Comments We Received After Our New Directions Speaking Engagement
January 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Our family was invited to speak for the Drew Sopirak Memorial Presentation. I received this letter after our presentation.
Dear John and Trish:
On behalf of New Directions and the public, I want to thank you for the excellent interactive presentation that you provided on April 27. The audience reaction was excellent. The comments below are from the audience evaluations.
- Very brave family. Their pain is serving a purpose and they will do much good.
- Very impressed that they came out. Thank them for their story.
- Good job and brave to tell their story.
- Very interesting, true to life.
- The program was excellent! The topic was very applicable, essential, and breached a previous void in discussing the impact of mental illness on a family.
- Better than what I expected. Very enlightening!
- Wonderful honest presentation.
- Excellent!
- Wonderful program! Lots of courage!
- Thank you. Excellent presentation. Great honest presentation.
- Thanks for helping to decrease the stigma. It is only by sharing that we can make progress with this.
- Wow! Thank you.
- Excellent.
- Amazing courageous family. This was an excellent presentation.
- It was a great presentation. Bring them back again.
- Excellent program. So important to expose the family secrets.
- The Gallagher family’s freshness added to the depth of the story and the pain…a brave family.
- The family’s story was very inspiring, very real and very honest. I felt validated in my own experience.
- Heartfelt answers. Ryan at age 18 was amazing.
- Keep with the good work. This family should talk in many other events.
- It was great having a family all speaking especially regarding mental illness.
- The story touched me. The Gallagher family is amazing and proves that there is help for depression and anxiety.
- It was wonderful that the children and parents are willing to open themselves up to help others.
- Wonderful. Thank you.
- Excellent. Great.
- Excellent and very healing.
- Very nice and interesting family. Very inspiring to bring things into the open.
- Unresolved grief and trauma. I am struck by the fact that John’s suicide attempt occurred when his son was nine years old. John was 9 when his mother died and I think that is more significant than genetic predisposition. The Gallagher’s need to realize that Ryan was indeed affected by his father’s situation.
- This presentation will /can become awesome with practice.
- Thank you to the family for coming. This helps to reduce the stigma of depression and other mental illnesses.
