HELENA — Battle of the Gains is a nonprofit working to help people improve their mental health. Right now, they’re taking their message national -- and they have arrived in Montana.
Traveling in an RV is a couple visiting all of our nation’s 50 state capitals, but they’re not just doing this for fun, they’re motivated by a cause.
“A lot of people are experiencing anxiety and depression, especially right now. So we are interviewing people across the country asking them about the battles they went through in 2020 and advice they have for people in 2021," said Battle of the Gains founder Billy Gains.
Their mission is to BATTLE the rising rates of depression and other mental health issues, and gain back health physically, mentally, or even financially. Gains decided to take their message on a nationwide tour, collecting pandemic experiences and advice from people across the country.
"We talked to business owners. We stopped by local colleges and talked to college students and then just did interviews on the street,” Gains sid. “We try to go to all the main attractions and we are just interviewing all different types of people and hearing their stories and there's definitely a lot of stories. We've interviewed hundreds of people across the country and we've gotten thousands of videos. So it's been a really cool experience."
As of June 4, Gains has visited 42 state capitols, capturing the whole journey on film and social media, but the real work for Battle of the Gains begins after the trip.
“That's when we're going to be reaching out to different businesses that want to be a part of future events, the chapters we want to start up in each state. So it's going to take a lot of work but I'm really excited for it. I feel like it's what I was meant to do and it's a really exciting thing to be living out my dream," says Billy.
Battle of the Gains has plans to turn all of those interviews and advice from across the country into a book.
Battle of the Gains will be in Helena until the end of the day June 4th, 2021. They said you can meet up with them to learn their message in more detail. To find where they are located, visit and message them in their Instagram page here.
