I received the following email a few weeks ago:

Dear Mr. Copeland,

I attended your free January performance of THE WAITING PERIOD. I don't have depression issues, but I had heard and read good things about the play and wanted to see it. My 16 year old daughter Denise (a self professed “theater nerd”) joined me for a Girls' Sunday. We laughed at your descriptions of the gun store and the surfer dude owner, but when you got to the part about the girl who cuts herself, Denise got very uncomfortable.

When we got home, I asked Denise what was bothering her. She said, “Don't freak out mom,” and pulled up her skirt to show me her legs. Her right upper thigh was all scars and scabs. She said that she had been cutting herself for about eight months. She said it was something she did when she was stressed and anxious. She's now in counseling to deal with it. I go with her. Apparently, I'm the reason for some of that stress.

If it hadn't been for THE WAITING PERIOD and your admonition to “Tell somebody” how you're feeling, I wouldn't have known that Denise was mutilating herself. Thank you for baring your soul and thank the Marsh for this amazing gift to the community.

PLEASE HELP

We're almost out of money. We've only raised enough to keep the project going for another month. We want to keep presenting these shows for free so that they can be seen by the people who most need to see them. Please make a tax deductible contribution to our GoFundMe campaign HERE.

BUSINESS COMMUNITY HELP NEEDED

I'm going to do a special shout out to businesses. If you own a business, would you consider making a tax deductible gift on its behalf? If you work for a business or corporation, would you please do us a favor and ask the powers that be to help us to continue helping others by making a tax deductible gift? We'd appreciate anything they can do. So will those we're able to help.

Thanks,

Brian Copeland

https://www.gofundme.com/mpmqrz-help-us-help-people-with-depression