i understand - One Community. Many Voices.

Vonnie Woodrick and Doug Meijer of iunderstand join Talk of the Town to discuss an upcoming charity event focused on raising awareness for those who struggle with mental health and depression.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Talk of the Town onnews radio with thirteen hundred and one oh
six nine FM. I am SteveKelly with Brett Paketa from West Michigan's Morning
News. If you joined us onthe program Tuesday, you had a great
conversation about an event coming up forI Understand, love heels called One Community,
Many Voices. It is Thursday,September twenty first at Meyer Gardens.

(00:21):
Those two people are back with uson Talk of the Town. The founder
of I Understand is Vonnie Woodrick.Thank you for coming in today. Thank
you for having me Doug Meyer instudio with us as well. Doug,
thank you for coming in. Thankyou. Let's start with and if you
missed the conversation on Tuesday, Vonniefounded this amazing charity. Talk to us
about the reasons why. Yeah,Well, I Understand as a nonprofit that

(00:44):
supports those that have lost a lovedone to death by suicide or are living
with a mental health illness. AndI started I Understand because I lost my
husband almost twenty years ago to depressionand the journey after loss was extremely difficult,
especially when there's three young kids five, twelve, and fifteen. You
know, how do you talk aboutit with children, so once they were
old enough, we started this togetherto talk about it and bring this conversation

(01:08):
to everyday places to normalize and destigmatizethe stigma that's attached. Thank you for
your courage, by the way,for doing that and the inspiration that you
have now has shared with others.I love how you guys phrase it one
community, many voices and talk aboutthe experiences maybe you've had, like with
Doug and other people that have comeforward because of they've seen the work that

(01:30):
you've done and being a part ofevents like this. Yeah. Well,
you know what's interesting is that whenI first started talking about it, it
wasn't easy because people didn't want totalk about it. They wanted to sweep
it under the rug. And onceI maybe had the courage to do that,
I found people like Doug that openedup and started sharing, and we
realize, I think, together,the power that sharing your story has because

(01:55):
it allows you to see that you'reno longer alone and there are other people
that have faced this same things thatyou have. And if we can bring
this conversation and update the way wetalk about it and view mental health,
brain health illnesses, and suicide,we're going to come a long way,
and I think that we have yetto that point. Doug, talk to
us a little bit about your connection, not just to Vanni, but to

(02:16):
the topic of mental health. Youjust never know, do you this struggle
that might be happening behind someone's story. No, and it really does affect
virtually everyone, rich, poor,black, white, male, female,
young, old. It doesn't matter. We all or most all of us
probably know somebody that's been affected withsome brain health mental health challenge and challenge,

(02:40):
whether it's bullying, whether it's depression, whether it's addiction. Those brains
are wired differently, and it isa disease. And the more we talk
about it as a disease, Ithink it helps break the stigma that let's
talk about it. We talk aboutcancer, we talk about heart disease,
but we don't talk we don't seemto talk as much about mental health or

(03:01):
brain out and it is a differentwiring of the brain. Vannie. There's
people out there that are listening tothis, that want to help or want
to be a part of the event. Take us through the different sponsorship levels
if someone is inspired to do that, or ticket levels again. At September
twenty first Frederick Meyer Garden's beautiful place. Steve and I have been there multiple
times this summer for concerts, andoh man, it's just breathtaking. But

(03:23):
events are awesome there. How theycan get involved? Yeah, if I
could first just go back pedback onsomething that Doug said, you know that
mental brain health illnesses, illnesses.You know, I kind of look at
it like this. You know,my husband was fourth generation suicide. If
my husband didn't choose his illness,then how could he choose his death?
Wouldn't that be an effect of whatdepression or pain can do to us?

(03:46):
So I just thought it was importantto piggyback off that. And now we'll
go into our event that I'm justso proud of that. We've sold so
many tickets already. But on ourwebsite, I understand Love heals that org.
Go to events and you'll find differentsponsorship levels. You'll find ticket sales.
We're still opening to take sponsorships ifyou would like. I mean,

(04:09):
maybe a little bit difficult to getyour name or a logo on on something
because with things we'll be going toprint soon. But go to our website.
I understand love feels that work.Yeah, it's a great night.
Brian vander Ark will share an amazingsong that I've heard that will put a
lump in your throat, which isan important thing in evoking emotion about this
sort of thing, and Brian willtell his story as well, and I

(04:32):
wanted to touch on treatment. Wetalked a little bit about how I understand
the stigmatizes. It builds community toofor other families affected, like you and
me and Doug. Doug and Ihave both talked in the air about our
treatment. We've been through journeys aswell to deal with our own mental health
and being able to talk about this, as you mentioned, Doug out in
the open helps other people because treatmentlooks different for everybody, right absolutely,

(04:58):
And the more we talk about itmore we don't only help ourselves, but
we help others to help others.And you're not alone. We're not alone.
And that's the great thing about Iunderstand. It's promoting the conversation,
making people aware that we can talkabout it, and we can talk about
it openly. So before we saygoodbye, we have to talk about tickets

(05:18):
once again, because I know theyare going fast. I understand Love Heels
dot Org will take me to anevents page where I can find out more.
Absolutely, that's where you get them. Are there tables left or is
it we just looking at individuals atthis one. Well, you know what,
it's really interesting because we've sold moretables than we have individual tickets,
so that's telling you I think something. There are both available. We've expanded

(05:43):
a little bit, so we dohave room for a few more tables.
Okay, I understand. Love heelsdot org to find out more information for
the event. It will be atFrederick Meyer Gardens. As Brett mentioned,
Lonnie Woodwork will be there, thatis, Doug Meyer, Brian vander Ark
will be They're all sharing as well. And what a great community event to
be at. Vannie Woodrick, DougMeyer, thank you so much for your

(06:06):
time today. Thank you. Thisis Talk of the Town, a news
radio with thirteen hundred and one ohsix nine FM.