contest. The organization, formerly NAMI Athens, held its annual fundraiser and mental health awareness event Saturday in Athens, drawing participants to the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway for a 5K run and a 3K walk.
The event raised around $15,000 for mental health resources in Athens County and Southeast Ohio, according to Wren Hankins, a community health worker at NAMI Southeast Ohio, though a $2,000 donor check was still on its way. The total is just under what the event raised last year, Hankins said, but the point was bigger than the dollars.
Before the walk, participants heard from speakers who shared their experiences with mental health, including Lish Greiner, who spoke openly about being a late-diagnosed neurodivergent adult and raising a neurodivergent child, and about how early attempts to find help faltered because she did not know how to ask for it.
Alongside the speakers, the day offered arts and crafts and educational opportunities about mental health resources available locally — the kind of practical information organizers say helps turn awareness into actual support for families across the region.
The lighter touches were deliberate. The first-ever NAMI Barks dog costume contest was Hankins’ idea to add something fun and different, and participants also got to meet Emma, a horse glammed up with glitter and a Kool-Aid-dyed rainbow coat. Balancing the hard conversations with moments of fun, organizers said, makes those conversations easier to start.
NAMI Southeast Ohio’s message throughout the day was that talking about mental health should be normal — that raising awareness and having conversations matters as much as the fundraising total, because it is how people learn that help exists and where to find it.
For Southeast Ohio residents looking for support, the walk put those resources on display in one place, and organizers say the conversations started on the bikeway are meant to keep going long after the last walker crossed the finish line.
Photo: Ed!, CC BY-SA 3.0