By Jamie Jung, John Marshall High School, Grade 11
May 31, 2011
Created in 2009, Let’s Erase The Stigma (LETS) has made its way into society as a unique organization. Apart from the universal idea of being ‘environment-friendly’, LETS was created to erase the stigma of mental illnesses.
“A stigma is defined as a mark of shame or disgrace from the community because they [the “disgraced” people] are different from everyone else,” said Joseph Bui, junior and president of the John Marshall High School charter of LETS.
LETS was created by Phil Fontilea who wanted to create an organization that did not just acknowledge the mentally-ill within the community but also allow them to speak out about their feelings. However, he also wanted the rising generation; the youth of the community, to run LETS.
“Phil believes that it would be most effective to generate interest among the younger generations. We strive to help the youth understand that there is a stigma against mental illnesses and that we should take small steps to eventually overcome that issue,” added Bui.
LETS has proven to be a powerful organization. The Los Angeles County has declared May 23 to be the official “LETS” Day. To show the community that May 23 is a day set apart for LETS, the members organized a summit meeting to occur on that day. This meeting was set to be led by students for the students.
“Phil led youth planning committees who helped suggest what the summit would be about, what the theme of the summit was, and who would help elaborate this message,” contributed Demi Manibog, 17.
The main goal of the summit meeting is to allow students from different high schools to learn more about LETS. Furthermore, with this meeting, the LETS committee hopes that more interest will be sparked amongst the students.
“Hopefully the LETS summit can attract more people to LETS so that by next year we can reach for even farther goals,” said Bui.
The summit meeting is supposed to follow the agenda of: Fontilea’s introduction to the organization, guest speakers who will perform or deliver speeches, and small group discussions in which students will participate to become more active in discussing the stigmas proliferating in society and how to erase them.
To help the students with their cause, high school LETS charter clubs are expecting to obtain a $1000 grant from the LETS committee board, which is consisted of committed adults.
With the $1000 grant, the charter club at John Marshall High School is hoping to fundraise and donate money to various charities for mental illnesses and also plans on using the grant to promote the club and bring more members.
“LETS is still a young foundation but we have managed to gather a group of young and aspiring leaders who are willing to spread the message about LETS,” said Bui.
