COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Two siblings want your shoes!

It’s their way give back to the community who raised them, and speak out after their brother’s death from an undiagnosed mental health crisis.

Katelyn Wotring, 29, and her brother Cory Beesler, 25, came up with the shoe drive idea for their brother Cody’s twenty-third birthday, the first birthday after his death last summer.

A mental health crisis is just as deadly as cancer, or an asthma attack, except it’s on the inside, says Katelyn.

“I read something that really stuck with me; it said that ‘depression is not a flaw in character, but a flaw in chemistry.’ When you know someone that has depression or anxiety, or any other mental health issue, it’s invisible.

“But when someone has cancer or asthma, you see the hair loss or shortness of breath; when someone is suffering in their brain it doesn’t necessarily manifest,” she said.

With their brother’s birthday coming up in May, Katelyn and Cory wanted to mark his life by holding a shoe drive.

“We both had the same love of shoes,” Cory remembered. “We shared a lot of the same interest. We grew up together, were real good friends, were real close. Each time I got a new pair of shoes he wanted to get new pair of shoes as well.”

The shoes will be distributed to people who need them. Cody’s favorite pair of shoes were Bates, but he also liked Jordans, Nike, and other basketball shoes.

Neither Katelyn or Cory knew their brother had a mental health disease. They say he was always smiling and joking. Everyone was floored when he died, because he didn’t look like anybody’s picture of depression.

“I spoke on Facetime with him the morning this happened, and it was all smiles and laughs,” said Cody.

They were close — Cory and Cody talked every day. About two years back, Cody mentioned “dark thoughts” to Katelyn, but turned down her suggestions that he seek medical treatment because of the deep-rooted stigma about mental health disease.

“If I could say anything to someone suffering through a mental health crisis…it’s not something to be embarrassed about,” Katelyn said. She struggled with embarrassment herself. “It took a year before I told my family I was taking anti-depressant medication because I thought they would think I was broken.”

But the medicine makes a positive difference for her. “There are days that if I forget to take the medication, I can feel a sense of dullness inside me. Clearly it works in a way I don’t understand, but it works in the way that chemo works for cancer, or antibiotics work for an infection.”

Katelyn didn’t know how people would respond to her idea of the shoe drive. “I was skeptical that people would support it,” she said. “But I just posted it on Facebook and people really responded to it in a big way. People do care about each other but you just have to take that leap of faith and reach out.”

That’s one of the big takeaways for any disease — it has to be diagnosed in order to be treated, and that means reaching out for help. Katelyn understands that there’s work to do to change people’s perceptions around poor mental health.

“…Crazy, or psycho, or nuts…All these words that we say — you don’t realize how big they are! Changing the language behind mental health is important.

“We need to know the signs, know more about the disease itself, because it’s a disease of the brain –just as other diseases are diseases of the organs.”

TO DONATE SHOES: All sizes welcomed. Drop off on April 3, 2021, from noon to 3:00 p.m. at 4675 Cosgray Road, Hilliard. Email questions to kbwotring@gmail.com. If you can’t drop off on the day, a donation box will be set up at New Grounds Coffee, 6318 Scioto Darby Road.

If you see signs of mental health crisis in a person you know, let them know you care, keep them safe, and do whatever you can to connect them with mental health services. If you think they’re in immediate danger, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text “4HOPE” to their Crisis Textline at 741741.