Deborah and David Rogers of San Antonio, Texas, know the importance of mental health and wellness.
David Rogers, who oversees several camps, has witnessed many of his college-age counselors and even teenage campers struggle with anxiety and depression, leading to substance abuse, addictions and other disorders.
Likewise, Deborah Butt Rogers comes from a family focused on improving mental health. Her grandmother, Mary Holdsworth Butt, served under six governors as an active member of the Texas Mental Health Board, and her father, Howard Butt Jr., founded Laity Lodge, a world-renowned ecumenical retreat center designed to support mental and spiritual wellness.
Recently, the Rogers family made a $500,000 gift to support the University of Mississippi Counseling Center. Funds will be used to promote and grow UM’s Mental Health First Aid-Adult (MHFA) program — an international, evidence-based course that trains students to recognize and treat patterns of thoughts, feelings, behaviors and appearances that indicate the possibility of a mental health challenge.
“We have 300 college kids every year running camps for up to 1,800 campers, and the current generation continues to face mental health issues. I see it every summer,” said David Rogers, president and CEO of the H.E. Butt Foundation, an operating foundation focused on restoring people to better relationships and helping institutions better serve their communities.
In addition to its localized community engagement work, over 63% of the foundation’s programs — a youth camp, a family camp, an adult retreat center, an outdoor school and a camp that provides free facility use to qualifying groups — take place in the Texas Hill Country on 1,900 acres situated along the Frio River Canyon. Each year, more than 20,000 guests visit the property, most for free because they would not otherwise be able to afford a quality camping experience. The retreats and camps encourage fellowship and community while focusing on individual reflection and wellness.
“Every college campus is facing mental health issues, including Ole Miss, and students often don’t have the resources to thrive,” Rogers continued. “A professional can help them through those times when they’re having issues like anxiety or depression.”
In addition to supporting UM’s MHFA program, the couple’s gift will be used to add two new counselors to the center’s staff.
“Deborah and I wanted to support the wellbeing of students for both of our alma maters. We worked with each university to identify their most urgent need and to help their students find support resources. Knowing that Ole Miss needed a couple more counselors this year, we wanted to support that,” Rogers said. “Maybe our gifts will cause some other families to recognize this is a good place to help the next generation of college students.”
The University Counseling Center provides mission-critical services, such as individual counseling, group therapy and crisis intervention, to over 2,000 students and about 150 faculty and staff members each year. Services include personal, couple and group counseling; stress management; crisis intervention; assessment and referrals; outreach; consultation; and substance abuse counseling.
“The Rogers’ gift means so much to the University Counseling Center and, ultimately, to our students who may be facing a variety of issues including anxiety, depression, substance abuse and adjustment to college. We are extremely grateful to Deborah and David for their generosity,” said Dr. Juawice McCormick, director of the center. “They are such wonderful people and really have a heart for supporting our work in mental health.”
The couple also made a similar gift to Baylor University, Deborah Rogers’ alma mater. There, the gift supports an initiative to provide strength-based resilience education and a Well-Being Ambassadors Program.
Under three decades of David Rogers’ leadership, the H.E. Butt Foundation has grown to one of the largest in Texas and one of the largest operating foundations in the nation.
Additionally, in San Antonio and South Texas, Rogers has led several community engagement initiatives, including efforts to support mental health awareness, build capacity for non-profits, develop rural communities and address the challenge of socioeconomic inequity.
Most recently, Rogers worked with the American Camp Association to implement a program similar to UM’s MHFA but specifically designed to train camp counselors to support mental wellness with their campers. The program, now in its third year, is being used by 70 camps nationwide and Rogers expects the number to triple next year.
A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Rogers earned a BBA from Ole Miss in 1984 and an MBA from the University of Texas in 1991. In college, he was inducted into the student Hall of Fame and Omicron Delta Kappa, Order of Omega and Lambda Sigma honoraries. A member of Sigma Nu fraternity, he also participated in the Associated Student Body government as a senator and was an Ole Miss cheerleader.
The couple has three adult children and seven grandchildren.
The Deborah and David Rogers University Counseling Center Fund is open to gifts from businesses or individuals by sending a check to the University of Mississippi Foundation, with the fund’s name written in the memo line, to 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 or online at https://give.olemiss.edu.
For more information on how to support UM’s Counseling Center, contact Patrick Salter, associate director of development, at psalter@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2712.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation