The second annual Speedbump Fest was held on October 7th, 2017 at Annabell’s Bar & Lounge in Akron, Ohio. The headlining band was Night Birds, a surf punk band from New Jersey, supported by Weird Penis (Akron), LockJaw (Cincinnati), and Rational Dads (Akron). Speedbump Fest is organized by the Last Letter Project and is held to honor the memory of Garrett Janos, a dear friend lost to suicide. The show is a remembrance of Garrett as well as an avenue to open dialogue publicly about mental health and addiction awareness. This year, after losing a few friends to addiction, we wanted to reach further out and also be able to help more people in the community afflicted by the opioid crisis.
In order to raise funds for mental health services and addiction treatment and recovery, a raffle with several prizes was organized. Raffle prizes ranged from the Akron Rubber Ducks, Earthquaker devices, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Nuevo Modern Mexican, original artwork by local artist Maggie Turner, Nervous Dog coffee shop, Tiny Cloud ceramics, local tattoo shops (Defiance, Black Sheep, and Three Anchors) and more.
The mission of Last Letter Project (Jaclyn Wright, Michelle Zeit, Jon Zeit) is to take initiative towards new solutions in the face of the addiction crisis and mental health services.
“We’ve always wanted our initiative to be in the mental health field but we can see the need in our community for help in this direction desperately. We’re tired of staying quiet about issues so many of us are facing. Its ok to not be ok.”-LLP
LLP partnered with Joe Bocchicchio, a professional crisis manager and hospital liaison. Joe assisted with linking the Last Letter Project to the Portage County Mental Health & Recovery Board and Portage County United Way. Where the funds raised are going towards life-saving Narcan kits, addiction treatment & recovery and mental health services.
https://www.facebook.com/events/360319384400600