Yellow Tulip Project closed out 2024 with a Hope for the Holidays social that raised $23,000 to fund Portland area hope gardens, hope day celebrations and in-school arts and nature-based programs focused on youth mental health advocacy.

The Dec. 13 event at the Salt Yard in the Canopy Waterfront hotel downtown attracted more than 150 people who believe in the Yellow Tulip mission of smashing the stigma of talking about mental health struggles.

“I’ve had struggles with my own mental health, and having an outlet for acknowledging it has been healing for me in my own journey,” said Mikayla Doyle, a youth ambassador from Baxter Academy for Technology and Science. “I love spreading the message. It’s something I’m super passionate about.”

Julia Hansen was a student at Waynflete when she lost two close friends to suicide and as a way giving voice to her grief, started the Yellow Tulip Project with her mother, Suzanne Fox, in 2016. Their mission to create opportunities for young people to talk about depression, anxiety, seasonal affective disorder and other mental health issues has grown into a nonprofit with local roots but national and international offshoots.

“It started with Julia when she was a teenager, and teens are still at the forefront of everything we do,” said Ysanne Bethel, director of youth engagement. “They pick it up and run with it. We have over 500 youth ambassadors now, including 300 from Maine.”

During Mental Health Awareness week in, 24,000 yellow tulip bulbs were planted in 89 new hope gardens nationwide. For 2025, Yellow Tulip Project is planning its second photo exhibit project, this time profiling LGBTQ+ youth who want to normalize talking about mental health struggles.

“Life is hard, for various reasons and at various ages and stages,” said board member Caitlin DerSimonian of Portland. “Yellow Tulip Project is an organization that builds community centered around hope. It’s a way to connect and find resources that inspire and bring folks together.”

Hope for the Holidays attracted 18 corporate sponsors, 14 auction donors and more than 30 host committee members.

“Fundraising helps us bring in staff and build our capacity,” said board chair Dan Featherstone of Appleton. “We tried this three years ago at the Custom House — and it worked — and we’ve been at Canopy for two years. Hopefully, in a couple years, we’ll have 500 people and need to be at Thompson’s Point.”

Hansen, the teen who started planting yellow tulips while grieving two lost friends, is now 25 and teaching gardening and wellness at an elementary school in California. Her mother, after studying global mental health at the University of Edinburgh, is back home on Peaks Island and serving on the Yellow Tulip board of directors.

“I’m looking at our global perspective,” she said, “and how our message resonates, such as what stigma looks like in the Arctic or in India.”

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be reached at amyparadysz@gmail.com.

If you need help

If your life or someone else’s life is in immediate danger, dial 911.

Call the Maine Crisis Hotline at 888-568-1112

For any other support or referrals, call the NAMI Maine Help Line at 800-464-5767 or email helpline@namimaine.org.

Other Maine resources and referrals are available by calling 211.

National resources are also available, by calling or texting 988 or chatting online at 988lifeline.org.