HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A TIME FOR RENEWAL:

OF HOPE

OF PROMISE

OF

THE BLESSING OF GRATITUDE

If you are like me you could wallpaper your garage with the unkept resolutions of the past. Funny, how it is that when the focus is upon others, rather than one's self, the emptiness of resolution takes on the feel of genuine resolve. To me this is probably the first blessing of gratitude. So here's to resolve and our commitment to bring the promise of healing and the hope of renewed life to yet others who suffer in the darkness of addiction.

SPECIAL EVENT UPCOMING:

FAMILY RECOVERY PROGRAM:

Anyone even casually conversant with opioid addiction cannot but appreciate how the suffering is never confined to the addict.  It spills out over into the lives of persons who orbit the addict—from family and friends, to employers, co-workers, and, of course into the community at large.  Most profoundly affected, of course, are families. Albeit in different and perhaps less obvious ways, families are as devastated by this disease as is the member who is the suffering victim.  

Darlene’s most recent innovation into this world of care has been to develop a program of family support—an event to which families of suffering addicts can come to find educational and treatment opportunities as well as extended hands of emotional and spiritual support from persons who have been themselves the “collateral damage” of this virulence. 

Specialists in addiction will discuss:

            --how do drugs effect the brain

            --how to help the person with addiction

            --how to care for yourself

            --books, groups, and resources.

Reclaim your own life!

This event is free and lunch will be provided.

Structured as a series of mini-lectures (with question and answer sessions to follow) this day is designed to reach out to the family members of our recipients (primarily).  Persons must pre-register for this event. For information and to register please contact Darlene at:

[email protected]

Only 4 seats left! RSVP now to save your spot!

NOTICES. ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND DATES:

Erik 1 month

Michael 2 months

Tim 3 months

Mark 5 months

Joey 6 months

Rhiannon 9 months

Tommy 10 months

Mikey 1 year

Justin 28 months

Congratulations to each of you for your commitment and hard work!



GRATITUDES CELEBRATION!!

Tales of Season Tides

Narcan Training Session

Gets it Done!

SPECIAL THANKS TO :

As some recent conversations on line have evinced, the stigma surrounding this disease and our efforts to enhance treatment options still abound! When questions of healthcare get politicized it all gets so troublesome!

I do hope you all have had a chance to pick up your packets of Narcan. I've got mine in my purse--as they say, "doesn't do any good at home!"

And, if anyone is still having troubles getting h/her's or needs financial assistance, do contact Kevin .

Again, thanks to all!

PACKING OFF

HOLIDAY CHEER

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

TERRY AND ROB FLOWER

FOR

SENDING OUT PACKAGES OF HOMEMADE COOKIES AND FUDGE TO ALL OUR RECIPIENTS.

DELIVERING THE GOODS!

Darlene and her team of volunteers put together holiday stockings for patients hospitalized over the holidays due to opioid-related illnesses.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

OUR CORE OF VOLUNTEERS WHO MET WITH DARLENE TO PUT THESE TOGETHER!

AND TO:

TIM AND DARLENE for distributing these to the patients at Upstate;

AND

SUE MULLIGAN for distributing these to the patients at St, Camillus;

AND

THERESA RAZMJOU for helping out at the James Street Half-Way House.

AND JUST IN CASE YOU NEEDED A DOSE OF

NEW YEAR'S CHEER!!

SOME OF THE GANG

(our recipients)

INFORMATION AND RESOURCES :

Barry Weiss, the Chairperson of our Board of Directors sent along to me the second installment of a series of pieces on opioid addiction presently appearing in the NYTimes. This is a marvelous series of articles and well-worth anyone's attentive read--no matter your level of expertise. Do take a look



HERE

ADDICTION POLICY FORUM

Spotlight Series

As we have noted for the past several installments, the Addiction Policy Forum offers a website from which an extraordinary amount of important information about opioid addiction can be gleaned. For persons seeking an "informative and accessible" source of information on virtually any aspect of addiction and treatment this is a perfect venue. This month we spotlight their own series called

SPOTLIGHT SERIES.

Again, to visit this series please click

HERE

VOLUNTEER NEWS: (SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT)

Our first Volunteer Meeting of the new year promises to be of special significance.  Everyone is not only encouraged to attend, but to give the thematics of this meeting a bit of thought in advance.

The purpose of the meeting is to look forward into the future of R2R with an eye toward giving Darlene some organizational structure and support from the perspective of her Volunteer Team. The Volunteer Team is effectively where the work of R2R puts rubber to the road. Not only does this team execute most of the activities of the organization, but it also constitutes a forum in which brainstorming regarding the work of the organization takes place. 

At this meeting we intend to explore ideas as to how to enhance our work in both directions: how to better facilitate our efforts to execute the various activities of the organization (e.g., leadership and advanced planning) and how to enliven the creative energies of our fundraising ideas while giving them some conceptual framework (i.e., how we are to envision and understand these projects—i.e., their purposes and so forth). 

A fair amount of this effort will mean constructing plans into the future by recognizing our successes and failures during this past year.  Do we envision creating a calendar of traditional (cycled) events?  Do we need to organize—perhaps at the level of Volunteer Committee—a center for creative-event planning? Are there ways in which our volunteer staffing and support can be better organized and executed? And so forth.

It seems clear:  we cannot do everything nor just anything.  Some measure of viability and advisability is due as we attempt to grapple with the second year of our existence.

From the perspective of an organizational chart, Darlene, as the Executive Director, is responsible to her Board of Directors.  The Board itself is fully engaged in precisely such long-range planning: organizing itself around a set of bylaws and developing a strategic plan that looks toward 2020.  In turn, as the chief executive officer of R2R, Darlene is responsible for devising and executing the work-a-day projects of the organization. It is in this regard that we of the Volunteer Team serve.  The purpose of our February meeting is to enhance and better facilitate this work.

New GoFundMe campaign

Now it's even easier to donate to help save lives. Just click on the Go Fund Me words below. Be sure to share the link with all your friends and contacts! Our goal is to raise $25,000, enough to pay for 90 days of treatment, 90 days of sober living, and 90 days of sober coaching, plus airfare, prescriptions, etc. for one person. That's six months of care, after which recipients are working and self-supporting. We've raised $400 so far!!

Go Fund Me

Don't forger! Drop off your bags of deposit bottles/cans (with Road2RecoveryCNY written on the side) at:

F-M Returnables at 202 West Seneca Street in Manlius.

315-682-4830

or

Central City Bottle Redemption, 224 Chapel Drive, Syracuse (Fairmount), NY 13219

Every dollar helps us send people to lifesaving treatment!