Crusade raises awareness for mental illness
Connor and Beth Buzzelli sit with Beth Fulena, center, and donated gifts for children at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Fulena is director of care management and social work at WPIC.
Items donated to WPIC as part of Connor’s Christmas Crusade.
Connor Buzzelli found himself in an adolescent inpatient unit of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh last year.
The treatment he received helped him deal with depression and anxiety, but during his stay he noticed that many of the teens did not have the same level of support from their families that he did. So he decided to do something about it.
Connor, 19, of Peters Township, started “Connor’s Christmas Crusade” in order to provide gifts for kids spending their holidays at WPIC who may have otherwise been forgotten.
“(Connor) noticed some kids didn’t have any change of clothing or toiletries,” said Beth Buzzelli, Connor’s mother. “He said ‘Well we should do something for them.'”
Beth contacted WPIC and asked if it would be OK if they brought gifts for the kids at the clinic. They were given the go-ahead and donated items such as board games and sweatsuits.
“It was a very hard, I think courageous, thing for him to do,” Beth said.
When Beth mentioned what she and Connor had done to members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a mental illness support group to which she belongs, they wanted to help make the operation even bigger and more successful. So “Connor’s Christmas Crusade” was born.
Beth said they reached out to friends, family and NAMI to let them know what Connor was doing. The response has been positive, and many donations have been received, from books and art supplies to clothing and toiletries.
Over the weekend, Connor and Beth wrapped presents. They are being handed out to patients at WPIC this week, and more than 40 will benefit from the gifts, according to Beth Fulena, director of care management and social work at WPIC.
“They gave us so many different things that will meet so many different age ranges that I don’t think we’ll have any problem whatsoever meeting the needs of anybody … We’ll certainly make an individual assessment of all the children and adolescents that we serve, and what may be the best thing for them based on what they gave us,” Fulena said.
While providing the children and adolescents with Christmas gifts is the main goal, “Connor’s Christmas Crusade” has a secondary objective; erasing the negative stigma often attached with mental illness.
As school got harder, Connor began to find his learning disability being compounded with copious amounts of stress, which led to his depression and anxiety. He sorted out his illness in WPIC, and said he came out of treatment “totally changed.” Being a high school student dealing with a mental illness, he dealt with the negative perception society has of the mentally ill directly from classmates.
“In high school, I heard the rumors. ‘Oh, he’s this or he’s that.’ It actually did get to me,” Connor said.
He hopes his program will help to raise awareness and educate others about mental illness.
“It’s very scary, but once you start talking about it, you’re not alone. One in four people suffers from mental illness. The more our country talks about it, and gets the word out there, then the more the stigma will go away. People will get the help and the respect they need,” Beth said.
Connor is now a student at Wheeling Jesuit University, and, with the help of WPIC, has overcome his mental illness. With Connor’s Christmas Crusade, he is helping others do the same as well as raising awareness.
“That takes a great deal of courage and a great deal of spirit to want to do something like this, and to talk about the fact that he did have a stay here,” Fulena said.