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The 5th Annual Picnic for Parity held on Friday May 21st 1999 in Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library, attracted close to 10,000 people according to the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation. Consumers and providers came to the Picnic which is emerging as a tradition for the mental health community. They came to denounce the disparity in insurance coverage for the treatment of mental illness, to propose the view that people with mental illness can be anyone, regardless of class, wealth or education, and to challenge the notion that the mentally ill are condemned to a life without treatment, and to a life on the margins of society. Access to treatment, to medication, to services in a manner consistent with the life-long chronicity of these illnesses can change lives, reduce suffering, and break the taboo that makes the suffering from mental illness more insufferable.

Many ordinary New Yorkers attending the event, passing by or gathering in the park during the lunch hour listened intently to the messages about parity and mental illness from many speakers. Isaac Brown, received the prize of Consumer of the Year for his initiative "Brooklyn Peer Advocacy Project," and told his story of schizophrenia, homelessness and the long fight back to now devoting his time to helping others with mental illness out of institutions and back to the community. Steve Coe received the award for "Provider of the Year" for Community Access, an agency that provides education, training and advocacy services to the mentally ill. Siegfrido Benito received the award for "Family Advocate of the Year" for the creation of a Spanish AMI in the Bronx. Commissioner Neal Cohen, M.D. of the New York City Department of Public Health received a special award for his initiative aimed at reintegrating those with mental illness in the workforce. Assemblyman Jim Brennan from Brooklyn received the award for "Advocate of the Year" for his relentless efforts at passing a parity bill in New York State. Each delivered a message of determination and optimism about the struggle to make mental illness a reality that will no longer be hidden from view or from our understanding.

Many citizens passing by visited the information fair setup all around the park. Many came to the organizers offering support, even money, to promote the cause of parity. Many were surprised to learn that picnics had also been held in other cities in New York, including Long Island, Albany, Binghampton and Buffalo to name only these. They were also surprised to find that in the confines of the park, they could be at ease, feel welcomed by those with mental illness whose plight they had come to understand a little more. And perhaps this was the biggest accomplishment of the day: a hand warmly extended to other New Yorkers had been warmly received.