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Continuing Care program to be highlighted at Homecoming
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All Willingway graduates spend time learning about the incredible resource that is our Continuing Care (CC) program as a part of the Inpatient discharge process. But if you're like I am, you may have completed treatment and thrown yourself full bore into 12-Step meetings and put checking out a CC meeting on the back burner.
It took me a while (okay, over two years!) to start regularly incorporating CC groups into my meeting schedule and I wish I had shown up a lot sooner.
Meetings are the main component of the CC program and these groups gather weekly in 13 cities throughout the southeast. Their mission is to provide recovering alcoholics/addicts, their family members, and any invited guests a safe place to land, talk about their experiences, and find ways to become connected with 12-step recovery. Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether someone is/has been/or plans to be in treatment. Each group has its own unique flavor but all are fantastic and supportive micro recovery communities.
While not a substitute for 12-step meetings, the CC group I attend (shoutout, Augusta!) enhances what I experience in "the rooms." As a recovering alcoholic, it helps me immensely to be in a support group environment that incorporates all sides of the addiction equation. It reminds me a lot of Family Week at Willingway, which was the most powerful part of my personal Inpatient experience.
We have a top notch group of facilitators who guide these weekly meetings and we've invited them to be onstage with us during Homecoming weekend this April so that we can highlight the work that they are doing through the CC program. We hope you can join us then to help honor our facilitators and learn more about Continuing Care in person.
But you don't have to wait until spring to check out a CC meeting. If you've got a group in your area, I challenge you to mix up your routine and visit them. If you'd like to have a friendly face accompany you, get in touch with our current CC Program Coordinator, Kinder Cannon, and we can match you with a meeting buddy. His contact info along with the complete list of meetings are available through the link below. Come see us soon!
All my best,
Sarah Dasher
Alumni Director
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Have you registered yet?
Homecoming 2017, April 21-23
REGISTRATION AND HOTEL BLOCK OPEN
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Our biggest Alumni event of the year is just two months away and tickets are selling fast!
Click Here to Register
Main Tickets $20-35 (Kids 12 and under free)
Golf Tournament $75
~ Golf tournament ~ Speaker Meetings ~ Open Mic Gratitude Meeting ~ Outdoor BBQ and Open House ~ Kids Bounce House ~ Dunk Tank ~ Ice Cream Social ~ Pizza Party ~ Roundtable Breakfast ~ Live Music ~
The event is also posted to our Facebook page. If you're not already following us, what the heck are you waiting for?!
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Homecoming Theme Contest Winner Identified!
CONGRATULATIONS, CHELSEA K.
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We're happy to announce that alumna Chelsea K. of Westminster, Maryland has been identified as the missing winner of our 2017 theme contest. Chelsea suggested No Day But Today for our 2016 competition and the nomination went onto a blind list of top picks for the selection committee that was put back into the stack this year. We loved the theme but didn't know who originally submitted it until now.
Congrats, Chelsea! And thanks again to fellow alum and graphic designer Taylor L. for creating our Broadway-inspired logo from the musical "Rent."
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Alumni Updates
NEWS FROM OUR COMMUNITY
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Ordination
Tommy T.
Brunswick, Georgia
Please join Willingway in congratulating Tommy T. of Brunswick, Georgia on his ordination to The Sacred Order of Priests in The Episcopal Church on November 16th, 2016.
Tommy will serve at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on St. Simon's Island and continue his board membership with The Grace House of Brunswick.
Tommy is pictured on the left with The Reverend Kevin K. of Savannah, Georgia. The two priests have started a chapter of The Episcopal Recovery Ministries in The Diocese of Georgia, hoping to share their mutual experience, strength, and hope with those seeking help with their addictions in the church.
Thank you for your service, gentlemen!
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Happy and healthy
Lisa L.
Homerville, Georgia
Lisa wrote to us after last month's issue to let us know she wouldn't be able to make Homecoming this year, but for a very happy reason. She and her husband will be celebrating an anniversary that weekend. Lisa also shared the following with Willingway.
"I am always so excited when I see this newsletter in my mailbox as I am reminded about how blessed I was to receive the caring tough-love that I needed at Willingway. I am forever grateful for the life I enjoy today in recovery and in a recovery community. There will never be sufficient thanks that I could give to many of the staff at Willingway. I do want to share our family picture from this year. This family was on the brink of destruction due to my addiction. We are happy, healthy and whole today and it all started on April 6, 2010. I hope this find you all blessed and having many reasons to celebrate your own recovery."
Happy anniversary to you and your husband from all of us at Willingway! We wish you and your entire family continued joy in your recovery journey and hope to see you at next year's Homecoming.
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Passing
Mary Lou V.
Greenville, South Carolina
Many of our Alumni and their families will remember Mary Lou V., who died on Sunday, February 12 at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Mary Lou worked first as an aide and then addiction counselor at Willingway and along with her husband, Robert, developed what would become lifelong friendships with many members of the 12-step community.
She and Robert ultimately returned from Statesboro to Greenville, where Mary Lou continued her service to those struggling with addiction in her work with Greenville Hospital, where she remained until her retirement. Central to Mary Lou's professional, social, and spiritual life were the values of compassion, acceptance, and courage.
All of us at Willingway extend our condolences to Mary Lou's family and friends, and will remain ever grateful for her service here and to the recovery community at large.
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Dr. Charles B.
Alma, Georgia
Lissa B. submited the below to share with our community. Our heartfelt condolences and love go out to Lissa and the rest of the family of Dr. B.
Dr. Charles B. died Thursday, January 19 at Bacon County Hospital. He was a retired physician and served in the United States Air Force during the Korean Conflict. He was a member of Nicholls Baptist Church and was a member of the Medical College of Georgia's Fellow of American Academy of Family Practitioners. He was a native of Coffee County but had lived most of his life in Alma.
He is survived by his wife, Christine of Alma, GA; a daughter, Melissa of Alma, GA; a son, Winston Jordan of Alma, GA; five grandchildren, Charles , Robert Jimmy, William, Caine, and Caleb; a sister, Rita of Jacksonville, FL; and numerous nieces, nephews, and other relatives.
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Do you have news to share?
- Birth announcements
- Marriages
- New jobs
- Sobriety/Wedding anniversaries
- Obituaries
- Spiritual support requests
We encourage photos too! Use "Alumni News" in the subject line for all submissions and let us know where you are currently located.
Deadline for inclusion is the 15th of each month and as they say, thanks for sharing.
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Highlights from around the Way
Continuing Careers
Longtime Continuing Care Coordinator Kinder Cannon (above right) will soon take on a new Clinical role, joining the Inpatient Counselor team next month.
And moving over from Unit II into Kinder's old office will be Counselor Aide JD DuPell (below right). Congratulations to both of these guys on their new positions at Willingway.
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“I come in, I ask for help. I’m willing. The person doesn’t tell me what to do, they tell me what they did. You do what they ask you to do and (stuff) happens. Your life gets better. Your life changes.”
- Tobey Maguire
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The Chandelier is a digital monthly publication for the Alumni, Family, and Friends of Willingway. For any questions about it or our Alumni program in general, please contact Alumni Director Sarah Dasher.
[email protected] or 404.388.3750
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