I would like to thank
everyone who partnered with Better Life in Recovery this year. Whether you came
to an event as a participant, helped plan an event, sponsored an event or
volunteered with us to make an impact in our community I say thank you!! In
2012 we did one event, in 2013 we did 3 events and in 2014 we held 8 events.
2015 was the first year we came out in full force.
1. The 2nd Annual Getting Dirty for Staying Clean 5K/10K
Recovery Run and Family Fun BBQ that had 75 runners and over 100 people in
attendance. Senator Dixon presented a Recovery Month proclamation for the state
of Missouri and Greene County Commissioner Bensch made one for Greene County.
2. The 2nd Recovery Day at Hammons Field. We sold 315
tickets, had a parade around the field before the game, Judge Blankenship threw
out the first pitch and we had a representative sing “God Bless America” during
the 7th inning stretch.
3. In addition to our yearly river clean up and
camp out, we started a stream team (The Keeping it Clean Stream Team) that
floated 6 times and camped out one other time.
4. Bowling with BLiR began in February. We meet and
bowl every Sunday night at 6 at Lighthouse Lanes. We have had as few as two
people and as many as 47 show up to bowl.
5. We did a lot of community impact, partnering
with Springfield Public Schools, Harmony House, the Missouri Conservation
Department and various other agencies to make our communities better.
6. In November we started doing something every
Saturday night, from 6-11. We do a game night on the 1st and 3rd Saturday and Karaoke on the 2nd and 4th Saturday with the 5th Saturday being open.
7. We partnered with Church at the Center and New
Beginning Sanctuary to do a Thanksgiving Celebration. We had 75 in attendance,
enjoying fellowship and food and we were able to give some winter coats,
blankets, quilts and clothes to some of those in attendance.
8. I attended the UNITE to Face Addiction event in
Washington, DC
9. I spoke at 2 schools about the dangers of
substance abuse and the importance of making better choices.
10. I presented at 2 conferences: the Department of Mental Health’s
Consumer Conference and the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association's conference.
11. I was appointed to the State Advisory Council
for Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
12. Partnering with various other non-profits in
the area, we formed HOPE (Housing Opportunities Protect Everyone) to combat the
group home amendment the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission was working
on that would impact all of the recovery, transitional living and sober supportive houses in
Springfield.
As a non-funded, all
volunteer organization we made a dent in stigma that had not been done before.
If you add together all of the work we put into our community, we either held
or participated in 64 events. Better Life in Recovery and their members donated
just shy of 2000 hours of service to our community, working together to make
our community a better place to live.
In 2016, Better Life in
Recovery has even bigger plans. I will cover them in my next blog at the end of
this week. I guarantee that 2016 will eclipse 2015 in all categories: events,
people impacted, people educated and hours of community impact.
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