My husband, Tom, and I went on the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Walk on Sept. 28 near where we live north of Chicago. The t-shirts this year say, “I AM NAMI Walks,” along with their standard slogan, “Mental Health for All.” Or, at least, that’s been their slogan for the past several years. We’ve been raising money for NAMI as part of our walk since 2007. Tom and I have raised at least $500 for NAMI every year. We only missed in 2018 when the walk coincided with our 10th anniversary celebration in Door County. And that year, I did a Facebook fundraiser for NAMI for my birthday.
I like that the latest t-shirts this year say, “I AM NAMI Walks.” I always make sure I’ll get a t-shirt by donating $100 to our walk page after I register for us. My mom has been going with us too for the past few years, but she couldn’t go this year due to a work conflict. NAMI is one of the few causes Tom and I agree on supporting, and I am passionate about it. I am passionate about mental health awareness. That’s why I’m still writing about it even though I’m not getting paid for the columns anymore as I was when I wrote them for HealthyPlace before the website recently discontinued the blog where I was a contributor. Also, I had planned to donate to two other causes on Giving Tuesday (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) but I donated the money budgeted to our NAMI Walk instead.
We haven’t been able to go on the actual walk in a few years, first because of COVID (when Tom, my mom, and I took NAMI up on their offer to have us raise money for them and go for a 5K walk on our own) and now because of my knees. I had to have total knee replacement surgery on both knees because I had bone-on-bone osteoarthritis (meaning, I had no cartilage). I had the surgeries last year, but my knees still hurt and I still have trouble using stairs and walking long distances such as a 5K. Running and jumping are out of the question. So, this year, we walked as far as we could for a while.
So, I was very happy we could get at least a little walking in after so long. And, afterward, we went out for brunch and I had my first ever pumpkin spice latte. Sorry, they’re overrated. But NAMI isn’t overrated! And the NAMI Walk is always a great time. Until next year!
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