Mary Witwer:
CLASS OF 1969
Dentsville High SchoolClass of 1969
Columbia, SC
Mary's Story
I'm looking forward to seeing my new and old Dentsville High School friends at the reunion in July. Rich and I will be there.
We've lived and worked in Virginia Beach since 1986. We have a son, Paul and daughter, Priscilla and two cats. Rich and I have been married 36 years. My hobbies include gardening, sewing, quilting, traveling and just having fun with friends.
After graduating USC, and teaching elementary school for a few years, Rich joined the Navy and we enjoyed 20 years of an enriched life with many growth experiences. We lived in Georgia, Virginia Beach, Charleston, Boston, Pensacola, and back to VA Beach. When I changed my career path, it was what I had always wanted: to be able to help people experiencing emotional and mental problems. In addition to being a human rights advocate for people who suffer with serious mental illnesses, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker I am manager for public mental health emergency services program for the largest city in Virginia. Emergency Services provides 24/7 immediate crisis intervention, voluntary and/or involuntary psychiatric hospitalization for people who are seriously mentally ill and dangerous in some manner.
In addition to my full time job, I'm so fortunate to be the Coordinator for Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) in Virginia Beach. Our team was recently the recipient of a Human Rights Award by the Human Rights Commission. This exciting program trains specially selected police officers to respond to and work with seriously me...Expand for more
ntally ill in crisis. The goals are to prevent deaths, injuries and inappropriate incarcerations of people with brain diseases, including our returning war veterans with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. The bonus for everyone has been the development of trusting relationships between the mental health community and our police officers who put their lives on the line every day. The best outcome is that families and people who suffer from mental illness learn how to call for a CIT Officer when in crisis without fear of stigma, injury or jail. There were attempts to implement this program for several years. After the tragedy at Virginia Tech, lawmakers finally woke up and passed proposed mental health law reforms that enabled us to move forward. Did I mention how passionate I am about this?
Some of you may remember my mother, Priscilla. She moved from Columbia to live with us in 2000 after my father passed away in 1997. Healthy at 92 years old, she still drives (Oh Yes!), plays bridge, sews and does counted cross stitch. She also likes to cook for us (i.e. fatten us up). Some of you may remember the Rockbridge Club ice skating charity shows. Mother was a costume designer, and made many costumes for the shows.
We don't have grandchildren yet, but I love seeing pictures of everyone else's.
My sister Kitsie (1966) lives in Columbia. My brother Charlie (1974), lives in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
I really enjoy reading the Classmate stories, and I wish more of you would post them with pictures.
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