A group of youth with Marion County United Way have organized and are holding a mental health resource fair on September 21st.

United Way provided a grant so that Marion County could assemble their own youth board. Those youth members got funding to organize a project that was important to them in which they chose to move forward with organizing a fair that would provide mental resource resources to anyone. The youth board consisting of Zach Dobson, Addison Wadle, Rhya Cowden, Sydney Busick, Janie Maasdam, and Reagan Murray have stated how they feel mental health isn’t addressed as much as it should be in Marion County and they want to be able to provide resources to anyone who may be struggling. 

The event will be from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm and will be held at the South Tailwater Recreation Area near Red Rock Dam. There will be community organizations sharing resources to support mental well being and activities for all ages. The event is aimed for elementary, middle, and high school aged students but all ages are welcome. Kamryn Ryan who helps oversee the youth board also wants to make this an event where people in the area can see that taking care of their mental health can be fun. Wadle tells KNIA/KRLS that this is a great opportunity to spread awareness.

“I feel like it’s definitely a missing point in society everywhere. I think that a lot of people don’t want to talk about it like it’s a taboo topic. For me personally it’s been a huge thing all of my life and just in many different ways. When this opportunity came up I said wow what a great opportunity to get it out there and spread awareness, and let people know that it’s not embarrassing and other people struggle with it too.”

Hear more about this event from the youth board organizing it on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.