The Celebration took place on April 26 at the Elk’s Lodge, and was a huge success as well as a wonderful celebration of NAMI Santa Clara County’s 40 plus years of service to our community. Our speakers and guests included an introduction to the event by Alan Hersh, our emcee and a Family-to-Family teacher, followed by a welcome from Kathy Forward, Executive Director and remarks by Vic Ojakian, NAMI Board Co-President and Beverly Lozoff, NAMI Board Co-President and more, including a presentation of Community Merit Award to Supervisor Cindy Chavez and a wonderful address by Stephen Manley, Judge Mental Health Treatment Court. Next we viewed a video on Peer Pals, featuring our outstanding Peer Pal Mentors and others, and overview of Peer Mentor Programs by Rev. Cindy McCalmont, Peer Mentor Manager.
Then we had the announcement of Raffle Winners of the wonderfully decorated tennis shoes which served as our table centerpieces.
Another big part of the celebration was the music provided by John Duckworth and Closing the Gap Chorus.
We thank everyone for attending, all of our great speakers and guests, centerpiece artists, and volunteers who made this event a huge success.
