To help end the stigma around mental health and illness, Bell has successfully run the annual #BellLetsTalk campaign in which the company donates $0.05 to mental health initiatives for every text and tweet that uses the hashtag on January 25.
And Catholic schools and students got on board to support the initiative, including CCSTA President Marino Gazzola’s great niece.
A graduate from St. James Catholic High School in Guelph, Ontario, Brittany Gazzola took her support a step further last year. On her Twitter account, she stated that she’d donate 25 cents every time her own tweet was re-tweeted. And the response was huge. After the day-long campaign, The Mohawk College student ended up donating $320 to the campaign. That means her tweet was re-tweeted more than 1,200 times. Bell would have also donated their contribution on top of what Brittany had promised.
Brittany’s story was featured by the Mohawk College student news crew. You can watch her video here:
This year, Brittany teamed up with her dad, and together they raised another $200.
How about some Lemonade?
Students at St. Francis Catholic High School in St. Catharines, Ontario hosted a lemonade stand on January 25 where they raised $258.05. The funds were donated to Pathstone Mental Health, which is the primary provider of children’s mental health treatment in Niagara, Ontario.
With mental health initiatives becoming a common structure within the Catholic school framework, the Bell Let’s Talk campaign was embraced by schools across the country. Catholic schools across Canada posted their support for the initiative and included the hashtag to ensure the tweets tallied to Bell’s contribution commitment.
In the end, the tweets for #BellLetsTalk day was up more than 18% and Bell will donate more than $6.5 million to mental health initiatives across Canada.
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