Semi-colon Tattoo Event was a huge success!

Giving back to the community has become a family affair for the Kenways. For five years, Mark Kenway, owner/operator of Under Your Skin Tattoos, and his family have pulled together to provide the annual Semi-colon Tattoo event to raise money and awareness for Weyburn’s branch, Canadian Mental Health Association. Each year much excitement surrounds the event, and this year’s event did not disappoint. 

Mark Kenway shared that his wife Amy and their three children all volunteered for the fundraiser, and his oldest daughter even missed a day of her university classes in Saskatoon to help make sure this year’s event was a success. Kenway also shared that if it wasn’t for his wife Amy and Tasha for all their help the event wouldn’t be possible.  

“Mark and Ryan at Under Your Skin Tattoos, they provide the tattoos and the artistry and supplies, they completed 111 tattoos this year, which results in a donation to our branch of $3330,” explained Tasha Collins, Director, Canadian Mental Health Association, Weyburn Branch. 

Collins explained the first Semi-colon Tattoo event was held in 2016 and ran each consecutive year until 2019, but because of COVID restrictions the fundraiser has not been held for the past couple of years. 

“What’s really, really amazing is that over the five years, they have donated $12,350 to CMHA Weyburn branch, and completed 373 tattoos, it’s just been super amazing, they’ve done so much for our branch, and we certainly appreciate their continued support and their efforts to raise awareness and raise funds for mental health in our community,” said Collins. 

CMHA offers numerous programs at the Centre, we asked Collins if there is a specific program that funds will be supporting. 

“Right now, we do have renovations going on in our Centre, we’re renovating our kitchen and our bathrooms downstairs, all funds are kind of being concentrated in that area, there are lots of different areas that we can use the funds, whether it goes into arts program, meal program, vocational supplies, gas for our vehicles, there are so many different areas, but certainly we have been concentrating funds into our kitchen and bathroom renovations,” explained Collins.