Photos: Off the Mask for Mental Illness
On Feb. 3rd, A Place Called Om in Guilderland held a mask making event to help start off the Off the Mask campaign to help raise funds for mental illness and for the fashion show coming up in May at the Hearst Media Center in Albany.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
All smiles: Nia Flick holds a glue gun to add gems to a mask she is assembling for a May fashion show. The black mask has blue gems along the bottom and butterflies on top.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Colorful masks decorated by volunteers with gems and feathers wait to be worn in a fashion show and art exhibit at the the Hearst Media Center in Albany in May, which will benefit The National Alliance on Mental Health New York State.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
To stop the stigma of mental illness: Dina Ziskin-Fortune, in front, leads a group along with the help of Jennifer Nickel, owner of Guilderland’s A Place Called Om, in making masks for two Off the Mask events: Feb. 15 at Glennpeter Jewelers and May 10 at the Hearst Media Center, both in Albany. Tina Yun Lee, the Community Education and Outreach Manager for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, second from right in the second row, said, “Mental illness left untreated can yield some serious and often fatal consequences.” For more information go to www.offthemask.org.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Handmade: Jessica Bez, from Amsterdam, uses a glue gun to affix jewels to a mask for the Off the Mask fashion show and art exhibit coming in May at the the Hearst Media Center in Albany.