This November, a long-standing project run by senior Maddie Debelak and her sophomore brother Charlie Debelak was launched. The siblings were connected in their goals of raising mental health and suicide awareness through their nonprofit organization by the name of Eliphino. This decision was rooted from their own personal experiences with mental health struggles within their family.
“Three years ago, my little brother and I lost our dad to suicide, he struggled a lot with bipolar disorder and alcoholism our entire lives. It took some time, but we decided we wanted to do something about it,” Maddie said. “One of the biggest things he struggled with was feeling very alone and isolated in those struggles. So, we started talking in the spring of the 2024-25 school year, we began working on the organization and developing our ideas.”
Eliphino is a grant-based nonprofit dedicated to building community around mental health, reducing stigma and giving students and adults a place to share their stories. Eliphino will use donations to award grants to mental health projects, school clubs, and local organizations.
“Our goal is to give grants to medical professionals. So, all the money we raise goes towards local organizations and nonprofits to do research studies like UT has a National Alliance for Mental Illness (N.A.M.I.) organization that we really want to work with,” Maddie said. “In the long run, I think we’re really looking to do actual, like events and things in the community that have to do with mental health. So, we really want to partner up with those organizations that have, like, medical background and do, you know, kind of educational and engaging things.”
Eliphino’s first campaign began Nov. 15 and will last till Dec. 15, 2025. This campaign is run primarily online through the Eliphino social media and website. The campaign features daily posts about understanding mental health, coping strategies, stories and more. Eliphino will begin their campaigns fully online, with a future goal of working towards in-person events and student ambassador programs.
“At its core, it’s about discussing the elephant in the room, about building community, knowing that you’re not alone, that everyone is struggling in some way, it helps,” Charlie and Maddie’s mother Michelle said. “The thing is, we want to discuss all the struggles, not just the big ones, but all the daily challenges and all the ways, big, small and all the variations in between that drain us.”
Much of Eliphino’s board is based in Cleveland, a reflection of the strong community their father, Peter Debelak, built during his years of living and working there. Many members of the Eliphino board knew Peter personally, are lawyers, or come from nonprofit or fundraising backgrounds, making them suitable advisors for this organization.
“We tried to kind of cherry-pick different roles that could suit our board the best, people with law backgrounds or more like financially savvy, just to get a well rounded board of people with individuals with a lot of wisdom,” Charlie said. “They’ve helped out with finances, with kind of strategic planning on getting the nonprofit up and going, we’ve kind of taken the initiative on setting up everything else”
For Bowie students, Eliphino also serves as a resource. The organization offers an outlet for anyone struggling and encourages those to share their experiences through an anonymous Google form available on their social media and website.
“People often don’t feel comfortable speaking about their mental health, they feel like they’re crazy. I think that’s something my dad struggled with a lot. He was feeling like he was burdening other people with that,” Maddie said. “So, our biggest goal is to build an environment where people can feel comfortable enough to at least have one place where they can share their story and feel seen by other people.”
While building this nonprofit, Maddie and Charlie relied deeply on the guidance of their mom, Michelle, who works professionally as a nonprofit fundraiser. She took on the role of the organization’s official Organizational Agent, a legally required position she currently holds. Once Maddie reaches adulthood, she plans to assume this responsibility herself.
“It makes me enormously proud that Maddie and Charlie are stepping into that legacy, motivated by a deep desire to do right, create a community of people discussing mental health. In many ways, they’re creating a space that they would have benefited when their dad died,” Michelle said. “Knowing that you’re not alone, that countless people are struggling in their own ways, may not fix anything, but it can lift some of the mental burden, provide a little light, a little hope. I don’t have the words to express how proud, and impressed I am with them.”
According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, one in ten adults in the United States experienced a mental health crisis in 2024. Additionally, three-quarters of adults suffering reported seeking some form of help, most commonly health care providers (53.2%) and family or friends (39.8%)
“At its core, it’s about discussing the elephant in the room, about building community, knowing that you’re not alone, that everyone is struggling in some way, it helps,” Michelle said. “The thing is, we want to discuss all the struggles, not just the big ones, but all the daily challenges and all the ways, big, small and all the variations in between that drain us.”
