The Sophie Fund’s 2023 “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaign collected $1,043.78 for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca.

Kayla Torres, Alecia Sundsmo, Max Fante, Lovisa Johanson, Alicia Kenaley, and Michelle Eells

The campaign was spearheaded by several Cornell University student organizations: Cornell Circle K; Pre-Professional Association Towards Careers in Health (PATCH); and Alpha Phi Omega Gamma Chapter (APO). The monies raised in the campaign included donations made directly to Family & Children’s.

At a luncheon at the Statler Hotel on February 2, Max Fante and Kayla Torres of Cornell Circle K delivered a check to leaders from Family & Children’s. The campaign collected donations targeted for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, which provides wellness support and continuing education opportunities for the organization’s own staff members.

To make a donation to the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, click here and use the drop-down menu to designate your gift.

The Memorial Fund was created to honor Eells, the longtime executive director of Counseling & Psychological Services at Cornell University, board member at Family & Children’s, and national leader in the student mental health field, who died by suicide in 2019.

“It was wonderful to see the outpouring of support for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, highlighting the importance of mental health care and caring for our caregivers,” said Lovisa Johanson, donor engagement manager at Family & Children’s.

“This fund to support mental health workers is crucial, and Cornell students played a vital role in driving these efforts forward with their passion and dedication. Grateful for the chance to work together to spotlight our exceptional staff and provide them with wellness support funding,” Johanson said.

Fante said that supporting the annual Cupcake Button campaign is one of Cornell Circle K’s service priorities during the school year.

“Cornell students have an unwavering commitment to foster mental health awareness in the greater Ithaca community. Supporting the Greg Eells Memorial Fund along with championing mental health care workers is the perfect way to empower students to prioritize mental health in our community,” he said.

Orell Rayhan of PATCH said that working with The Sophie Fund and the Greg Eells Memorial Fund provided an opportunity for her members to destigmatize mental health, which may impact them or their patients in the future.

“By sharing the impactful stories and missions of these incredible organizations, we empowered our members to forge deeper connections with the causes they support,” she said.

Family & Children’s is a private, nonprofit community agency dedicated to supporting, promoting, and strengthening the well-being of individuals and families by providing high-quality, accessible mental health care and related social services, with a particular sensitivity toward the needs of children.

In 2022, the agency provided 1,289 clients with counseling services in nearly 30,000 appointments. More than 1,000 other clients were served in other programs such as psychiatry, geriatric mental health, and community outreach.

The Greg Eells Memorial Fund was inspired by Eells’s widow, Michelle Eells, who seeks to provide greater support for clinicians and others who spend long hours treating clients with mental health issues including many who are struggling.

Eells’s family and friends also founded Health & Unity for Greg (HUG) “to continue Greg’s work in the world, inspired by Greg’s passion for people and overall wellness in mind, body, and spirit.” HUG focuses on uniting community through advocacy events that exercise physical and mental health to end the stigma for all.

The Sophie Fund organizes the Cupcake Button campaign and the related Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest each fall to promote mental health awareness and raise monies for local nonprofits supporting community mental health. Donors receive a Cupcake Button featuring the image of a cupcake created by Sophie Hack MacLeod, a Cornell art student who died by suicide in 2016 for whom The Sophie Fund is named.

Scott MacLeod, co-founder of The Sophie Fund, expressed his appreciation to the Cornell student organizations for their support of mental health.

“We are very grateful to partner with student organizations at Cornell, who year after year demonstrate strong support to advance better mental health on their campus as well as in the larger Ithaca community,” said MacLeod.

“In 2023, we greatly appreciated the opportunity to raise funds for Family & Children’s, which plays a leading role in supporting mental health in Tompkins County. It was equally important to us to honor Greg Eells, who dedicated his life to the mental well-being of young people, and to show solidarity with the mental health and social work clinicians whose service is so vital to our community.”

MacLeod said that since 2017 the Cupcake Button campaigns have raised a total of $6,612.66 for seven local nonprofits supporting mental health: Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service; Mental Health Association in Tompkins County; Advocacy Center of Tompkins County; the Village at Ithaca; The Learning Web; NAMI-Finger Lakes; and Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca.