On May 1st, Our Lady of Good Counsel’s Falcon Serve Others Club & the Good Counsel’s Counseling Department hosted the Mental Health Awareness Walk, which started at 4 pm and ended at 8 pm. The event was in memory of Tiffany Ahianor, a former student at Good Counsel who graduated in the Class of 2020 and was pursuing her Bachelor’s in Psychology at Howard University. This event was focused around students and staff coming together to raise awareness through advocacy, guest speakers, and the main event, walking! The event included discussions on finding peace from anger, understanding the fear of judgment, and small group discussions on how to persevere. One of the speakers who attended is Tanaye White, who has been a mental health activist and model for over a decade and is known for her mental wellness company called Feel Good Babe. Through her cheerful attitude and smart remarks, she was able to reach out to the hearts of the participants and help them to understand mental health from their own perspectives. Feel Good Babe provides resources for users such as Therapy for Black Girls, The National Crisis Textline, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention where Tanaye hosted The Lifesavers Gala back in 2022! The colorful walk was an event to be remembered, as students launched colored powder into the air, providing a remarkable arrangement of colors on their hair, pants, and shirts, followed by a mile walk around the track here at Good Counsel. The Mental Health Awareness Walk was a great demonstration of finding hope in serious topics and left students feeling pleased with what they had ventured into. Following the event, Ms. Roeder was interviewed to give insight on the work and dedication behind the scenes of the event. This is what she had to say about it:

Q: What were you expecting going into the event? 

A: I was hoping that students would take away at least one strategy for dealing with stress, and that people would think that the event went pretty well for our first time. 

Q: How long did you plan the Mental Health Awareness Walk for?

A: It was planned for at least a few months. A form of this walk was done last year but on a lower scale and we wanted to do it again for this current year, so we got a committee together and met a couple of times to plan different things.  

Q: How was the event from your perspective and please use one word to describe it? 

A: I thought the event went very well. It seemed like each of the sessions improved as they went on. The sections adjusted based on how the students reacted and it looked like the students enjoyed the coloring section of the event which is great. The one word I would use to sum the event all up would be success. 

Q: Did the amount of time allotted to the event convert to the amount of mental health support you wanted?

A: I would say yes. There are so many pieces to a big event that need to be changed or altered and for the amount of time we put into the event, I would say it was pretty fun and went pretty well. 

Q: Will this be done more in the future? If so, what would you change from the preparation of this event to the next? 

A: It would be great to have three lines for checking in so entrance into the event is smoother than this year’s, but otherwise giving more details on the rotations we had during the event would be another goal for us to work towards. 

Overall, the event could not have been more of a success in helping students find mental health help and understand their circumstances better.