Monday, March 31, 2008

addiction awareness

Thank you for visiting the blog for "Breaking the Chains", an event to increase awareness about addiction.

My husband and I are organizing this event with the support of Ray Desmarais and Jericho Road Christian Ministries. We recognize that many, if not most, of the people we hope to attract with this free event will not be struggling with addiction. However, almost everyone I talk to knows someone struggling with an addiction of some sort (alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, the list goes on...).

Drugs and alcohol are so prevelent in our high schools and even junior high schools, we must inform our kids. Our speaker, Alvin Powell is just the man for that. Based in Montreal, Alvin has been invited to speak at many local Ottawa schools; Lisgar, St. Pete's, Centennial, St. Paul's and many more.

Alvin has an onstage presence that captivates the entire audience. We've witnessed an auditorium of 1500 students motionless for the duration of his presentation. No one even left to go to the bathroom, as is so common during school assemblies. That's when we knew we had to bring Alvin back to Ottawa for an event open to everyone, not just a particular school.

Details about the event are on the left side bar. Scroll down for more information about the speaker (Alvin Powell), the organizer (Jon Ruby) and the band (5 Minute Window).

Professionally printed posters and rave cards are also available to post at your location.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

feedback

On Good Friday we were at No Other Name '08 . No Other Name was attended by over 400 youth ages 12-18. Jon had been invited to give a workshop on the effects of drugs and alcohol in his life. We were also invited to have a booth to promote the Breaking the Chains event.

Response from Youth Leaders, parents and the youth themselves was amazing! I spoke with a lot of people and every single one of them said how badly something like this is needed in our city. Everyone that I talked to either a) knows someone struggling with drugs or alcohol b) is struggling with drugs or alcohol, or c) has struggled with drugs or alcohol in the past.

I sat in on Jon's first workshop. I could tell he was a little nervous, first time speaking to kids about his experience. The room was packed, kids were sitting on the floor and they just kept coming in. Jon spoke about how he got started drinking, how it led to drugs, the extent he went to eventually to get drugs and how he got sobor. My completely unbiased opinion was that he did an absolutely amazing job! Fortunately, we did get a lot of positive unbiased feedback also.

I think what struck me the most was that we were once them. It doesn't feel like very long ago, we were just kids laughing and giggling about drinking and how much fun it was. That changed for us, and it will change for many of those kids too.

Of course, all those kids won't become alcoholics/drug addicts. I'm not. I don't know what the statistics are, but if even one of those kids has the gene or the predisposition to addiction, I think it's good that they hear about the reality now.

I wasn't in the 2nd workshop, but a couple kids were high and one passed out. Jon just patted him on the head and said "you're in the right place, buddy".

All in all, it was an amazing experience and I'm even more stoked for the event in May!

-Vikki