West Coast Youth and Community Support chief executive officer Jo Clark said Mentally Fit EP had been running

for the past four years and is supported by donations from the community and Bendigo Bank.

“The main driver behind it was mental wellness and service availability in country areas,” she said.

“The most important part is that it’s local people supporting local people.

“We work with communities to make sure when we’re delivering services or programs,

it’s not at the busy times like harvest or seeding.”

A recent Mentally Fit EP project is the "Rotary Men’s Wellness Campaign". 

“We put a call out to men on the EP interested in being ambassadors for mental fitness,” she said.

“In two days, 35 men aged from 18 to 80 replied, from just about every community on the EP.

“The campaign provides a message of hope about things that men can do to maintain mental fitness.”

The campaign features a photographic exhibition of men from a range of backgrounds,

detailing what they do to maintain mental fitness. 

While travelling with the exhibition, Ms Clark saw first-hand how difficult it is in many communities at this moment, 

so she said it made sense to team up with EPIC on the fundraiser.

“We know families and small businesses are going to find it difficult in the next 12 months,

and we felt we needed to do something to support them,” she said.