Matt Howe Tribute/Mental Health Today teams with PaperPie Books to provide resources to local school districts in support of mental health

by Jennifer Bissell

Students and teachers in all three Allamakee County school districts will have new resources to help with mental health habits this coming school year.

Rachelle Howe with the Matt Howe Tribute/Mental Health Today Endowment, along with PaperPie book consultant Monica Enyart, donated over $900 in books and supplies to the Postville, Allamakee and Eastern Allamakee School Districts, as well as St. Patrick Catholic School in Waukon, at the end of this past school year, in time for the books to be incorporated into curriculum planning during this summer break and ready for use when the new school year begins this fall.

STARTED FOR MATT
Matt Howe Tribute/Mental Health Today (MHT) was designated as an endowment through the Allamakee County Community Foundation to bring light to brain health and understanding mental illness. Matt’s wife Rachelle and other members of their family started the foundation after Matt took his life in February 2018. Matt also had two brothers who died by suicide. Rachelle said MHT was established as a way to celebrate his life and memory.

“Matt often hid his feelings/emotions with a smile and a joke. He had a kind, generous heart and compassion for everyone but held a special understanding for those in need. We hope to carry on Matt’s legacy and help those that are hurting,” reads the MHT website.

“You can be the victor or the victim. I told our kids that we need to be the victors and figure out how to move forward in a positive manner,” Howe said.

The Howe family established a community foundation in Matt’s name. According to the website, the foundation annually funds programs to support student and community presentations, workshops for parents, training for teachers and healthcare professionals, resources for libraries, community awareness, and grief counseling. The goal is to help other agencies and businesses reduce the stigma around brain health. Rachelle and her board work to decide which organizations or entities to partner with each year in those efforts.

One year, they worked with Northeast Iowa Community Action to provide ride shares for individuals needing rides to appointments. Another year they worked with WorldMaker International, which brought six brain health sessions to the community. Another year they worked with Alive and Running to do CPR and Suicide Prevention Training. Howe noted that this led to the communities of Lansing, Waukon and Postville having open talk times, a specific time and location when someone is available to talk to individuals in need of an ear to listen.

“We’ve found some folks who are willing to help with that in those communities, so if you want to talk about something, positive or negative, it doesn’t have to be a concern, we have someone there,” said Howe.

FOR THE KIDS
In 2024, the board worked with the Allamakee (Waukon), Eastern Allamakee (Lansing/New Albin) and Postville school districts to sponsor “green out nights.” They worked with the school districts to sponsor these green out nights during volleyball matches or cross country meets. Green shirts were presented to the fans to wear during the events in support of mental health awareness.

“The schools did a fabulous job with working with the kids. It was lovely,” said Howe. “Providing a safe space for kids to talk about their brain health is huge.”

Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon also assisted with the green out night. The hospital handed out QR codes which directed people to the hospital’s resource guide. They also distributed items for kids like stress balls, frisbees and sticky note pads.

BOOKS FOR EVERYONE
This past spring, the MHT Board again looked to make an impact with the children in Allamakee County. The board met in April to discuss how to spend its budget for the year. Becky Decker, Matt’s sister and a member of the board, had worked with Postville’s Monica Enyart in the past at the St. Patrick Schools in Waukon. Enyart is a book consultant through PaperPie books, an independent book company that focuses on educational, hands-on books.

According to Enyart, PaperPie sells books for kids aged newborn to young adult, offering a range and variety from touchy-feely books for babies, to chapter books for older children. Enyart said the organization prides itself on having a variety of mental health awareness books and materials.

“There are a lot of hands-on type things, journals and other books for kids to process their feelings and emotions. There are a lot of storybooks about feelings and emotions and the various situations kids go through. PaperPie really covers a wide age range of books for kids on the topic of mental health,” said Enyart.

Enyart said she’d reached out to Rachelle previously to chat about PaperPie books and how they would benefit children in the area school districts. Enyart worked with the MHT Board to select books to cover age ranges to distribute to the schools within the three districts and St. Patrick School.

Once the board members decided to purchase books, they worked with Enyart to select over $600 in books. They were also able to take advantage of over $200 in donated money from the book sales. In addition, they donated the remainder of the money to the schools to purchase fidget items for the classrooms.

“We wanted this year’s endowment payout to focus on equipping local schools with meaningful tools to help students better understand and manage their emotions,” Howe shared. “Each school will receive a curated collection of children’s books focused on emotional literacy. These titles are designed to help young readers understand that feelings such as sadness, anger, and worry are normal and manageable. The books also promote empathy and help children recognize that it’s okay to experience more than one emotion at a time.”

Howe further explained that the remaining funds were allocated directly to the schools to purchase mental health tools such as fidgets, calming kits, and other age-appropriate resources, noting that these supports will help students self-regulate, focus in the classroom, and build emotional resilience.

She said this dual approach continues her husband’s legacy of promoting mental wellness, emotional understanding, and support for youth across the local communities.

The foundation delivered the books in May of this year. The books cover a wide age range and also encompass resources from stories to workbooks.

“If a child needs to draw, there’s a drawing book or a coloring book to work through the process of how they’re feeling,” said Howe. “I’m excited. In one respect, I want to see them in use right away, but by delivering them at the end of the school year, it’s great for the teachers to have the summer to really look at the books and build it into their curriculum for the year. They aren’t just for guidance counselors. They’re for anyone in the buildings to use as they need.”

Enyart said it was a pleasure for her to be able to assist the endowment. “It was nice to be able to touch all three school districts and to help get more books in their hands, and not just a few books. It was amazing to have access to the funds to get more books and a variety of the books to the districts for the students and the entire faculties to have access to,” she shared.

“We’d like to thank Monica for working with us and helping bring this resource to the schools,” said Howe.

If anyone would like to acquire more information about or make a donation to the MHT Foundation, email Molly at molly@dbqfoundation.org.