KENNEBUNK, Maine (WGME) — Planting tulips in the name of hope.
Two years ago, Bangor Savings Bank and Kennebunk Rotary Club partnered with the “Yellow Tulip Foundation,” planting 500 yellow tulip bulbs in a mental health garden.
“It’s raising awareness to mental health and suicide prevention because this is something that affects really every community, and we need to pay attention to it,” Kennebunk Police Chief Bob MacKenzie said.
As the weather warms up, and the tulips begin to sprout, Kennebunk Rotary Club hosted their first “Hope Day” event, surrounded by tulips to spread awareness.
“I think it’s hugely important to have a community support for mental health, I could say especially these days, but really it’s all the time,” Molly Whitehead, a local therapist, said.
One of the many support groups in attendance, “Stay for Life,” specializes in men’s mental health.
They say asking for help can be scary but is the first step towards healing.
“We really wanted to bring the stigma that does surround men to the forefront of more conversations and honestly just keep people alive,” the founder of Stay for Life Angela Whitten said.
Whitten founded Stay for Life after her 18-year-old son Trent took his own life.
When I was immediately grieving him, I could feel the depression creeping in, and I knew if I let that take me over that I was going to stay there, so I’d either do something to shake it up and make a change or kind of succumb to it. So I decided to not let Trent’s death go in vain,” Whitten said.
Over the last two years, Whitten has dedicated her life to helping men, just like her late Trent, find the support they need.
“Not all conversations have to be so dark and brushed under the rug. We can talk these things in an open manner and discuss how people can get these resources available to them,” Whitten said.
The yellow tulips are blossoming in Kennebunk’s Rotary Park, and event organizers hope to hold more Hope Days in the future.