Minding Your Mind’s Fourth Annual Blue Gene Gala
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Minding Your Mind held its Fourth Annual Blue Gene Gala on Sunday, October 20th, at The Shipley School. Event chairs were Susan and David H. Lipson Jr. (pictured) and Nancy and Benjamin Shein. The Keynote speaker was Carrie Fisher (center). Charles O'Brien M.D. Ph.D received the Changing Minds Award.
From left: Tricia Cuddy, chair of Minding Your Mind, Mary Nixon and Christine Edmonds. Fifty percent of individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of a mental health issue will show warning signs by the age of 14. Educating students, parents, teachers and school administrators on this oft-avoided topic is critical. Minding Your Mind provides this much-needed education by sponsoring school programs, supporting research and holding an annual public forum each May.
Trish and Kirk Larsen.
Don and Agnes Gayhardt, committee members for the Blue Gene Gala.
From left: Carolyn Mirsky, Estelle Dissin Joanna Dissin, Marla Dissin and Jen Mirsky.
From left: Cindy Silver and Mike Silver with Amanda Burch.
From left: Catherine Siciliano and Pat Gainey, Philadelphia regional director American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AMFSP). Saturday night is the big gala for the AMFSP. Tickets still available.
Jerry Ross and Nancy Marcus Newman. Jerry is responsible for bringing The Haven, a residential living facility for college students in recovery from substance abuse, to University City this year. It is affiliated with The Betty Ford Center and is only the second of what they hope will become a mainstay on college campuses to assist kids with substance abuse.
Carrie Fisher spoke of her years struggling with substance abuse which began in her teen years, her sobriety and being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Gerald P Cuddy, president and CEO of Beneficial Bank, was the host for the evening. He stressed understanding for the mental health of today's youth, as well as the virtues of the Minding Your Mind program, through which brave students who have struggled with mental health go to schools and speak on the subject, stressing to them that there is help out there for them.
