When leaders were needed to nurture a spark of an idea into what has become The Way Forward: Campaign for McLean, a handful of dedicated supporters stepped up.
McLean is both fortunate and grateful that Campaign Co-Chairs Kris Trustey and Sean McGraw, Honorary Co-Chairs Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, and Honorary Trustee and Campaign Planning Committee Chair Skip Snyder agreed to provide counsel, serve as the public faces of the campaign, and, of course, demonstrate their commitment to the cause by making leadership gifts of their own.
Today, their investment in time, money, and guidance is paying off substantially, as the campaign has entered its public phase with momentum and great promise.
From Stigma to Sharing
Concurrent with the campaign is an ongoing crisis in the field of mental health, as demand for services is growing among all demographics and the unique needs of children and adolescents have taken on significant focus.
With its mission to provide gold-standard clinical care, innovative research, and expert training, McLean Hospital is positioned to face this crisis—and The Way Forward is how the hospital will get there.
Finding their own way forward is something that campaign leadership had to learn through hard personal experience.
Campaign Co-Chairs Sean McGraw and Kristine Trustey
In the face of societal secrecy around mental health issues, Kris and Sean, Rose-Marie and Eijk, and Skip have openly and honestly shared their experiences, and in doing so became leaders in creating a more open and healthy public discussion around the subject.
“When my teenage son was being treated for depression and a mood disorder some 15 years ago, the mental health system was a dark and lonely place to be,” said Trustey. “No one wanted to speak about it.”
Rose-Marie van Otterloo, whose family member also experienced a mental health crisis, agreed. “It was still a taboo subject back when I first joined the Board of Trustees. I vowed then to do everything in my power to get rid of the stigma.” (A key focus of McLean’s first campaign, which Rose-Marie and Eijk co-chaired, was destigmatizing mental health.)
Snyder was once a patient himself at McLean. “My father had bipolar,” he said, “and in 1999 when I was 55, I had a manic episode. I spent three weeks at McLean and have been in remission ever since. People don’t like to talk about mental illness, but I treat it like any other kind of medical issue.”
Taking a Stand
What more could one ask from campaign leadership, and what better way to raise awareness and funds than leading by example?
Even before the campaign had officially started, Trustey and McGraw expressed their profound belief in the project by making an extraordinary leadership gift of $10 million to support the new child and adolescent building.
They followed that with an additional $2 million gift in 2023. Rose-Marie and Eijk stepped up to offer an early $5 million contribution to the capital effort and extended a matching gift of the same amount in 2024.
Skip and his wife, Deirdre, no sooner completed one pledge before making a second, then a third commitment.
“Life can feel unbearable at times,” said Rose-Marie, “yet there is hope at the end of the tunnel and thanks to McLean, my family is a prime example of that.”
“I’ve said this before,” said Snyder, “but for years now the people at McLean have been playing some very good music on an old piano. Now is the time to step up and bring our facilities into the 21st century.”
“The need is urgent, the time is now, and McLean is leading the way forward. It’s up to us to make this happen. A new child and adolescent campus at McLean will give young people a comfortable and welcoming place in which to learn and heal,” said McGraw.
At The Way Forward public launch event on September 25, 2024, McLean President and Psychiatrist in Chief Scott L. Rauch, MD, recognized the team’s critical importance to the campaign by saying that Trustey and McGraw’s “relentless hard work and dedication have been nothing less than heroic,” noting that Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo “have been loyal and generous supporters for many years,” and calling the Campaign Planning Committee “both our engine and our compass.”
A compass points the way to go. We are grateful that McLean’s campaign leadership is out in front, taking us boldly on The Way Forward.
