Phil Watanabe

Dear Family and Friends,

Josh and I would like to share with you an important and exciting event we are participating in. It is NAMIWalks for the Mind of America, NAMI's signature 5K walkathon event that is being held in Santa Monica, CA on October 4, 2008.

NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is the Nation's Voice on Mental Illness and is the largest education, support and advocacy organization that serves the needs of all those whose lives are touched by these illnesses. This not only includes individuals with mental illness but also their families, friends, employers, the law enforcement community and policy makers. The goals of the NAMIWalks program are to fight the stigma that surrounds mental illness, to build awareness of the fact that the mental health system in this country needs to be improved and to raise funds for NAMI so they can continue their mission.

As many of you know, my dad lived with mental illness for over 15 years before he passed away almost 4 years ago, and we will be walking in his memory. We would like to ask you to come and walk with us or to donate to support our participation in this most inspiring event. Please visit our personal walker page at:
http://www.nami.org/namiwalks08/LOS/jgeismar.
If you have any problems with this link go to http://www.nami.org and click on the "NAMI Walks" link about half way down the page on the left side of the screen. Then enter "Julie Geismar" in the appropriate fields under "Support a Walker" on the top right of the screen. Once on our walker page you will be able to securely donate directly to us online using your credit card and we will get immediate e-mail notification of your donation. If you would rather donate by check or cash please reply to this e-mail and we will give you instructions. NAMI is a 501(c)3 charity and any donation you make to support this event is tax deductible; all donations will be accepted until December 3, 2008.

Please feel free to pass our walker page link on to anyone you think would be interested in contributing. We thank you so much for your support of this cause.

Julie and Josh Geismar