Join The Sober Curator At The Annual Standing In The Gap Virtual Breakfast With The Recovery Cafe In Seattle

Standing in the Gap is going virtual!

Standing in the Gap is going virtual! Please join us for a morning to learn about the healing work of Recovery Café. Let’s celebrate National Recovery month in Seattle! What to expect? You will learn what we’re doing to serve our Members during the Covid-19 pandemic and how you can help. Standing in the Gap will take place on Thursday, September 17 from 7:30-9:00 a.m. online. 

Recovery Cafe Mission Statement

Recovery Cafe Mission Statement: We are a community of individuals who have been traumatized by homelessness, addiction and other mental health challenges coming to know we are loved and that we have gifts to share.

My experience with the Recovery Cafe

I discovered the Recovery Cafe over six years ago at a philanthropic festival in downtown Seattle. They were one of the nonprofits selected to participate by one of the event sponsors. As the person who created the event concept, I wanted to make a point to introduce myself personally to each of the 40+ participating nonprofits.

This is how I came to meet David Coffey, Executive Director of the Recovery Cafe and one of the nicest human beings I have ever encountered. It didn’t take long for us to schedule a lunch meeting. Over that hour, I learned about the amazing work that was being done at the cafe. Immediately I knew I wanted to be of service. No job was too big or too small. Put me in coach! I’m ready to serve! A few months later I was asked to join the board. Six years later, they still can’t get rid of me I’m now the Chair of the Board.

Putting this post together today, I went to hunt down a good video that really spoke to the heartfelt work this organization. Much to my surprise, I found a video of myself from the 2016 Standing in the Gap breakfast that I had never seen before.

Today as I write this, it is Tuesday, September 1st, in the year of 2020. September is National Recovery Month. In years past, I have always shown my support in small ways. Donations here, volunteering there but this year…well it’s different. It’s personal. This is year hard and I have tools to use for my recovery. My heart breaks for the ones that don’t. I can’t even fathom how many it’s going to be. This hit me back in May and my heart continues to ache every single day.

In March of this year, normal life as we knew it changed over the course of a few weeks. In the beginning, I just noticed the spike of alcohol mentions in my social media feeds. Everyone was posting pictures of their happy hours drinking at home on zoom wearing funny hats.

Here comes some stats

The impact of addiction on Americans is growing at an alarming rate in the face of COVID-19. Shut-downs have forced 12 step meetings online. Financial insecurity is running rampant. Overdose rates have spiked every month since the virus forced millions into isolation. That’s why this year means more to me than the past 14 years.

In 2018, the World Health Organization reported that 3.3 million people died due to alcohol globally. The current Covid-19 death count as of today is nearly 900K+ according to Worldometer. I wish people talked about addiction 50% as much as they talked about Covid-19. That would literally be a game changer.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. “When we recover loudly, we keep others from dying silently” There was a great article about this in Huff Post from 2017 that talked about the importance of “Recovering Out Loud”.

Recover Out Loud

If you know me personally than you know I do one thing very well…I am loud. I mean I’m really, really loud. It drives my son crazy and my coworkers are likely enjoying the quietness of their current work from home situation.

Since I have the loud part down pat, I am doubling down on the recovery part. Will you join me? If you are in recovery, will you be loud about it? It doesn’t have to be on social media. You can find your own ways. You don’t even have to wear it on a sweatshirt. (Although if you do want to wear it on a sweatshirt, you can check out this post here and here.)

Is someone you know in recovery and you want to be loud and raise awareness too? We will take all of the support we can get. It can be as simple as signing up to attend the virtual Standing in the Gap breakfast.

Help is here if and when you need it

If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties surrounding alcoholism, addiction, or mental illness, please reach out and ask for help. People everywhere can and want to help; you just have to know where to look. And continue to look until you find what works for you. Click here for a list of regional and national resources.

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