George

sunflower
What Brings Me HOPE: Collaborating with other visionary people who believe and know we can change our society…together.

The sunflowers are planted and growing in our front yard with an iFRED Hope sign prominently displayed. Our lives changed when our 20 year old youngest son, Andrew, succumbed to suicide in 2009, and we were told by too many, “You just can’t stop some people from killing themselves.” This lack of insight by medical leadership and colleagues led to my retirement as an Army Pediatrician and Healthcare Administrator after 23 years and the beginning of my ‘third career’ with a non-profit research and education team of soul-mates – “Serendipity Alliance.” We are “A Voice for the Voiceless…by listening to survivors.” We recognize depression is a normal reaction to a negative experience. The answer is being aware and changing the ‘experience’ before a crisis happens rather than waiting for crises to crop up. Zero suicide is the only answer and IS possible in our lifetimes. One ‘gift’ of Andrew’s passing was meeting Patch Adams again talking to the Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed in 2011. He encouraged me to begin International Community Clowning and the wearing of a red nose in my daily life. My 2012 trip to Russia with Patch to Russian Orphanages, Hospitals, and Senior Centers led to remarkable improvement of my grief, depression, and despair as a suicide survivor dad and combat Veteran with PTSD. This experience has led to collaboration with Gesundheit and the Chicago VA to conduct an all Veteran clowning trip to Guatemala City in October 10-18, 2015 to examine the efficacy of a community service clowning experience to treat effects of PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), chronic depression, and suicidal ideation.

GROUPE_MICHELE  George_Stop Hunger Now_Soy Clown_2013-10-19

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About Kathryn

Kathryn Goetzke has over 30 years of experience in marketing, branding, and strategy. She was recently appointed to be a representative at the United Nations for the World Federation for Mental Health. Kathryn is the Founder of iFred, the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression, through which she created Hopeful Minds and Hopeful Cities, two programs dedicated to sharing the “how-to” of hope with children, parents, and communities globally. Kathryn presented at Harvard University, the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Never Alone Summit. Hopeful Minds was featured in a documentary by the BBC, and her products and projects have been featured in global media.

Kathryn is a Partner at Innovative Analysis, LLC, where she consults businesses on activating hope in the workplace, and created a college program Hopeful Mindsets, a marketing strategy and course for college students to activate hope on campus. She is the author of the Biggest Little Book About Hope and host of The Hope Matrix Podcast. In her role as Chief Mood Officer at The Mood Factory, she created the first nationwide cause marketing campaign for mental health through her brand Mood-lites, which achieved over 35M in retail sales. Ms. Goetzke serves on advisory boards for FundaMentalSDG, Y Mental Health, Women’s Brain Project, and the Global Mental Health Movement.

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