For Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s mother, the 2026 Bo’s Effort Golf Tournament at Queenstown Harbor carried a deep and steady meaning. The day was about honoring Bo, but it was also about helping other families find the support, care, and resources they need when mental health challenges become part of their lives. After 11 years of work, Jill reflected on the good the mission has brought to the people around them.
“I do feel that, you know, this has done a lot of good these past 11 years throughout our community.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
That simple line captured the heart of this Bo’s Effort Golf Tournament. What began as a family response to loss has grown into a proactive mission built around awareness, care, education, and hope. Jill’s message made it clear that the work is not only about looking back. It is about helping people today, giving families better access to support, and making sure more people know they do not have to face mental illness alone.
During her rapid fire conversation with Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, Jill was asked why the family continues to put so much effort into helping others in a more proactive way. Her answer gave the release its strongest message. The family does not want others to go through what they experienced without the resources they need. That is why the event continues to raise awareness, support local mental health care, and help expand resources across the community.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through this conversation, the larger lesson for the industry became clear. Strong leadership is not only seen in business growth. It is also seen when families, companies, and communities use their voice to help others before they feel alone.
At the 2026 tournament at Queenstown Harbor, Greg Cummings spoke with Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s mother, about why the family continues to carry this mission forward. The conversation was calm, personal, and deeply rooted in the reason the event exists. It was built to honor Bo, but it has also become a way to help families, students, health care partners, and community members find more support around mental health.
The DePaola Family from (L-R) Johnny, Tucker, John, Jill, Katie and Bo
Jill’s message gave the day a clear purpose. She spoke about the good that has come from 11 years of steady work and the way the mission has helped bring more awareness and more resources into the local community. For families facing mental health challenges, that kind of support can make a real difference. It can help people know where to turn, who to talk to, and how to find care before they feel alone.
The event showed how a Maryland mental health awareness nonprofit can grow from one family’s story into a larger community effort. Over the years, the mission has brought together loved ones, students, health care supporters, local partners, volunteers, sponsors, and friends who all want to help make mental health easier to talk about and easier to support.
That growth is part of what made Jill’s reflection so powerful. The tournament is not only a day to remember Bo. It is also a day that helps move the community forward. It supports awareness, opens conversations, and helps connect people to resources that may not have been as easy to find years ago.
This mission shows what long term care can build. It shows that when a family keeps showing up with love, and when a community keeps standing with them, the result can be more help, more hope, and more understanding for the people who need it most.
When Greg Cummings spoke with Jill DePaola at the 2026 tournament, the conversation carried the quiet strength of a mother who has lived through deep loss and chose to use that pain to help others. Jill was not only speaking as a Co-founder. She was speaking as Bo’s mother, and that gave every word more weight.
“I do feel that, you know, this has done a lot of good these past 11 years throughout our community.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
Her words showed that this mission has grown with time, care, and real purpose. It began with Bo, but it has reached many more families who need support, comfort, and a place to feel understood. Jill’s voice made the event feel less like a public program and more like a family promise that has continued for 11 years.
That promise is why the mission matters to people looking for a mental health awareness nonprofit in Maryland that is rooted in real life and real care. Jill’s leadership comes from lived experience, and that makes the work feel personal, honest, and deeply needed.
2026 Bo’s Effort Golf Tournament at Queenstown Harbor
Greg Cummings asked Jill why the family continues to go through the effort to help others in a more active way. Her answer gave the conversation its heart. The family does not want other people to face what they faced without the right help around them.
“I think that we don’t want people to have to experience what we did without having the resources that they need.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
That line made the mission clear. This work is not only about raising awareness after pain has happened. It is about helping families earlier, before they feel alone, confused, or unsure where to turn. It is about building a place where people can talk about mental health with more courage and less fear.
For families facing mental health struggles, support can change everything. Jill’s answer showed why the mission keeps moving forward. The goal is not only to remember Bo. The goal is to make sure more families have care, guidance, and hope when they need it most.
Jill also made it clear that awareness should lead to action. Over 11 years, the family’s work has helped bring more attention to mental health and more support into the community. That is what gives the mission its lasting value.
“What we hope is this, which has been going on for 11 years now, has brought more awareness, more resources.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
This is where the work becomes more than a message. Talking about mental health matters, but families also need places to turn, people to call, and programs that can help. Jill’s hope is that more awareness has helped open those doors.
That is why this work stands while also helping move people closer to care. It shows how a family story can help make hard topics easier to discuss, and how those talks can lead to better support for people who need it.
As Jill reflected on the years behind the mission, she pointed to the growth she has seen close to home. Her words showed that steady care can change what is available for families over time.
“I know in our community alone the resources have expanded tremendously.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
That progress matters because real change often happens slowly. It takes years of showing up, sharing stories, raising support, building trust, and helping people understand that mental health deserves open care. Jill’s reflection showed that the work has helped move the community toward more support and more understanding.
The event has also helped connect people across family, health care, business, and community circles. That kind of growth does not happen by accident. It happens when people stay faithful to a cause and keep creating room for more help to reach the people who need it.
Learn more about mental health support and community giving at Bo’s Effort.
Jill’s hope for the mission is not only about numbers, programs, or events. She also spoke about the people who know the family and may have been touched by the work in a personal way.
“Hopefully for everybody who knows us that we’ve touched them in some way, so that’s what I hope.” Jill DePaola, Co-founder of Bo’s Effort and Bo’s Mother
That kind of impact is hard to measure, but it is often the most meaningful. A person may hear Bo’s story and feel less alone. A parent may find courage to talk about what their family is facing. A friend may learn how to support someone they love. A student may feel called to serve in mental health care.
This is the quiet power of the mission. It reaches people through story, trust, and compassion. It gives families a reason to speak, a reason to listen, and a reason to believe that help can grow when people care enough to keep showing up.
Greg’s question to Jill also carried a larger lesson for business leaders. He asked why the family keeps making the effort to help others in a more proactive way. That question matters because strong leadership often means caring before people reach a crisis point.
“Can you talk to us about why you go through that effort to continue to try to help others in a more proactive way?” Greg Cummings, CEO, Power100
Jill’s answer showed that the best kind of care does not wait until families feel lost. It works to build more support, more awareness, and more understanding ahead of time. That lesson reaches beyond one family and one event. It speaks to every leader who wants to use their voice, company, and community ties for good.
For the home improvement industry, this is a clear reminder that leadership is not only about what happens inside a business. It is also about how companies help people outside their walls. When leaders support mental health, give families a place to feel seen, and help grow community resources, they create trust that lasts far beyond the job.
As the 2026 tournament came to a close, Jill DePaola’s words left a steady and hopeful message. Some of the most meaningful missions begin in pain, but they grow when a family chooses to help others through what they have lived. For the DePaola family, honoring Bo has become more than a memory. It has become a way to make sure other families have more support, more resources, and more understanding when they need it most.
Over 11 years, this work has helped open conversations that many people once found hard to have. It has helped bring more awareness to mental health, support local care, and create a stronger path for families who may be searching for help. The mission continues to remind people that mental health should not be met with silence. It should be met with care, support, and real action.
Jill’s interview also gave leaders across the home improvement industry something important to think about. Proactive care is part of strong leadership. When a family business uses its voice, its relationships, and its community trust to help others before they feel alone, that impact can last far beyond one event.
The work ahead remains deeply human. More families still need support. More people still need resources. More conversations still need to happen. But with each year, each supporter, and each act of care, the mission continues to grow into something that brings hope to others.
What began with love for Bo now helps carry care into the lives of many. And as the community keeps showing up, that love continues to become a stronger source of help, healing, and hope for the people who need it most.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through national rankings, executive interviews, event coverage, leadership stories, and industry research, Power100 helps contractors, CEOs, partners, and innovators share the values, ideas, and people shaping the future of home improvement. The platform gives homeowners a trusted way to discover strong leaders while giving respected companies greater visibility across the industry. Learn more at Power100 and follow Greg Cummings for more conversations about leadership, community impact, culture, and purpose driven service.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
