Monica Shelor, Radford University Music Graduate, performer and lover of the arts is proud to support the Heart of Virginia in its mission. The need for expanded mental health and well being programs is great and she plans to use her past experiences and talents to erase the stigma of mental illness and promote well-being initiatives. Growing up in the New River Valley, she has seen too many people suffer as a result of their or another's mental illness. Too many of those people have died as a result of their or another's mental illness. Monica hopes that a Center for Integrated Arts, as well as accessible and thoroughly developed mental health programs, will begin a journey towards a healthier, well balanced future for our community.

There are many untimely deaths that affect me. The first was the result of a suicide pact three 7th graders made in Christiansburg, VA. The first one to take their life was Lucas. We went to the same church and he lived in my Aunt's former house, one block away from her current house. He wrote a will and shot himself with his fathers' gun. After that, another 7th grader took her life during the winter break. I do not know what happend to the third one in on the suicide pact. In high school my Uncle, a veteran, committed suicide and one of my friends tried to save her mothers life by sticking her finger down the barrel of her fathers shot gun, after securing her young brothers in a locked room, instructing them to not come out no matter what. He shot the tip of his daughters finger off and killed his wife. He worked for the U.S. Government. After that, my terminally ill great-Uncle killed himself. Then, one August morning I woke up with a S.W.A.T. team in my beautiful downtown Blacksburg VA backyard, just behind Worsham Field on Virginia Tech's campus. Officer Sutphin had been shot and killed next to my shed by William Morva, a local boy that was friends of friends of mine growing up. Friends of mine were character witnesses for a murderer. Officer Sutphin had returned to the force after being shot on the day officer Griffith was shot to death years before. They were pursuing a young man I went to high school with. He was a football player and a friendly guy. They were pursing him for shoplifting.

Sadly, on the morning of April 16th, 2007 I was not alarmed by the sirens or warnings to "stay away from the windows and doors, seek shelter" as I had just experienced having a officer die and a S.W.A.T. team in my back yard months before. Later, I lerned the horrific news. What continues to frighten me about Cho's attack is that he exhibited many of the same characteristics I have encountered before in another young man who is very close to me.

What I have learned from these experiences is that these are not unique situations. These horrible things will continue to happen, not just in my community,  but in the global, if we are unable to learn from the past. Producing and purchasing memorial memorabilia is a nice afterthought, however such trinkets do nothing to promote the overall well-being, education, and preventative measures that can and will benefit us all. I am impassioned to create a shift in the way we look at mental illness. We are complicated mammals and have the gift of intelligence and emotion. We must come together in order to understand one another and create a healthier society. It is not a question of IF but WHEN. NOW is the time. I cannot wait another second. How about YOU?