{"id":17378,"date":"2017-05-24T16:27:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T20:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17378"},"modified":"2017-05-24T16:27:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T20:27:47","slug":"mental-health-activist-gets-to-keep-sign-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mental-health-activist-gets-to-keep-sign-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health activist gets to keep sign \u2013 for now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

She vowed to fight on in her quest to raise awareness of mental health after hitting a speed bump from Aurora\u2019s Bylaw Department; but now local activist and fundraiser Judy Brunton is once again firing on all cylinders in her quest to erase stigma surrounding mental illness.
\nLast week, she and her family joyfully resurrected a lawn sign promoting Ms. Brunton\u2019s efforts for the Canadian Mental Health Association after receiving a notice from the Town earlier this month that it had to be taken down.
\nDuring Child and Youth Mental Health Awareness Week at the start of May, the Town of Aurora received a complaint over the long-standing sign and issued a notice to Ms. Brunton that the sign had to be taken down. While Aurora\u2019s existing sign bylaw does indeed require a permit be retained for signs on properties, she said she was unaware that such a provision was in place and, after having it up for so long, being ordered to take it down left her \u201cvery upset.\u201d
\nIt also left her somewhat confused that a sign promoting mental health could generate a complaint, but that was the situation and, in the process, Ms. Brunton received an overwhelming outpouring of support from friends, neighbours, and from across social media.
\nAmong those picking up on the story was Councillor John Abel, who Ms. Brunton says was instrumental in helping her get the sign back up on her Glass Drive home.
\n\u201cJohn Abel messaged me on Facebook and asked me to give him a call,\u201d she says. \u201cWe spoke for about 20 minutes after hours and asked me all about what went on and why this cause was close to me. The next thing I knew I got an email saying I had to fill in the application for a permit and I got to put the sign back up that Tuesday.
\n\u201cIt means a lot because John has always been supportive of what I do. I can only have the sign up until the day of Ride, Don\u2019t Hide next month but, still, that\u2019s awesome. I am just ecstatic the Town allowed me to do this because I didn\u2019t think it would happen. I am shy when it comes to calling people and asking them for what I want done, so I am glad John reached out to me and was able to assist me in getting it back up.\u201d
\nRide Don\u2019t Hide is a biking event set to take place in Newmarket on June 25. Benefiting the CMHA, it is intended to raise money for youth mental health programs, particularly MOBYSS (Mobile York South Simcoe) Bus, which travels to malls, sports facilities, and other youth hang-outs to give them the opportunity to ask mental health questions and\/or seek health on their own time and their own terms.
\nMOBYSS provides information not only on mental health, but also information on birth control, STDs, drugs and alcohol, and even something as run-of-the-mill as a sore throat.
\nAll services are free and geared towards youth between the ages of 12 and 25.
\nWith each MOBYSS visit costing the organization $250, even the smallest fundraising effort goes a long way and, through her social media and, yes, her sign, Ms. Brunton is encouraging everyone to support her or pick up the gauntlet and join her.
\nMs. Brunton was inspired to join the fight against the stigmas surrounding mental illness by her sister, who lives daily with a variety of mental health struggles. Through the Ride, Don\u2019t Hide, she instills this drive into the next generation, participating with her elder son Charlie.
\nWhile she says Charlie is not yet of an age to fully understand all the aspects of mental health, she explains what she can at an \u201cage 10-level\u201d to keep the momentum going.
\nThroughout the battle to get the sign back up, Ms. Brunton says she wanted her sons to know the importance of \u201cnever giving up on what you believe in.\u201d
\n\u201cYesterday, my boys were playing ball and I was standing on the porch watching them and this couple walked by, high-fived my younger son Jacob, looked over to me and said, \u2018Congratulations!\u2019\u201d says Ms. Brunton on the sign\u2019s return. \u201cAnother lady stopped me and said, \u2018Congratulations! I am surprised it came down in the first place.\u2019 I\u2019ve even gotten congratulations from people I don\u2019t know personally who are happy it is back up again.\u201d
\nWith her permit in place, Ms. Brunton says the sign will come down after the Ride but notes she plans to go back to the Town next year asking for permission to put it up two months before the 2018 Ride to build awareness and to help raise funds for kids to seek the help they need.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She vowed to fight on in her quest to raise awareness of mental health after hitting a speed bump from Aurora\u2019s Bylaw Department; but now local activist and fundraiser Judy Brunton is once again firing on all cylinders in her quest to erase stigma surrounding mental illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-05-25-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4wi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 06:14:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}