Oh what a fun day at FIA !!!!!

    Next to last Tuesday of the month in July. Its hot outside but the fun - o - meter inside is getting ready to raise. Its our annual Birthday party and awesome Auction Day. All month long we played games and participated in groups that assisted us in obtaining awesome bucks. This past month we also had a whole day dedicated to "bucks" where some members had the opportunity to walk  away with over three to four thousand bucks. No matter how many "bucks" you had this was the place to be.
  The Birthday Party was first. We honored all our members and one staff member (Donna ) who had birthdays in July with birthday treat bags and crowns. We also served root beer or strawberry floats w/vanilla ice cream,  YUM. Then came the cupcake wars!!!! Everyone was given a vanilla cupcake with white icing. A variety of decorating options were provided from gummy bears to sprinkles to icing tubes to licorice. The contest was to decorate the best cupcake using only what was provided (icing). To much surprise we have a many decorators in our midst that were hiding their talents. the overall ending result was so difficult.  I sure am glad I was not a judge, however this was a contest and as with any contest there must be a winner. Our winner in First place who's cupcake had the FIA emblem on it, was Lisa C. Tommy came in second with flowers made out of licorice and spice drops and Christine came in third with her traditional red, white, and blue cupcake.
Other Birthday games followed such as pin the cherry on the ice cream cone, and ice cream bingo all of course with nothing else but awesome bucks for prizes.
So now is the time to spend those bucks.  The table is full . Items range from toilet paper to perfume, soap to notebook paper the list goes on ad on....... Ron our trusted auctioneer and Chris our trusted banker is ready and the bidding begins. Five Hundred dollars for mountain Dew, no wait six hundred the bid goes higher, the final cost seven hundred fifty for a two liter of mountain dew now that really needing that caffeine. But the fun don't stop there items continue to go all afternoon higher and higher. One thousand for body spray, two thousand, two hundred for a notebook with ink pens.The main idea here is though we had fun together, we learned to work together as a team we learned we had to strive for something and not give up if we wanted it. So even what seems trivial is beneficial to us. Laughter is the best medicine and here at FIA we do lots of that.                                                                                                                                   cw

New groups planned

We want to get clubhouse moving and fun.  We have a lot of new ideas floating around and we hope some of them can be started so we can liven this place up a little bit.  Older groups we used to have fun doing have sorta been forgotten and we need to bring them back. Chris W. offered to do a safety first class.  Maggie P. want to do more crafts and baking for a craft and yard sale and maybe sell some of our pictures that didn't get sold at the art show.  Betty W. offered to do a meditation class so we can learn how to relax.  A group class for friends to take the time to discuss their problem like a group therapy class.  A class to help friends learn how to support friends when they are in crisis or having a real bad day will be offered.
We used to bake cupcakes on the birthday party day and we would decorate them and have a contest to sees whoes was the best, and you get awesome bucks for winning. July is also national ice cream month and they have days set aside for hot dog day, fried chicken day, ice cream social day.  It seemed like everyday in July is set aside even a day for the day the liberty bell cracked,, national joke day,cheesecake day, Princess Diana's birthday.  Just lots of stuff that we can encorporate into a group or class.
It's to hot to do to much outside so we want a lot of good stuff we can do inside and keep cool and have fun too.  If you have a idea for a group or class come to calander planning and help us plan stuff for August. Betty W.

Biggest Loser follow up

The first round of the competition is over. Some people shed pounds as others shed tears.Twenty five members, including staff, competed over the last eight weeks to see who could lose the most body fat percentage. The results are in : Our combined starting weight was 5,946.5 pds WOW!!! within the eight weeks we lost a combined total of 303pds leaving us with a weight of 5,643.5. All the participants were winners. Even if you only lost one pound your headed in the right direction, Our top four competitors were
 Valerie, Maggie, Kelly, And in second place Tommy. Our Top loser was Christine with a total of 37.5 pds lost calculating out to be 12 %  body fat total loss.Christine won a gift basket full of low calorie snacks and a exercise tape along with diet soda, flavored water, and a pedometer to measure her future losses. If Christine can keep the pounds off within a 2 pd radius for the next 2 month time period she will receive an aditional prize of a gift certificate for clothing of which she must model so stay tuned for future pictures and updates. August 2010 competition resumes......... Who will be the next Biggest loser ???????                         CW

Night on the Town

On June 6th Clubhouse members went with Donna (staff member) for an outing to Farmington.
We started off with lunch at McDonald's and then headed over to the Factory to walk it off. The Ministial Alliance Thrift Store was having a great sale. So we stopped in and did some shopping. Sue found treasure for her Grandchildren and I found some new necklaces. Several other people found like new clothes. From there we headed for the Movie Theatre to see Shriek, Forever After. For the kids in all of us we enjoyed the movie. Tired and happy we headed home for the day.
Coming Events:
    Country Days
    Elephant Rock
    Father's Day Dinner (women cook)
    4th of July picnic
Maggie

Independent Living Program

One of the most beneficial  programs at FIA is the Independent Living Program(IL).Through out the years a many a memeber has graduated from this program and has since moved out onto their own.

This program meets once a  week program. The members must learn different aspects of skills needed to live out on their own independently. Some of these skills include: cooking, cleaning, shopping, medication awareness, safety, how to fill out a rental application/ lease, mock interviews along with many other areas which are too numerous to mention.

Each member attends a weekly group seession followed by multiple work tasks which is monitored by mentors. Some of the mentors are previous IL graduates themselves.

IL gives these members who currently reside in residential Care facilities the abilitiy to make a positive change, not only in their surroundings but also in themselves.

After the completion of this program each member has a graduation ceremony ( with caps and gowns )
in where they can be proud of their accomplishments. For some this is their first graduation as they never had the oppurtunity to finish high school .

Once a member completes IL a select few of apartment complexes adjust their rent to reflect completion of the course. State funds along with EMAA housing department also assist.

Our goal here at clubhouse it to improve self esteem, build confidence, and make a positive change in each member. I believe that thru IL this can happen.

Mothers Day May 13, 2010

 Women relaxed. Men cooked and served. What could be better? Maybe if they would sing as they served.
Chef Ron said "No way! I would clear the room if I sang!!!
Pecan crusted chicken, green beans, and parsley new potatoes, followed with a dessert of strawberry jello cake with real strawberries were on the menu.
But we women played games and bragged about our kids and grandkids; we guessed who hold the oldest mother, the oldest grandmother, most kids, all boys and all girls. 500 hundred awesome bucks were at stake. Team 1 won with a score of 11. It didn't hurt that we had some of the answers sitting at our table.
Beautiful table arrangements of real flowers were also prizes for the oldest and youngest mom. Our Ms. Maggie, Flower Shop mentor, always does such a wonderful job. We have such talented mentors such as Chris C. who planned the games and always does such a great job.
We were served by the ever graceful Tim C., James B. and Bill T. who did their best not only to serve us but keep us entertained. There was not a drop was spilled. There was not a mother or guest left behind.
Other game was to test our mother multi-tasking skills, some of the chores were not things I did as a mother, but of course we didn't have copy machines, we had carbon paper and typewriters and no one had voice mail, we yelled out the back door for "you kids get in here supper is ready." for our voice mail. Stacking sweet tarts was an ordeal for all who played. Bonnie, Chris, Misty, Betty, Sue, La Shonda and Lisa did their best. The only two chores I remember doing if folding towels and handwriting letters. Bonnie was best of all and won 600 awesome bucks even if she could not quite blow a bubble with bubble gum.
.Mommy bingo, word search, and a lot of laughter helped make the night a wonderful Mothers Day celebration.
We got to meet our new Volunteer. Her name was Annette and she used to work at EMAA. Now, she is studying to be a Social Worker. She seemed to enjoy listening to all of us bragging about all the fun we have at the Clubhouse. Pictures of kids and grandkids posted on a big board keep every one guessing who belonged to whom, and how long ago they were taken. Pink and White balloons, pretty flowers, good food, good friends, what else could we ask for.
Betty W.

FIA Biggest Loser Competition 2010

There's competition in the FIA Clubhouse. In this game however, the object is to lose not win. We are participating in our version of The biggest Loser as seen on TV. The competitors weigh in weekly to monitor their weight loss. Weight loss is determined by percentage of  body fat versus actual pounds lost.The competition is running for eight weeks. We have weekly prizes for the greatest loss that week, we have prizes for when you meet your goal weight and of course there's a big prize at the end for The Biggest Loser. So far we have nothing but positive results. Some of our competitors have already lost up to 25 pounds and were only in week 5. We learn to support each other, share healthy food secrets and even have begun cooking healthier at lunchtime. We also are a part of the pound for pound challenge as shown on the show. For every pound lost a pound of food will be given to the hungry. What a great way to lose weight, get healthier, and help fight hunger. Watch for blog updates as the contest progresses on!
Chris W.

Today at Clubhouse

The week has come to an end. Everyone has gone home but you can still here the chatting and laughter bouncing off the walls. Today was a busy day. Some of the members fill our large flower pots outside with flowers. We have several around the building and they are going to be bursting with colors in a few weeks. Others cooked lunch today and still more members did the daily chores that keep the clubhouse running. Everyone is always busy doing something.
This afternoon all the members finished their chores and seat in on the Anger Management group. You could have heard a pin drop as each talked about how to handle anger related issues. Some great information was discussed.
Cindy H.

Cooking with Friends are working hard today.

The kitchen is full of yummy smells today!!! They have been working hard on lunch meeting at a local business. I smell brownies, and cheese broccoli soup. Plus, they are making their famous Chicken salad sandwiches. The Chicken salad has red grapes, chopped walnuts and dill in it. Then to top it off they put it on a croissant roll. I heard it whispered around clubhouse that we might be working on a cookbook again.

Mother's Day will soon be here.

Maggie is busy in our flower shop creating corsages for Mother's Day. The orders just seem to keep coming in! We love it.

Art show Yummies!!!

On March 13th, 2010 our Clubhouse held its second Art Exhibit. The catering group "Cooking with Friends" perpared the food and it was awesome.

FIA

Friends In Action Clubhouse is a member operated organization to aid in the growth and stabilization of those with chronic mental illness. It's a place you can come to and feel free to be yourself. Many of us hide our illness due to the negative stigma society has placed on us. At FIA we no longer have to hide. There are a variety of diagnosis and a variety of symptoms within the clubhouse; however we all have one thing in common, we have mental illness.
FIA is cared for and operated by the members their selves. We have work crews, mentors for each work crew and each member takes on some type of responsibility to keep it functioning. From cooking to taking out the trash, each job is equally important. It gives us a sense of pride and satisfaction of knowing we are still individuals and we can grow.
FIA has outside the clubhouse functions to decrease the negativity towards us. We want the world to know we are the same as any one else. We currently have a catering crew known as Cooking with Friends that caters to small events within our community. We cook anything from a hot pasta dish to a cold chicken salad sandwich. All the food is prepared by members of the clubhouse supervised by staff. We also have a floral dept. known as 'Florals by Friends" We make artificial arrangements ranging from a simple corsage to a large arrangement in a vase, All orders are custom made to customer specifications and are created yet again by the members. All funds raised go towards the purchase of a new facility because we're currently outgrowing our present one.
Friends In Action clubhouse is to many their "safe haven " We laugh together and cry together. We hold each other up. We are like a family, loving, kind and considerate of others emotions and feelings. We know how to make a frown turn upside down. We truly are the best thing that can occur for people with mental illness.