Michael's Run

LEOMINSTER — Michael Wallace had a light shining from within him.

The fourth-generation Leominster native was smart, handsome and kind. At Leominster High School, he was a star athlete, president of his class and editor of the school newspaper. He was a studious undergraduate at Harvard, graduating cum laude in organizational psychology and working in Cambridge before taking a job in California.

“He made being a good human his priority. No matter who you were, or where you came from. No matter what you looked like, or how much money you made, he made you feel noticed and important. He genuinely cared about everybody and wanted to learn from everybody else’s experience,” said his sister, Kim Pehi.

Wallace also suffered from clinical depression, often feeling overwhelmed by his emotions and the world around him, and like a burden to his loved ones.  He wanted to raise awareness and stop the stigma of mental illness.

He disappeared without a trace on Feb. 4, 2003, two months before his 30th birthday.

Since 2010, Pehi and her family have chosen to share Wallace’s story and struggles, eliminate stigma, provide community support, and raise funds for community mental health initiatives in his name through the Michael Wallace Foundation for Mental Wellness, aka “Michael’s Run.”

Their 11th annual “Party for a Purpose” takes place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 13 at the Leominster Eagles on 456 Litchfield St. The fundraiser will include music, raffles and food.

“Michael helps to eliminate the stigma normally associated with mental illness. Telling his story helps to get people to think differently.  Something that would have made a tremendous difference in his life. If we don’t change the cycle for our own kids, we’re simply repeating the cycle. The only way we change it is by discussing it. The only way that happens is if we talk about it,“ Pehi said.

Over the years, the foundation has raised tens of thousands of dollars that they’ve put back into the community for mental health services and resources including for Leominster schools, first responders, veterans, seniors, and more.  They’ve started a Healthier Minds program of peer support for mental wellness in collaboration with Seven Hills Foundation, Clinton Hospital, and NCMCC.  They also provide grants to local groups and organizations like Kylie’s Kare Kits.

Their primary goal is just to keep the conversation going about mental health and grief and to help people help themselves and others.

“Every single one of us is going to need the support of someone else. There is, or should be, no shame in that,” Pehi said.

Before he disappeared, Wallace talked about “walking away” and starting a new identity, telling his family it would be easier for everyone.  In over 19 years, there has been no sign of him and no contact.

“Absolutely anything is probable and I dismiss nothing. I believe he left of his own volition. He could have taken his own life in a place he knew he would never be found.  But, it’s just as likely he is living in a monastery, searching for his own kind of peace,” Pehi said.

His family loves him and misses him, would still like him back, and wishes he was here to help people himself, like he used to.

“I can only begin to imagine the lives he might change if he was to come home to us,” Pehi said.

It would be quite the homecoming to a large extended family that has lived in Leominster since 1920, just before the birth of Wallace and Pehi’s grandmother, after moving to Lancaster Street from Sicily.  Their grandfather grew up in Leominster as well.

Pehi’s children are the fifth generation to live in the same neighborhood, with the beginning of the sixth generation about to be born, on a street named after them.  Almost the entire extended family still resides in Leominster or the area, with those who don’t coming back regularly to visit.

“Leominster is our village,” Pehi said.

So many of those relatives serve on the board of the Michael Wallace Foundation for Mental Wellness, including his mother, several other siblings, several cousins and Pehi’s husband.

When they started the “Michael’s Run” road race in 2011, the 5K was during the day, there was a BBQ and play equipment for kids in the afternoon, and a big party with a DJ and raffles at night. Pehi said their late father liked to run and “exercise can be vital to some people’s mental wellness”, and so can partying with good friends like their mom likes, so the all-day event made sense.

One day it was double-booked and the race had to be separated from the party. “Party with a Purpose” began during Mental Health Awareness Month in May and it “turned out to be a wonderful thing” on its own, said Pehi, helping them gain more publicity and raising more money.

“Our mission remains the same. We are supported by the same people we are trying to be there for. Our entire city shows up for us. And that’s exactly how we want it,” Pehi said.

She added, “There hasn’t been a year that’s gone by without stories from people Michael touched reaching out to share how much his kind words, or gestures, impacted their lives.  Even if they met him just once.  If you knew him, you loved him.  So, while we put his face on everything related to mental health struggles and chemical imbalance, it’s just as important people understand that his example, the goodness he spread, is how each of us can be a daymaker in one another’s lives.  That’s the world he wanted to live in.”

The 5K that Michael’s Run is named for will take place on Oct. 7.

For more information about Michael and the foundation in his name, visit michaelsrun.org.