{"id":8671,"date":"2014-03-05T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T16:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=8671"},"modified":"2014-03-03T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T20:40:14","slug":"bungy-jump-event-strips-away-clothes-stigma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/03\/05\/bungy-jump-event-strips-away-clothes-stigma\/","title":{"rendered":"Bungy jump event strips away clothes, stigma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thought of bungy jumping is a terrifying prospect for lots of people; imagine doing it naked and it gets even scarier. But, at least this time, it\u2019s all for a good cause: the seventh annual Naked Bungy Jump for the Victoria branch of the BC Schizophrenia Society is sure to be a powerful weekend.<\/p>\n

This two-day event will give people of all backgrounds an opportunity to bare it all in the name of the struggle those who experience mental illness face, as well as encourage a dialogue about stigma and the importance of community involvement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Featured jumper Stephanie Lekei getting ready at last year\u2019s event (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis event is a great way for a message of courage and inspiration to reach the greater community,\u201d says executive director of the Victoria branch of the BC Schizophrenia Society Hazel Meredith.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Lekei is a featured jumper at this year\u2019s event, and she has an important story behind why she is returning to jump after participating last year. Lekei\u2019s brother struggled with schizophrenia and died by suicide at the age of 23. He will no doubt be in Lekei\u2019s mind as she takes a meaningful leap in his memory. And while she was scared to jump last year, she did it anyway, because she knew that the fear of bungy jumping pales compared to the fear of having schizophrenia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was terrified of propelling myself off of a 150-foot ledge attached to a string,\u201d says Lekei about last year\u2019s dive, \u201cbut I knew the fear and pain I was experiencing was nothing near as painful and scary and schizophrenia.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while holding a naked bungy jump event might sound like a gimmick, it\u2019s far from it: Lekei says that when she was up there last year and everyone was naked at the same time, it wasn\u2019t strange to be naked anymore. And, she says, that\u2019s exactly how it should be about mental illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we all talked about it, it wouldn\u2019t be weird,\u201d she says about mental illness. \u201cNo taboos or insecurities, it would just be okay. It is okay; too many people just don\u2019t know it yet. Being naked is a vulnerable position, and flinging yourself off a bridge is moderately risky and that is where that fear and uneasiness should stay. No one should ever have to fight terror over telling someone about their struggles for fear of being shunned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funds raised at the event will benefit people in need of support who face mental illness as an everyday reality.<\/p>\n

\u201c1 in 100 people have schizophrenia,\u201d says Meredith, who adds that the event will have 200 jumpers, \u201cand recovery is possible, but it takes a whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naked Bungy Jump
\nSaturday, March 8 and\u00a0Sunday, March 9
\nWildPlay Element Parks, Nanaimo
\nbcssvictoria.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thought of bungy jumping is a terrifying prospect for lots of people; imagine doing it naked and it gets even scarier. But, at least this time, it\u2019s all for a good cause: the seventh annual Naked Bungy Jump for the Victoria branch of the BC Schizophrenia Society is sure to be a powerful weekend. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-march-5-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8673,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions\/8673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}