MONTICELLO, NY — October 10 will be the 30th anniversary of executive director Lori Schneider at the Sullivan County affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), called Friends and Advocates for Mental Health when she started working with them in 1988. Schneider is looking to celebrate that anniversary with a FRIENDraiser (not fundraiser) for NAMI Sullivan’s Compeer program.

Compeer means companion, peer, equal, friend. It is a nationwide program that recruits caring men and women from the community to take part in friendships with adults recovering from mental illness. Friends are matched based on similar interests and backgrounds, and through each other, they both become better people. Just a few hours each month of your friendship can make a difference in someone’s life.

Hours are very flexible; there’s a one-time training, and once volunteers and friends are matched, the time they spend together doing things they both enjoy is whatever best suits both their schedules.

The drive to recruit Compeers is on until October 10; if you have as little as a few hours each month to spare, consider volunteering for Compeer. For more information call 845/794-1029.