Brain Injury Awareness Month
June is unmistakably my busiest month of the year. For many of you, the title of “busiest month” would be reserved for the month of December for holidays, or September for back to school. But for me, and all of Brainworks really, it’s June.
June is the month that is recognized each year in Canada as Brain Injury Awareness Month. It’s the time when individuals and organizations do their part to shine a spotlight on brain injury; its effects, and ways to prevent it. The Ontario Brain Injury Association says it best: “Brain injury happens in an instant. It does not discriminate, nor does it impact only one person.”
For myself personally, I committed almost a decade ago to coming up with a campaign that would be rolled out in June each year, to spread the message far and wide of hope, awareness, and prevention. I didn’t know exactly how it was all going to come together at the time, but I was confident in my resolve.
I pulled in my team at Brainworks. Putting our creative minds together, we came up with a plan. Something that was sure to get the word out, make a lasting impression, and, show our fun side! We called it our “Brain Injury Awareness Giving Campaign”.
“Brain Injury Awareness Giving Campaigns” have taken place for years now and have become something our brain injury community, and staff, have looked forward to. Our giving campaign each June consists of a target message and a tangible small item that goes along with that message. The fun of creating the campaign, assembling items, writing poems or coming up with taglines, while thinking of coordinating tangible items, is fun and rewarding. Attending events, schools, community functions and seeing the excitement on the faces of those receiving the little gift, helps reassure us that the moment is memorable, and the message is received. Further, hearing the feedback of thanks and appreciation from our friends and neighbours across the province or across the country, strengthens our commitment to continue the campaigns year over year.
Because of Covid-19, our giving campaigns have halted for the time being. But it’s fun to look back at past giving campaigns as the messages still apply!
Let me share with you some of my favourites:
2016 Kit Kat Bar Campaign:
Since everyone loves chocolate and since we could create and mail these bars all over Canada quite economically, we shared our message of “Knowledge, Aware, Take good care” across the country. We called them our brain injury awareness “KIT”s, and of course, the personalized wrapper was wrapped around a Kit Kat bar! Many were mailed to brain injury associations in other provinces and hundreds were given out at skate parks, day care centers, schools, colleges, universities, and nursing homes! We reached out to neighbours, colleagues, families at community events and more! Everyone enjoyed the personalized wrappers…and the yummy chocolate. Our staff seemed to love assembling these too, and of course taste testing the bar (just for quality control of course). When other provinces’ brain injury associations received their bars, some reached out to us for the directions and pattern so they could duplicate the idea on a grander scale. We were so honoured!
2014 Casey’s Journey of Hope Book Campaign:
This two-time award-winning therapy book is of course, very near and dear to my heart. Dubbed a children’s book…for adults, it’s a book of hope and transformation, especially appreciated by those post- brain injury or trauma. Hundreds of these books were delivered or mailed to hospitals, schools, brain injury groups and associations. It was heart warming to see so many staff and clinicians reach out to their contacts to make arrangements for these special donations.
2018 Brain Eraser Campaign:
Our theme for this campaign was: “If your brain is hurt, you can’t always ‘erase’ the damage”. Little bags with a card and brain shaped erasers were created and distributed. Thousands of these were handed out to grade schools before their summer break. In addition to the handout, in some cases, we had an opportunity to speak about overall helmet safety and protecting your brain.
These were just a few of my favourites!
We have always considered it a privilege to give back to the communities where we live and serve. With our giving campaigns, we have the ability to give back, while raising awareness for those suffering with the effects of brain injury.
Special events close to home are another reason June can be busy. Many years, we have been fortunate enough to attend primary school classroom helmet fittings and brain injury education events with other community partners. We are able to send staff members to not only talk to the class but perform brain “Jello” demonstrations and catchy slideshows to impress upon these students the importance of protecting their brain by wearing a helmet. The joy of seeing a classroom full of excited kids receiving shiny new helmets is a reward in itself. But do you know what’s even better? Knowing that the kids understand the importance of wearing them.
Social media has always been a platform of choice here at Brainworks and a way that we round out our campaigns each June. During this month especially we make a concerted effort to flood our social media with encouragements, tips, shared posts about brain injury, awareness and prevention. Our computer gurus have created classic posters, some of which have been shared on social media thousands of times! We are honoured to use our resources to get the word out.
Historically, prior to Covid, June has also been the month where myself or my colleagues from Brainworks have been called upon to attend and speak at events and conferences; plan or be a part of another organization’s special function or awareness event. And that is our pleasure!
For Brainworks as an organization, it is our mission to shine a spotlight on those suffering with the effects of brain injury every day, every month, and all year long.
But,
June is different. It’s a designated time. A time when we as a company, or collectively we, as a province, or we, as a country can go all in, helping each other, creating, giving back, raising awareness, speaking out, and standing up.
So yes, June is my busy month and it likely always will be.
I hope it becomes yours too.
-Arden McGregor, Executive Director