Working to Spread Awareness

As your holiday cards come to us we open each one and smile as we look at the beautiful faces and kind greetings within. Thank you for sending us your love and well wishes.

The photo at the top of this note was taken in our Aloha Santa shirts worn every Christmas by our family. We haven’t worn them since Tyler passed but we have taken many photos in our Hilinski’s Hope shirts as we’ve traveled the country working to spread awareness, education and hope to students and colleges.

Your support and commitment to helping us help others has sent us and our mental health professionals in 2019 to UCLA, Tulane, Stonybrook, the University of Texas, Montana State, Pacific Lutheran University, The University of South Carolina, Ole Miss, The University of Missouri, Texas A & M, the ACC, AEC, Big East Health and Wellness Conferences, along with presenting at the Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Conference and the Learfeld/IMG Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum as well as so many others. We also partnered with Movember for an Awareness Campaign and Ryan threw out the first pitch at the Seattle Mariners Game in honor of Tyler and our beloved CougNation.

We Welcome 2020

We will begin 2020 in Montana at the Big Sky Sport Psychology Retreat alongside an incredible group of mental health experts from Ohio State, Arizona State, BYU, Stanford, TCU, The Naval Academy, FSU, University of Nebraska, USC, Auburn, Ole Miss and our partner, the NCAA Sports Science Institute. From there we will head to California to speak at the World Peace Conference.

Thanks to your support we have been able to touch many lives and are humbled by the letters we receive thanking us for the impact we are making for our students and their mental wellness. Our Hilinski’s Hope bands are worn all over the world and we love hearing stories of strangers connected by the band of Hope on their wrists. Seeing the number 3 raised in support of Tyler and the mental health for all of our students and student-athletes at games was an especially moving experience during the season this year.

We’ve enclosed some “family” photos for you that truly paint a picture of compassion, commitment, solidarity, and an unrelenting mission to change the way the world views and treats mental illness.

Wishing you hope and love this holiday season,

The Hilinski Family