Students from Boyertown Junior High West’s Healthy Kids Club: Kids Who Care Club, welcomed “Huggy Bear,” to their campus on Thursday, Jan. 15, by giving him just what he wants for himself and what he thinks everyone needs: lots of hugs.
“When your heart hurts, people send flowers; when your mind hurts, people throw stones,” offered Rose Gross, Bechtelsville, business owner and philanthropist, announcing the sponsorship of Huggy Bear, the newest addition to Boyertown’s Bear Fever community art project.
“It’s just not right,” she continued. “One in every 5 people suffers from some form of mental health illness, but they often suffer in silence and resist finding treatment–and their loved ones resist helping them–fearing the judgmental attitudes and prejudice that our society attaches to these diseases.
“People don’t choose these illnesses, and they can’t ‘will’ themselves to be ‘better’ any more than someone can ‘will’ themselves not to have the flu,” she offered. “Our community needs a ‘wake-up call’ about this issue, and we decided to be the community’s alarm clock!” Gross concluded.
Rose and Bill Gross of Bechtelsville, PA, sponsors of “Huggy,” are eager to bring greater understanding and awareness to mental health issues in order to decrease the stigma associated with the disease which often discourages them from seeking the medical help they need to treat the symptoms so that they can participate and enjoy life.
“‘Hugging’ is widely known as a simple way to assist anyone who may be hurting,” noted Jane Stahl, co-coordinator of Boyertown’s Bear Fever project and Director of Community Relations at Studio B Fine Art Gallery. “Actually, it is said that we all need at least 4 hugs a day to keep us mentally healthy,” she continued.
“And so, it seemed only appropriate to Susan Biebuyck, Studio B’s gallery director, that this mental health bear be a role model by offering hugs to us all. ‘Give ’em to get ’em’ is Huggy’s mantra!” concluded Stahl.
“A favorite poster crossed my desk this summer, ” noted Stahl. “It reads, ‘One awesome thing about Eeyore [a character in the Winnie the Pooh series] is that even though he is basically clinically depressed, he still gets invited to participate in adventures and shenanigans with all of his friends. What is amazing is that they never expect him to pretend to feel happy; they never leave him behind or ask him to change. They just show him love.'”
Gross’s philanthropy-gifting family and friends who experience a medical crisis or financial set back or who are launching a new business, career, or educational venture-has been her private community service throughout her lifetime; but the issue of reducing stigma and increasing her community’s understanding of mental health is one that she feels requires public recognition.
Gross was personally motivated in early summer to sponsor a Bear Fever bear with a mental health theme as a result of becoming aware of the experiences members of the local community and the world at large have in coming to terms with symptoms like depression, finding effective treatments, and meeting the unique and stifling challenges that accompany the disease. “There are so many tragic instances where recognition of a mental health issue and proper treatment at the right time would have saved lives and families,” Gross offered. “Sadly, help didn’t come in time.”
Stahl reached out to the Boyertown Area Wellness Council of Boyertown that facilitates wellness education and programming in order to motivate the community to adopt healthy lifetyles and the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation for contacts to assist in developing the artwork for the bear.
In the process she learned that of a task force was being developed in connection with Boyertown Area School District (BASD) with a mission of enhancing resilience and providing referencing services for BASD’s students who were demonstrating signs of mental and emotional health issues.
Dr. Laurie Betts, Program Officer, Health Access, for Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, led Stahl to Tim Clement of the Scattergood Foundation whose goal in Advancing Innovative Strategies for Change in Behavioral Health <http://www.scattergoodfoundation.org/> is to assist organizations in developing programs to increase understanding of health issues and reduce stigmas and biases using research-based methods to reduce stigma.
Clement had recently coordinated a national event in Philadelphia on the effectiveness of a “contact strategy” in creating greater understanding and acceptance within our communities.
Diane Lauer, director of the Wellness Council of Boyertown, Stahl, and Clement met, and Clement offered to meet with the school district’s developing task force to provide effective, evidence-based education that is valid, reliable, and measurable to the BASD and community.
“The August suicide of Robin Williams triggered a sense of urgency to Rose’s project,” noted Stahl. “His death ignited compassion and opened the hearts in many people like myself who loved him through his work,” she continued.
“Depression touches us all, our families, and our friends in some way. And, realizing that someone like Williams who presumably ‘had it all’-remarkable artistic gifts, prestige, and financial well-being-but was no longer willing to suffer life any longer highlighted the fragility of life itself and the knowledge that there, but for the grace of God, go our loved ones who suffer as he did.”
“Huggy Bear” will be installed at the entrance to West Junior High School in spring where he will be within easy reach of everyone-particularly young people-at the age at which understanding and education about mental illness must begin.
The design for Hug-a-Bear was created by Paul Stahl, marketing consultant and co-coordinator of Bear Fever; Jeff Graber of Graber Letterin’ served as the artist. Visit <www.bearfever.org> to learn more about Bear Fever.
