Cubs World Series MVP speaking at conference

Sep. 19—DANVILLE — The Chicago Cubs's 2016 Most Valuable Player will be part of the Rising Tide conference in Danville.

Ben Zobrist will be at the Dick Van Dyke Auditorium at Danville High School on Oct. 7.

The 708 Mental Health Board in partnership with Gateway Family Services of Illinois and the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation is bringing Rising Tide back to Danville Oct. 6 and Oct. 7.

According to Rising Tide and Gateway's founder Michael Remole, the international trauma conference is a hybrid conference with in-person and virtual presenters.

The name of the conference comes from the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy's, quote of "a rising tide raises all ships."

Remole said the conference's goal is to equip, inspire and motivate anyone to make a positive impact.

"Mental health impacts all of us from our homes, places of work and our communities," he said.

"There are many breakout presenters who will be live in Danville. We also want everyone to know we have keynote presenters in person as well, including Ben Zobrist, Melissa Merrick, PhD, and Alex Kajitani. Ben will be talking about a critical topic of how we help people handle high pressure situations, whether that is academics, performing on stage, work situation or as an athlete on the field," according to Remole.

Vermilion County Mental Health 708 Board Executive Director Jim Russell said Zobrist will be talking about ways to address health challenges.

When state Rep. Mike Marron was county board chairman, Russell said Marron said in a meeting that "things have to start somewhere."

Everything starts somewhere and why can't something good start here, Russell said about the local trauma, mental health, addiction recovery and other initiatives.

"Rising Tide will focus on things that Vermilion County needs," Russell added. "The conference will help our community with strategies for breaking the cycles of addiction, abuse and neglect, ways to support our schools and help our students be successful in the classroom, how to support parents and caregivers as they address those tricky behaviors, as well as ways to improve safety and well-being of our community."

This is the third Rising Tide Conference, with others in 2020 and 2021. They have all been a hybrid conference with attendees from around the world.

The previous Rising Tide Conference in 2021 brought in professionals from 14 different states and was broadcasted in over 13 different co-host sites around the world.

Rising Tide Conference 2023 has co-host sites around the world including Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Boys Ranch, Texas, Calgary Canada, Beirut, Lebanon, Melbourne, Australia and Norway. This conference is structured in a similar format to the Global Leadership Summit, and Vermilion County is the primary site.

"The transcontinental conference aims at helping each one of us address the impact of mental health on our community. While you may think this conference only applies to mental health professionals, I want to encourage each one of us to look at how we must all work to address the impact of mental health in our community. Vermilion County feels the impact of mental health not just at home, but in our places of work as well. Things such as addiction, generational cycles of abuse and neglect, safety in our community, challenges our schools are facing and even sustaining the workforce," Remole said.

"The National Institute of Health reports over $193 billion in lost earnings alone due to mental health disorders. If we address these issues we will keep people in their jobs, we will help students graduate from high school and we will help to break the addiction cycle. If we are to truly address these big issues to transform our community, it requires an all-in approach," according to Remole.

A mental health professional gets approximately 1 hour a week with an individual (maybe 50 hours in a year), a teacher spends an average of 5 per day (880 hours of influence in a school year). Now think about the amount of hours a boss, a parent, a pastor or a coach spends influencing those around them.

"If we truly want to address the mental health of our community, it takes all of us. Together, we can navigate the mental health crisis," Remole stated.

Rising Tide will include nearly 30 expert presenters from all around the world, including 6 keynote presenters—Bruce D. Perry MD, PhD, (co-author with Oprah Winfrey of the New York Bestselling book, "What Happened To You?"), Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Institute, PhD, Melissa Merrick, PhD, CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, J. Stuart Ablon, PhD, THINK:KIDS, Alex Kajitani, California Teacher of the Year, and 2016 World Series MVP, Ben Zobrist who will share his personal mental health journey.

The presentation by Zobrist has been opened to the community. Tickets for this are included in the general Rising Tide ticket or can be purchased separately for $20. A special meet and greet with Zobrist following the event is sold out.

Remole says they have plenty of space to get people in.

"We are hoping to have a strong community presence on the 7th for Ben's presentation," Remole said.

He adds that they added a free event to the conference, EQUUS Film Festival on Oct. 5 that will be in Potomac at Gateway Family Services.

This is a free event and open to the public, who can reserve tickets, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/equus-film-festival-tickets-678728975637? aff=ebdssbeac.

The event will feature the showing of documentaries about how horses are helping people. An exciting announcement for the agency also will be at the event.

Oct. 7 will include animal-assisted workshops in Potomac at the barn and breakout sessions at DHS. The conference will conclude with Zobrist's presentation.

For more information visit www.risingtideconference.com.