NAMI Havre to hold virtual 5K walk to raise money and awareness of mental health

The National Alliance on Mental Illness will be holding a nation wide walk Sept. 20 to raise money and awareness for the issue of mental health, but it will be handled a bit differently this year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

NAMI Havre President Crystal Laufer said instead of going to Helena for the walk like they normally would, NAMI Havre will be doing a 5K walk in Havre itself and streaming the event over Facebook Live.

“Havre is not going to have a big group, what we are thinking about doing is just having our board walk the 5K,” Laufer said.

She said NAMI Montana in Helena thought it would be a good idea for branches of the organization in towns around the state to do individual walks instead of one big one because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since we all couldn’t go to Helena where we normally walk, they decided that some of us can walk in our own towns,” she said.

The nation wide event’s goal is to raise awareness for the issue of mental health and to raise money so NAMI can educate people about the issue free of charge.

Laufer said NAMI Havre is taking donations for the event via their Facebook page, but also accepts other forms of donation including checks made out to NAMI Havre.

Donations can be given to the organization via mail sent to PO Box 786, or in person at their office at 305 Third Ave. suite 212.

Laufer said they have had a booth at the Holiday Village Mall’s Summer Nights Vendor Fair every Thursday evening this month from 5 to 8 p.m., including having one next week.

She said money from these donations are split between the national organization, NAMI Montana in Helena and NAMI Havre.

Laufer said NAMI Havre still gets most of its books and other educational material from Helena, but she hopes one day Havre will have enough money that they won’t need to do that anymore.

“My dream is that we won’t have to go through Helena, because we’ll have money one day and we’ll be able to order our own,” she said.

Laufer also said she hopes NAMI Havre will be able to have its own walk independent of the larger nation wide walk someday.

She said the pandemic has made community participation in events like this more difficult, but she still likes the fact that people get in on it anyway.

“We really love having the community involved in this,” she said.