The Cartoon-A-Thon for May 2009 Mental Health Month was a success!

Success! Success!! The Cartoon-A-Thon for May 2009 Mental Health Month was a success!

The purpose of the Cartoon-A-Thon is to use humor and laughter as positive tools in dealing with emotional disturbances which effect many people and families.

Mental disorders due to mental Illness or mood disorders and nothing to laugh at, but that does not mean we need to lose our sense of humor. As a “consumer of mental health services” and an amateur cartoonist I was drawing one cartoon a day to help thousands find a smile, even it was for a second.   Soon I will write a post with all the awesome comments I got about the cartoon-a-thon.  Below is a video I with all the toons but you will have to go to mentalhealthcartoons.com to see all the cartoons better.

Make sure you comment below or e-mail me about the how you like the cartoons.  I’m am making an e-cartoon book of the of the Cartoon-a-thon and will include your comments.

I’ll post theas a PDF file in a few weeks.

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Chato B. Stewart
Mental Health Advocate – Cartoonist – and a few other things!
http://www.mentalhealthhumor.com

http://www.mentalhealthcartoons.com

“Using Humor to Heal and Educate with badly drawn cartoons.” – Chato B. Stewart

TAGS: Cartoon-a-thon,Mental Humor, Mental Health Month,chato b. stewart,chato

UPdate On Chato and The Cartoon-a-thon 20K Unique Hits

Hey everyone! I just want to THANK everyone for your support (both morale and financial) with the Cartoon-A-Thon.  It has been so much fun drawing the cartoons.

The fundraiser site has 25 new cartoons and has had 22,080 Unique Visits in the last 30 days!  With 54,661 Page Views!

We hit our goal for the the site’s exposure.  I had no doubt about that…I just knew it would be another story with the funds.  Right now, we have been able to raise $239.00 which is a great effort in these hard economic times.   As I said, all proceeds from our Cartoon-A-Thon go to support the development and implementation of the Mental Health Humor Project and funding free public presentations.

Please help us out and make a pledge now.

And we have already put the funds to good use.  On May 16, I was able to be part of a NAMI Walk-A-Thon and was able to meet a lot of great people on the providers side of mental health.  On the 20th, I did my first mental health presentation at a local Drop-in center.

Here is what the director of the drop-in center sent to us:

“Chato’s presentation today at the Haven was very effective and well received. He is a wonderful presenter and teacher and mentor. He knew how to reach even the least recovered. He was especially effective with those of us who have relapsed and gone on to re-recover if that’s a word. I recommend him highly to do more of these. I’ve signed him up for July 1rst. He is a gem!”  Sincerely, AW

This week, I’ll be talking to the director of the local  Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU)
to bring the program to help with the adjustment to life after receiving Mental Health Services.

And we will be establishing a local DBSA group, too.   A lot of things going on so, you can see why we are looking for some private funding.  I wish we could get a grant but the Florida Non-profit budget has been cut so much and so many hands for so many different services.  I feel bad for the people who have to split it up.

We have always been a grass roots project and myself and the person I’m volunteering with want to keep it like that for as long as possible…It helps cut the red tape, I guess.

Anyway, I just wanted to bring you all up-to-date and ask you to keep up the “awesome” support you all are giving me and the silly cartoons!

Chato

Oh, I also am working on losing weight.   The meds have helped to do what they do best… I am now at 380LBS and that is it!  I stopped drinking soda 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago, I switched the coffee to White Tea and last week, I started using digestive enzymes to help my meds from killing my metabolic rate.

Well, I have seen a big differance but it’s only a drop in the bucket…My goal is to drop 10 or more lbs a month.  In a few weeks, I’ll start adding long walks… I’m just going at my own pace right now.