The mental health community is composed of many people:
 

• Persons struggling with a mental illness

• Persons, with a mental illness, but in recovery

• Family members of a person with a mental illness

• People who care about a person with a mental illness

• Professionals, in the mental health care system

• People who care, in general, about the mental health care system
   

NAMI Southwest Michigan is very appreciative of our Kalamazoo mental health community, and wishes to honor the memory of the following people who have in some manner been involved in our local mental health system, during their lifetime.

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• Charles Nidiffer

• James Bonevich (1962 – 2016)

• Jackson Peebles

• Scott Zuidweg

• Gary Mazei

• James DeBoer

• David Pratt

• Lou Ellen Artis

• Joe McDonald
   

We believe their lives and efforts have contributed to a better and more compassionate understanding of mental illness!

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NAMI Southwest Michigan hopes to further honor these people as we endeavor to reduce the stigma of mental illness, as well as work to promote a community in which the opportunity for recovery is maximized.