In an individual’s early years quite often the onset of mental illness goes undetected, this was the case with Todd Evans. Our mission is to bring a greater awareness to this epidemic of mental illness and its many impacts on society.
Todd never seemed prepared or able to live on his own but after his parents passing Todd received an inheritance and at that point he disappeared, separating himself from family and friends. Eleven years later he showed up at Brother Mike’s broke and confused, asking Mike for help. Mike seeing that there was something wrong, took him to a doctor which diagnosed him with Schizophrenia and Bipolar syndrome. At this point Todd began to think that everyone was out to get him, the doctors and even his own brother Mike.
Todd went to the doctor one last time and was diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). From this point Todd secluded himself, refusing to see any more doctors, refusing to take his meds and he ended up with a simple ingrown hair on his leg. However, due to fear that everyone was out to get him, he did not let anyone know, and this infection spread and eventually took his life.
Our story and why we do what we do…
Our story is quite simple, Todd’s brother Mike had this incredible idea to make something beautiful out of the sad ending of his brother’s life. So Mike, with a few of his friends – came along side of Mike to raise awareness of how dangerous and how undetected the disease of mental illness is. Our goal is to shine a light on Mental Illness, and hopefully some of the many symptoms, and also to inspire dreams of those students that may have had to face some of these issues, letting them know that we support them.
Every family is impacted by mental illness in some way and we are excited to announce that this year we are expanding our outreach to include Lakewood High school and Marysville-Pilchuck High School – And following year we are planning on continuing our expansion to other cities in the area as we continue to grow in our support base.