DAVENPORT, Iowa - Students and mental health care professionals are joining forces to help fight the stigma surrounding mental health today.
October 10 is World Mental Health Day and Vera French Community Mental Health Center is teaming up with students from both Davenport North and Davenport West High Schools to host an event out side their facility at 1441 W Central Park Ave in Davenport. The event is being held from 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm.
Bettenhausen’s Hot Dog Haus Food Truck will be selling hot dogs outside the Center. Shelby Tracy, Drumline Instructor at North, and Courtney Long, Drumline and Assistant Band Director at West, will also be attending at 2:45 p.m. for a 30 minute performance by North and West drumline students.
While this is a collaborative effort between both the North and West High School drumline instructors, Tracy is excited for the whole community to engage in this project.
“This idea came to both Courtney Long and I after realizing the positive effect music, and especially the drumline, can have on everyone," Tracy said. "The drumline is loud, proud, and a visible part of the band, and mental illness is often silenced and put to the side."
World Mental Health Day was observed for the first time in 1992 at the initiative of the World Mental Health Federation.