In Full Bloom Gala celebrating CCNS

Counseling Center of the North Shore invites you to a wonderful evening in support of mental health services. In Full Bloom will be the most fun fundraiser you will attend all spring. Join us.

In Full Bloom at beautiful Michigan Shores Club in Wilmette, here is the story for our evening together:

• 6:00pm: Arrive energized for the festivities, take advantage of the free valet, and meet us upstairs to check in
• 6:00pm: Enjoy delicious cocktails, wine, beer, and refreshments at the open bar, explore the silent auction for new experiences and treasures, and get your thrift on at the Winnetka Thrift Shop pop-up
• 7:00pm: Find your table and share dinner with friends old and new. Vegetarian menu option available. Dinner with salad, dessert and wine included.
• 8:00pm: Celebrate the voice and impact of this year's CCNS Mental Health Champion, advocate, journalist and author Meg Kissinger
• 8:30pm: Dance and sway with Chicago's very own Gerald McClendon, aka Soulkeeper, and his 5-piece band.
• 10:00pm: [abcd] glow of a good time supporting a good cause

The Counseling Center of the North Shore is a nonprofit mental health center in Winnetka serving our North Shore communities and beyond. CCNS started 133 years ago in 1893, and today we provide therapy for children, adolescents, and adults, continuing a long tradition of compassion and community care. Your support by attending In Full Bloom funds access to mental health services through greatly reduced fees for uninsured and underinsured clients. Thank you!

CCNS Mental Health Champion Awardee: Meg Kissinger, Journalist, Author & Advocate

Meg Kissinger is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning journalist, and best-selling author whose work has helped change the way we see and talk about mental illness. A proud Wilmette native, she brings a deeply personal and local voice to this national conversation. Her acclaimed memoir of growing up in Wilmette, While You Were Out, blends investigative reporting with deep compassion and honesty, shining a light on the human cost of silence and the importance of seeking help. Her work has also contributed to meaningful public policy changes, including the creation of supportive housing for people with severe mental illness. Her voice and leadership embody the spirit of CCNS’s 2026 Mental Health Champion Award.

Praise for While You Were Out:

Bearing witness is an act of courage. Meg Kissinger has courageously given us a chronicle of love, loss, family and obligation, all refracted through the lens of mental illness. Here is a story as urgent and indelible as the bonds that hold its characters together. In speaking to her family's experience she has laid bare our own collective one."
―Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School and author of The Substance of Hope

“The raw intimacy of [Meg Kissinger’s] prose exemplifies the empathy our society so desperately needs.”
―THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Enjoy VIP thrifting from our very own Winnetka Thrift Shop during the cocktail hour. We will have special items selected for you at In Full Bloom. As always, all proceeds from the Thrift Shop go to fund mental health services at the Counseling Center. Come see what you can find! The Winnetka Thrift Shop is located in the Hubbard Woods District of Winnetka at 992 Green Bay Road.

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Host or Publisher Counseling Center of the North Shore