HIKE for Mental Health is a registered nonprofit organization born of a single vision: a world in which everyone, including those who suffer from mental illness, can find the simple joy of living. The kind of simple joy its founders re-discover with each hike into the wilderness. Sharing the joy of backcountry hiking, while helping those who battle mental illness – that’s what motivates HIKE for Mental Health.

In the summer of 2012, HIKE for Mental Health will lead a series of  one-, three-, and six-day fund-raising hikes in New Jersey, with a goal of raising $25,000. We will direct eighty percent of the net funds we raise to The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization awarding grants for research to prevent, treat, and cure mental illnesses, and twenty percent to nonprofit organizations that help preserve and maintain wilderness trails.

Our hikes in 2012 are only a beginning. We ultimately plan to organize hikes along the entire eastern U.S., from north to south.

Our approach is simple:

1. HIKE for Mental Health organizes and promotes one- and multi-day wilderness hikes.
2. Hiker-volunteers collect sponsorships to participate in the section hikes.
3. HIKE for Mental Health distributes the net proceeds:

• • Eighty percent enables scientific research to alleviate suffering from mental illness
  • Twenty percent supports preservation of wilderness trails

To see more about our mission, click here.