Punch Out Mental Illness event in Savannah

(SAVANNAH, Mo) The Outlaw and the Bear teamed up with Durham School Services to host an event at Messick Park called Punch Out Mental Illness on May 18th.

The event started at 3 p.m and it had free admission.

At the event, people learned about the tactics of boxing while hearing from two guest speakers about raising mental health awareness. 

At the event, they had a spinning wheel where guests could win prizes, such as a stress ball, and taught people some of the basics of boxing as the sport has some relations to life and mental health

Owner of Diverse Perspectives Demetrius Chance and Boxer Dakoda Eighmy were the two guest speakers at the event as they gave their speeches of raising awareness for mental health.

Eighmy talked about how boxing can relate to challenges with mental health.

"This event, I brought up all my boxing stuff, and just show the youth what boxing can do to change your life. If you have something going on outside of the home, or even at your house. Come to the gym, it's like another family you interact with. People can talk to you about their situations, give you their ideas, and even beating on a bag can help out sometimes," Eighmy stated.

Diversed Perspectives Chance talked about his inspiration to bringing people together to reduce the stigma around mental health.

"The great thing about mental health is it involves every single person, so no matter from the youngest all the way to the oldest. It's about people understanding those emotional and psychological situations and events of their lives. So getting even the older generations to start looking at their lives and how they were raised, the different things that they were involved in. All of these things tie into what mental health is and how well a person can adjust," Chance stated.

Many people came and enjoyed this event as the two programs are hoping to plan more events like this in the near future.