OUR STORY
Last Letter Project attends Earquaker Day in 2019.
Last Letter Project donates to Portage Path Behavioral Health.
Last Letter Project
Last Letter Project attends Earquaker Day in 2019.
Last Letter Project is a Northeast Ohio based non-profit focused on a community oriented approach to mental health treatment and addiction recovery, but our roots are in the music scene.
Last Letter Project started out with Jaclyn Wright and Jon and Michelle Zeit working together to book the first Speedbump Fest after Garrett Janos’ tragic death by suicide in 2015. Garrett was an avid participant in the Northeast Ohio music scene, playing drums as a founding member in Rabid Reason, the band that opens this compilation. More than that, he was a good friend and is as sorely missed now as he was five years ago when the grief was fresh.
Last Letter Project took shape out of the amorphous blob of the inaugural Speedbump Fest. We’ve experienced tremendous growth since then, not the least of which being the expansion of our team from its original three-member cadre to the current family of seven, and an innumerable army of volunteers. We’ve also partnered with Project Dawn to provide narcan training in our community. In 2018 we launched another outreach program called Time Out Tuesday; a monthly event that is geared toward giving people time off from their hectic schedules to unwind and explore strategies of coping with everyday mental health issues.
Though we’re always evolving to meet the needs of the community, our mission remains unchanged: to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health treatment and addiction recovery by sharing resources and opening dialogue with anyone who needs it. The stigma surrounding these issues, the pressures to ignore the problem and continue on as if nothing is wrong, have cost the world too many people. It’s okay to not be okay!
SPEEDBUMP FEST
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Speedbump Fest is back for its eleventh year with a punk vs. metal showcase featuring a stacked lineup of bands at Akron’s Musica (51 E. Market Street) on Saturday, Oct. 11. Pre-sale tickets are available on Eventbrite for $17.85, or at the door for $15.
Cleveland based quartet Dirty Lines is bringing their A-game for Team Punk with a setlist packed with snotty tunes and a snottier attitude.
Throbber, Akron’s own, is coming out swinging for Team Metal. Armed with huge face-melting riffs, Throbber’s self-described “weird thrashcore” is a jolt to the nervous system. Their appearance at Speedbump Fest is their last show of the year. Don’t miss it!
Northeast Ohio punk rock stalwarts Kill the Hippies is the musical equivalent of a high voltage shock. For over 30 years they’ve been delivering cheap thrills and fast songs to weirdos, and they’ll do it again at Speedbump Fest.
What rough beast slouches toward Akron to be born?* Behold, it is Fuzzfiend, oozing out of the West Viginia back country to terrorize the Rubber City with its sludgy Appalachian stoner doom metal.
Every year for 11 years, Speedbump Fest — organized by the Last Letter Project Foundation — assembles a motley crew of punk, hardcore, and metal bands to raise money for local institutions dedicated to treating mental health and addiction. In addition to an annual lineup of heavy hitting bands, Speedbump Fest also features a raffle of prizes donated by local businesses including gift cards to local tattoo parlors, musical instruments and accessories, albums, artwork, and more. Last year’s proceeds from the show and raffle were donated to Portage Path Behavioral Health.
Last Letter Project formed in 2015 as a response to the death by suicide of Garrett Janos, a beloved friend and member of the Northeast Ohio punk scene. The foundation’s goal is to bridge the gap between people in need of mental health and addiction services and those organizations providing them, while eliminating the stigma attached to seeking help.
*All apologies to William Butler Yeats.
WHY WE'RE DOING THIS
Our mission is to erase the stigma surrounding mental health issues and addiction recovery. The two often go hand in hand and the stigma surrounding both is an immense hurdle for people to overcome without proper resources, especially in communities where those resources are scarce or unknown to its citizens. Portions of the proceeds of our events are donated to these great organizations such as United Way, Project D.A.W.N., Portage Path Behavioral Health, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, and Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County.
Many of these organizations offer a number of programs, including dual diagnosis services engineered to offer quality care to people affected by mental illness and substance use disorders. Given the number of people we’ve seen gobbled up by that two-headed monster, dual diagnosis care is near and dear to our hearts.
View our resources page for more information on where you can find help!
TIME OUT TUESDAY
Though currently on hiatus, Time Out Tuesday is an event hosted by Last Letter Project. The idea is to take some time out from a hectic schedule to unwind and find new strategies of coping with mental health issues. We’ve covered holiday stress management, meditation, therapy animals, art therapy and more, pairing each educational presentation with an activity or craft.
Click here for our Youtube Channel or Facebook to see some previous virtual Time Out Tuesdays!
