Oceanside teens ‘Cards for Mental Health’ doubles its impact

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Motivated by the experiences of themselves, their friends and their family, teens created cards at the Oceanside Library on Jan. 6 to send to mental health patients at area hospitals.

Cards for Mental Health has doubled the number of hospitals it reaches since last year. Empathy and sympathy motivate teens and adults to participate in the program.

“I feel like it’s gone through a lot of progress since I started it,” said Aleena Zeejah, the founder and leader of Cards for Mental Health. “I had two hospitals when I first started the initiatives. Now I have four and I’m continuing to grow it more, and more volunteers. I started from three or four volunteers, to most of Oceanside High School.”

While she doesn’t have individual experience with mental health conditions, she sees it all around her.

“Social media doesn’t show everything, but there’s a lot on social media where you can see people struggling,” Zeejah said. “I feel empathetic and I want to help them. Mental health has always been something close to me and my heart, because my friends have struggled, some of my family members have struggled. So it’s really nice for me to give back to them and help them in any way that I can.”

And that’s why she’s so passionate about this work. It doesn’t even feel like work to her.

“When you love what you do you don’t find it very difficult or very tedious,” Zeejah said.

Some teens who participate in the program have direct personal experience.

“I got involved today because I myself struggled with a lot of mental health - anxiety, depression - and I want people to know that they’re not alone,” said Madeline Haefner, 17. “These cards are meant to just let people know there’s someone who can relate to them, and you don’t have to go through anything alone. And it might seem like it’s impossible to break out of this constant cycle that they’re in, but it’s not. All it needs is time, and you can get through anything with the help of others.”

Others have a more indirect experience like Zeejah, through friends and family. They want to help the people close to them and these cards serve as a proxy.

“I mainly got involved in this project because making cards for mental health inspires me to be a better person,” said Julianna Calabrese, 16. “As someone who is related to people who have struggled with mental health, and has had friends and family who have struggled with mental health issues before, I feel like I’m making the world a better place. And I feel like I’m supporting them as if I would support my family and my friends.”

Others still see it as a way to give back to the community at large.

“I got involved because I wanted to help people who struggled with mental health,” said Danielle Vivona, 16. “A lot of my friends, who happen to struggle with mental health, have told me their stories and I felt bad and I always wanted to help them out. So helping out other people throughout New York State would be very impactful. I just feel like it’s a very nice thing to do for the community.”

People like Zeejah support their friends and family in very personal ways. People who are dealing with these mental health conditions every day go to them for help.

“She’s involved in a lot of clubs at school that really approach this issue,” said Jennifer Wolfe, Zeejah’s previous AP Human Geography teacher at Oceanside High School. “She’s got a huge heart, full of compassion. She’s always the go to. She’s a good listener.”

Wolfe’s AP Human Geography class is how Zeejah got inspired to create the program Cards for Mental Health. She chose to participate in Send a Smile Today, which sends cards to cancer patients, as her project for AP Experience credit.

“Associate Principal Joelle Hennessey introduced this concept of the AP Experience,” Wolfe said. “It makes four weeks that might not be filled with anything meaningful, especially in courses that don’t end in a Regents exam to really matter to the kids. They’re encouraged to pick something they always wanted to learn, or always wanted to do, because they never had any time - kids in general are so programmed that they don’t have the time to think about what they really want to do”

The program is entirely student directed wherein the teens do something they care about.

“We found that getting the kids to pursue a passion produced better projects,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe sees this project as an outlet for teens who were damaged by the pandemic four years ago.

“I’ve known many, many students who suffer from mental health issues at one point or another in their lives,” Wolfe said. “I think it’s pretty hard to find kids who don’t struggle these days. So it’s just important to send the message to folks who are struggling that that struggle is okay; that there are people who understand what you’re going through, and that we’re here or that there are people out there who understand this is tough. No one is asking you to be perfect, or even feel great all the time.”