Twelve Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Five Reasons to Say “Thank You”

In an earlier blog I wrote “No halfway house can survive without the support of the community in which it sits.”  Nothing demonstrates this principle in  the case of Christian Fellowship Home better than the success of our annual Telethon fundraiser, held yesterday.

First our regional television station WHIG, is to be thanked for providing the production facility and air-time without which there would be no Telethon. Sandra Smith, owner and manager, and technical experts Edward Greene and Lee Pritchitt, went many times the extra mile.

Then our corporate sponsors: local businesses who make investments in the Telethon before it's any where near ready to go on the air. We gratefully thank Rocky Mount Engine Plant, Ivan Price Graphic Design, Turn-key Storage, Steve Felton at Ameriprise Financial, COECO Business Systems, John Hackney Agency, Stallings Oil Company, Eagle Transport, Don’s Body Shop, and E. Norman Davis.

The public face of our Telethon is the on-air host team, expertly led by Jean Almand Kitchin, who was joined by Ginny Mohrbutter, Amanda Bell, Lennette Britt, and Gus Tulloss. Some of our best faith-based community leadership served as guest hosts: including Bishop Shelton Daniel, and Pastors Jodie Wright, and Larry Curtis. Also donating time before the cameras were Tom Betts, Kim Hickerson, Joe Goarck, and Marva Scott.

You can't have a Telethon without a phone bank. Ours was manned by Denise Simon, Christy Skojec Taylor, and Gerald Warner -- all of Express Personnel -- who excitedly waved purple pom-poms and cheered every time a pledge call came in.  Back end financial work was capably manned by CFH Board members Vanessa Whitaker, and Rick and Sandra Thomason. 

Entertainment and talent interludes were provided by the Word Tabernacle Men’s Choir, Tiffany Hill, Terrapin’s Group, and the Sapony Creek band while current house resident Tony Williams performed Gospel selections as well as gave his testimony about being at the Men’s Home.

Thanks are also due to Men’s Home Manager Alton Lynn, and the current and former residents who shared their experiences both publicly and anonymously.

The result of all this effort by all of these people was astounding: pledges of support this year in the amount of $12,225.00, and a six year cumulative total raised from our Telethon of $81,990.00 And that’s a whole lot of reasons to be thankful about the generosity of our twin county community, twelve thousand two hundred and twenty five of ‘em, to be exact!

Will all of you who are drug addicts or alcoholics, please raise you hands?

Of course, I didn't expect a lot of you to raise your hands -- but if some of you did, please get up with me privately, as I may have some experience strength and hope that will perhaps be useful to you!

But I will bet one thing: I 'll bet that every one of you reading this knows somebody with that problem, maybe a family member, someone you worked with, a neighbor, somebody who goes to your church, someone you knew at school. That's how widespread the problem is. That's how pervasively it saturates our modern culture from top to bottom.

Those of us who work with addiction consider it an "Equal Opportunity" disease. Because it doesn't matter what family you were born into, it doesn't matter how much money you make, or how far you succeeded in school, or what color you are, what culture you embrace, or what side of the tracks you happened to be born on.

It takes courage, determination, treatment, luck, support, and help from the Almighty to successfully beat addiction. For forty years the halfway house at Christian Fellowship Home has been helping newly recovered men to beat the odds and lead productive lives. It doesn't succeed with all men, but it works for a lot of them. I know because I am one of those men.

From time to time our halfway house program reaches out to the world at large for contributions. This weekend will be one of those times as we broadcast our 6^th annual Telethon. The live, three hour show, carried on our local cable station WHIG TV, will feature testimonials from residents, endorsements from community leaders, and entertaining music featuring local talent. You can call in during the show and make a pledge, or use othe PayPal link on our website donations page, www.cfhrockymountnc.com, to make a contribution. 

No contribution is too small for us to appreciate. An $85 contribution for instance, will provide a whole week of complete support services for a newly admitted indigent resident. A $40 gift will allow us to take care of the co-pay to get a resident to the local clinic for emergency medical or dental services.  A $10 pledge will cover the generic cost of needed medications for men coming to us out of treatment centers and detox units. We are an IRS registered 501 (c) 3 charity, so your contributions are tax deductible, and our financial information is available to review on Guidestar.com at:

 http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/56-1218951/christian-felloship-home-nash-edgecombe-counties.aspx

Please consider helping us fulfill our mission of helping newly recovered substance abusers beat the odds and live productive, sober lives.