The Buford community showed up at the Tannery Row Ale House for a cornhole tournament fundraiser to support a new local non-profit advocating for mental health.
Don’t Make It Weird, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization started by Harry Miller, a 2019 graduate of Buford High School. DMIW is focused on breaking the stigma centered around mental health and providing resources to the community to help combat mental illness in the community.
Harry was a talented football player on a full scholarship at Ohio State University. He was being actively pursued by agents because he was projected to be drafted into the NFL. From the outside, he appeared to have it all but on the inside, Harry was struggling in silence. On an August night in 2021, Harry made a call to his mother Kristina Miller that changed everything.
In that call to his mother, Harry told his mother, “I can’t do this anymore.” The next day, he confessed to his head coach Ryan Day about his overwhelming desire to take his own life. Day got Harry the help he so desperately needed. He medically retired from football and went on to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State. Harry has also traveled around the country speaking out about mental health issues and being an advocate to change how it is viewed in this country.
Kristina saw the need for mental health services in the Buford community after being approached by so many parents. Parents who have children struggling mentally as well. After seeing the need in Buford, Kristina and Harry started Don’t Make It Weird. Their hope was to one day receive enough donations to be able to open a wellness center in Buford so that they could expand their mental health support services.
At a Buford Business Alliance meeting, Kristina was introduced to Brian Weiss, Vice President of Sales for Veugeler Creative and the founder of The Faces of Buford.
Community is very important to Weiss which led him to start The Faces of Buford. Through that, he is able to “get to know my ‘neighbors.’” The Faces of Buford has allowed Weiss to understand better how he could serve his community.
“When I met Kris at the BBA breakfast, I was very interested to learn more about the story of her family and how DMIW serves our community,” said Weiss. “I did a bunch of research and a day later, felt called to help in some way.”
Weiss began to formulate a plan to raise money for DMIW. With his office located in the Tannery Row complex and him playing cornhole several times a month at the Tannery Row Ale House, Weiss has gotten to know Mike Neal, the manager of the Ale House and they had discussed that Tannery Row would be a great place for a large cornhole tournament. So after some discussion with Neal, Weiss decided to pursue the cornhole tournament fundraiser route and he then approached Kristina for her approval.
They had just under four weeks to pull off a large-scale cornhole tournament and there was a lot to be done.
“It didn’t matter if this year wasn’t successful, we would generate awareness and make progress toward opening a wellness center for our community,” said Weiss. “I’m blown away by the response. Everyone I spoke with for gift cards to offer as prizes went above and beyond in an effort to support.”
The event, held on May 17 at the Tannery Row Ale House was a huge success with 59 teams competing in two divisions and countless others who bought BBQ plates and raffle tickets to show their support for the cause. Harry flew in for the event to thank people for their support and to share his story with everyone.
At the end of the night, over $8,000 was raised towards opening a wellness center in Buford.
“The Cornhole Tournament was amazing, and I owe it all to my new friend Brian Weiss,” said Kristina. “He was the event planner, the epicenter whose ripple effect made it the success it was. To see how many people came out to support us was remarkable. What was truly amazing were all the Buford businesses who didn’t hesitate to help in huge ways, citing the importance of addressing this problem.”
During the event, people kept approaching Kristina to share their personal stories and that they were so grateful that DMIW was coming to help the community in addressing mental health issues. Kristina said she found this incredibly “inspiring and motivating.”
Even before the fundraiser, Kristina had been looking for a location to house the wellness center but was finding out just how much stigma exists with mental health. No one seemed interested in having a mental health wellness center on their property.
At another Buford Business Alliance meeting, Kristina was telling Jennifer Elinburg, one of the founders of the soon-to-open Brightside Cafe about the issues she was having finding a place for the wellness center.
“(Jennifer) recommended I speak to the owner of the Tannery, who had been very open-minded and helpful to them (Brightside Cafe),” said Kristina. “Jennifer got right to it and made the introductions the same day, and I quickly met with the owner, Tamer, who was eager to help. He asked me what I needed, showed me a few different options, and was extremely supportive of our mission, and happy to have the opportunity to give back to the community in his own way. I’m very grateful for that!”
Don’t Make It Weird’s dream of bringing a mental health wellness center to the Buford community is taking shape and thanks to everyone who has supported the non-profit, the wellness center will be open soon in the Tannery Row complex.
“For over a year I have been arranging support groups, meetings and classes throughout Buford wherever we could find space. I have been meeting one on one with parents in our community at my home, in restaurants and coffee shops, so it will be nice to have a place where people know will be open to come chat,” said Kristina. “I have so many wonderful people who want to offer their expertise and teach different classes for teens, parents, vets and people in general, so that is very exciting to think about.”
The financial need is still there though and the cornhole fundraiser was enough to get the ball rolling but more money will need to be raised in order to keep the wellness center open.
“We need $25,000/year to keep the center open,” said Weiss. “I’m confident our community will provide that and we should have a positive impact (on) many, many people.”
They will be rolling out a Community Partnership fund drive to help ensure that The DMIW Mental Health and Resource Center has the money to be a place that the Buford community can depend on for mental health resources for some time to come.
“‘The DMIW Mental Health & Resource Center’ is being built ‘by the community, for the community’ and I think that’s just awesome! I’m just the vessel being used to help put it all together,” said Kristina.
For more information on DMIW or to donate money, visit their website at www.dmiw.org.
The informational flyer about how to become a Community Partner is posted below for anyone considering becoming a partner.
