Mr Bowden brought us today's Thursday Thought where he shared the story about WIRTH Hats, a hat company with a difference.
WIRTH Hats came about after founder Ben Miller lost a close friend, Jakob Wirth to suicide. Before he died, Jakob Wirth had a dream of creating a hat company. He envisioned something recognisable; something stylish; something people would love to wear. For him, hats weren’t just an accessory, they were the perfect addition to an outfit, and a central part of what could make someone feel unique. Unfortunately Jakob was never able to live out his dream, because in 2014 Jakob took his life. At that time, 25 hats were made in Jakob’s honour for his closest friends and family. This served as a way to help fufill his dream and remind us that we are never as alone as we sometimes think we are.
We were delighted to welcome Ben Miller to tell us all about it:
"Creating 25 hats in Jakob's memory was only meant to be a one off. However in 2018, I lost another of my friends to suicide and this was the catalyst to bring them back. I received an email from a friend asking if I was going to produce any more and a thought went through my head about using these hats to reduce the stigma around counselling and therapy and encourage people to take positive steps with mental health and seek help if they need it. Our WIRTH mission was to help pay for support for those who can't afford it through the sale of the hats. To date we have sponsored more than 4,000 counselling sessions."
Our wellbeing theme this week is 'look after yourself'. Mr Bowden asked Ben if he had any tips for Shiplake pupils during these difficult times.
He said: "Make sure you have the space where you can talk and make yourself more familiar with your inner self. Talking is a positive thing even if everything is fine. We make our lives more difficult than they need to be because we don't talk and we don't share."
You can find out more about the WIRTH hats story here and watch this morning's conversation between Mr Bowden and Ben Miller below.
