Activating the Carolinas: How This Team Leader Brought A Support Wall Home
Lindsay didn’t even know HeartSupport existed before Warped Tour Orlando 2025. Now, that’s hard for her to imagine.
“I’ve probably been to 30 shows since being back home in November,” Lindsay reflects.
The last several of those shows have been with her very own Support Wall for the Carolinas HeartSupport chapter, for which she fundraised $1,800 to cover the cost. But before she was bringing the Wall to shows, she was writing on it herself.
Lindsay at Warped Tour Orlando with Jon Sanchez of Screwed Ends
Writing on the Wall
Lindsay went to Warped Tour in Orlando to see some of her lifelong favorites: bands like A Day To Remember, All Time Low, and Movements.
She didn’t realize that she’d also be encountering the start of a new chapter in her life.
Lindsay found the HeartSupport booth and wrote on one of the red tiles, opening up about her suicide attempt in 2024. Before walking away from the tile, she wrote, “I’m really glad I’m still here.”
Responses flooded in on gray tiles. Lindsay came back and was blown away.
“When people responded and said you’re not the only one, it was life-changing,” she recalls.
She ended up offering a testimonial of how much the experience had impacted her.
But Lindsay didn’t stop there. She knew she had to do something more.
“I was like, I want this in North Carolina,’” Lindsay says, remembering a conversation she had with HeartSupport Development Manager Bryce Maopolski. “Bryce said it wasn’t there yet, and I said, ‘I’m going to bring it there.’”
Building a Movement
Lindsay got started immediately — even though she wasn’t sure how.
“I’d never been in smaller local venues. I didn’t know anyone,” she says.
But she’d met the lead singer of the band Screwed Ends at Warped Tour, a band that happened to be local to Lindsay’s own North Carolina home. He had a charity event that he invited Lindsay to be a part of. She stood at the venue’s door, simply telling person after person about HeartSupport and the community they offer.
From there, using her own income as a single mom working grocery store security, Lindsay started printing out flyers. She contacted promoters, bands, and venues. And she showed up.
She says, “It started to grow. People were reaching out and donating. Bands were saying they were willing to donate $5 per merch sale. Seeing people want it the way that I wanted it, I was like, ‘oh my god, this could actually work.’”
Her local hockey team, the Charlotte Checkers, even partnered with her to donate $5 per ticket sale from one game towards the cause.
Lindsay started printing merch with the message "HeartSupport Carolinas," and she created a corresponding Instagram page to begin fundraising for a Support Wall.
“I literally remember thinking I had no clue how I was going to get $1,800,” she admits.
But Lindsay is tenacious, and bands were taking notice. DMs started pouring in — including one from a country artist in Asheville who offered to connect Lindsay with his entertainment agency.
“I went to coffee with them, and they donated the rest of the $600 we needed,” Lindsay says in wonder. “I was standing at work, and I almost fell down. I was like, ‘we did it! I can’t believe all these people have gotten involved. I can’t believe how many people want us there.’”
Growing a Community
Lindsay has been able to bring the Support Wall to 5 shows now, with close to 30 planned. But what she’s found extends far beyond the shows themselves: she’s found community.
“Jumping into the scene has given me such a community,” Lindsay says in grateful awe. “Guys in these bands have become like my big brothers. It’s incredible to have such a support system. Before Warped Tour, I was on my own. I went to work, I took care of the kids, I was stressed out and busy.”
She continues, “And now I’m stressed out and busy, but I go to shows. I have friends where we hang out, we go to the mall, we catch up, we have lunch. To have a community is incredible. At Gutter Fest [a local event], I remember telling someone, ‘On the days when I have nothing else and I’m struggling, the one thing that keeps me going is HeartSupport.’”
That’s a gift that Lindsay is giving others as well through the Support Wall and connecting others with Support Calls.
“Our scene doesn’t have anything like this — nothing positive to reach out to people. I’ve had people say they’ve never reached out before. I’d never reached out before the Wall, too. A lot of people struggle with similar things, but they don’t realize they’re not alone. Then with the Support Calls program, they’re mindblown that HeartSupport doesn’t just touch down at the site of a show. They’re longterm,” Lindsay reflects.
“It’s been so rewarding to be there for other people. I’m so grateful to have this and to be a part of it.”
The Carolinas Need Team Members
What Lindsay has accomplished has been astonishing. Now, more team members are starting to come on board. But with how fast HeartSupport Carolinas is growing, she knows she needs more help.
The Team Leader earnestly appeals, “My biggest goal is to build a team. I’m committing every minute I have to this. I need a team to run the Wall so it gets out to further areas. It’s already spreading. It’s not just in Charlotte: it’s in the mountains, in South Carolina. People at those venues, they want this. I just need more people to help me. Building a big team of volunteers would be the next thing.”
If you’re in North or South Carolina, you have the chance to be a part of Lindsay’s team and keep healing the scene throughout Appalachia. What Lindsay has seen is proof: it works when people simply show up however they can.
“I you’re passionate about it, go for it. You can make it happen,” she urges earnestly. “And for people who don’t want to be a Team Leader, you can still be involved and come help run a show. Even being there once a month helps. Any kind of involvement helps. Even just telling people about it helps. A lot of people don’t know what HeartSupport is. Even one conversation — ‘Hey, have you heard about HeartSupport?’ — raises so much awareness.”
That awareness pays off in lives impacted, friends connected, and hearts healed.
Lindsay concludes, “It is such a surreal feeling every time, watching the Support Wall fill up. This was just a dream for me at one point. Now it’s happening.”
Whether you’re in the Carolinas or anywhere else in the United States, you can be part of bringing hope to your own local music scene.
