Mental Health Awareness Event

Quamari Brown, a senior at The University of West Georgia (UWG), a Psychology major, and Co-President of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, is organizing an interactive fundraising event on Oct 30 to bring awareness of mental health to the UWG student body.  

The exciting event will be split into two parts. It will be in the form of a Halloween maze and a free throw shooting contest that requires an entry fee of three dollars, which will then be donated to a non-profit organization whose main focus is mental health support. It will not only be an entertaining experience, but it will benefit students by helping them realize and understand the importance of dealing with unusual behaviors they may have been experiencing since entering college or in general.  

Brown finds it important that encouraging students to seek help is okay and shouldn’t be frowned upon. She believes that finding a support system can be the necessary motivation to prevent an individual from hiding in the shadows of their sorrow. 

“Mental health is important to me because from studying psychology, I’ve learned how it affects our daily lives, how we think, feel, and behave,” Brown explains. “People, especially those in college or those who have made huge live transitions, do not take their mental health into consideration as much as they should which leads to a lot of those students living damaged lives that they try to hide behind smiles.”  

The nonprofit organization the event will be donating to is Active Minds, founded by Alison Malmon, a University of Pennsylvania alumni. Active minds have become the leading organization influencing college students around the country and their mental health. This organization reaches over 600,000 students every year on more than 700 college campuses through awareness campaigns, outreach, events, and many more. 

On the University of West Georgia’s campus, there are counseling services that cater to those students who may be struggling with mental health, but there are no organizations that help support as a group. The goal that Brown would like to reach after hosting this event, is to one day inspire the students and student organizations on UWG’s campus to produce an additional organization that serves as a comfort zone for those who struggle with their mental health.  She believes that no one should have to struggle or suffer alone, and by raising funds for this nonprofit, it helps to globally enforce change and spread more awareness.   

Until the event takes place in October, if you are a student interested in participating or donating to Active Minds, visit the Active Minds website where the option to donate will be on