We have had an event! And it is going down in the history books as 217 Recovery's very 1st Recovery Stories Message of Hope spaghetti dinners. It was pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie. On the evening of October 26th Corey got to get in front of everyone and flex his frontman skills, Marney was our backbone keeping us structured and on track, and Adam got to break out of his shell and speak in front of the whole crowd for the first time about why he's living a life in recovery. We had our good friends Kim & Cori tearing it up in the kitchen getting a spaghetti dinner for the masses and making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible in the front of the house. Justin was there too!
While Tyrone was helping with sound check, Marney's mom Emmie along with our volunteer and friend Josh & I were there to be the helping hands wherever needed. Like swiss army knife people. If we had the skill for the job at hand, we were there to offer a helping hand. There were a lot of nerves between Adam and other storytellers who were speaking out for recovery in this format for the first time. But, they all did great at paving the way for the main hope messengers to take the mic. Those messengers did an amazing job reaching the attendees with their personal stories of battling substance use disorder and the journey to building a life helping others recover as well.
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” -John Holmes
All in all, it was a bit stressful setting up while anticipating what the turnout might be. This was in fact the first time we had ever put together an outreach of this size or format. but everyone really came together and made sure things ran as smoothly as possible. I'm really proud of the outcome. The attendance was great, the food even better, the speakers picked up their courage and reached out to those searching for a way out of SUD, and it is going down in the 217 Recovery history book as one damn good kick-off to a recurring event for the recovery community of Traverse City Michigan.
I'd really like to thank everyone involved in making this possible. The Grand Traverse Event Center for their help and facility, the recovery community for their participation, the speakers for their courage, and Justin...no one would have known where to smoke without you buddy ;)
I hope to see you all at the next one!!