Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a very warm and special day at the Friends In Action Clubhouse. For the second year in a row members, staff, friends, and family gathered at the clubhouse in Park Hills for a wonderful meal, good conversation, and a chance to look back on all of the blessings that we are so thankful for. We had turkey, dressing and all of the trimmings that go with it. My Children were my guests and the both had a very nice time. It was such a wonderful event and the BJC staff, clubhouse staff, and members alike seemed to have a good time. I hope that this becomes a tradition year after year. I made cornbread this year and am pleased that there was not any left. BJC staff and our our clubhouse director, Anna, did a fantastic job with the food and decorations. There was no other place that I would have wanted to be.

Letitia D

Trivia Night Article

On Saturday, November 15, Friends in Action Clubhouse in Park Hills hosted its Sixth Annual Trivia Night, and they let me be the emcee.

This was my second emcee experience, and the first one doesn’t count. It was also my first ever trivia event in any capacity. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous in the same way that Mt. Everest is a rather large pile of dirt and rock.

Turn-out was excellent, with over one hundred people in attendance. People were encouraged to bring their own food and beverages, and from my perspective on the dais, everyone looked like they were having a marvelous time.

The teams consisted of up to ten members each. We played ten rounds of ten questions, and awarded prizes for the top three teams. Two of the teams generously donated their winnings back to Friends in Action, and we couldn’t be more appreciative.

In addition to the admission revenue, including revenue donated by sponsors, we had other exciting things going on. Many generous people or groups donated gift baskets, which we raffled off during the course of the evening. We also had a Heads and Tails game that was really enjoyable once the *ahem emcee got the hang of it. There were also two game enhancers, namely the Mulligans and the Hints. Mulligans are like the free space in bingo. Teams were allowed to purchase six, and use one per round. The Hints were a new concept for this year. I picked one question per round for which to offer a hint, then offered to exchange the hint for one dollar. Every table could purchase the hint. The idea seemed to be a success.

Clubhouse members helped set up tables and chairs, sell raffle tickets, and act as runners for the answer sheets and Heads and Tails money. Having them made the evening run very smoothly. Clubhouse thanks them.

I received many compliments for delivery and for timing. Certainly, I tried to keep the time between questions consistent, and the mood light. It seemed to pay off.

Without going into details, the net revenue from this year’s event surpassed last year by just under ten percent, and we hope to do even better next year. We already have several ideas that should make it a reality.

The one thing I’m absolutely sure about is my hope that they invite me back next year. I had a blast.
-Mike G

The NAMI Conference

My name is Letitia and I would like to share with you about the wonderful time that we had at the annual NAMI conference this year. We arrived around 3pm or so, checked into our rooms, and relaxed for a while. I, along with six other Clubhouse members and our great Friends in Action Clubhouse, went out for a simple relaxing dinner before attending the membership meeting. Followed by the five film movie screening showing the trials and triumphs of people living day to day with their struggles, but not giving up. We enjoyed having an opportunity to learn about all the good NAMI does from family to family training, peer to peer, and the warm line. Saturday morning we had a great breakfast, learned more about new medicines, and what NAMI is doing around the state. The most important thing that we as members of NAMI can do is let people know we are not alone and we must never give up on our fight to end the stigma. I attended a group session on healing, childhood trauma, hoarding, a personal journey, and community mental health liasons. Everything I learned at the conference just motivates me even more to continue to strive to advocate for myself and others who’s struggle is similar to mine. Nami truly is about recovery.
Letitia D

Transitional employment

Hi my name is Tim, and this is my first blog for the FIA clubhouse. I am about to talk the Transitional Employment program at the clubhouse. Well, I was the first person to go through the program. At first, I was excited to start the job because it was something new to try and something new to do besides staying at home and going to clubhouse every day. I started April 22 of this year and worked three days a week every week, up until October 24 of this year. Well the people I worked with was pretty much the same until the middle of the of the 6 month program. Then there was one person that was constant and that was my supervisor Dave. The owner of place, Jamie, while I worked took a chance on me and the clubhouse to do the Transitional Employment. I hope that the next person who that takes over for me stays with the job and I hope that person likes the job as much as I did.
-Tim C

Friends in Action Advisory Board

We met as Friends in Action Clubhouse instead of the BJC office starting this month. When Project Clubhouse and the Advisory board combined we needed more space, so what better place than our clubhouse. That also makes it much easier for “Cooking with Friends” to cater the meeting. Last night we had a lovely Caeser Chicken salad and banana strawberry punch bowl dessert.
The Advisory board is made up of BJC staff, clubhouse members and representatives from the community. It is facilitated by Helen Micken and staff assisted by Karen Miller. The board oversees fundraiser for the clubhouse and projects like Friendship House apartments.
The art show is a sub-committee. It raised $4000 this last year. The wall calendars are up for sale, see a board member or clubhouse to get yours early. Trivia night is our other big fundraiser it’s coming up in November. Details and workers were set up tonight. Anna gave an update on clubhouse, the new mission statement and introduced Mike Gehrke from clubhouse to speak about the work he has done on our web design and spread sheet. He has become quite an asset to us and his work is greatly appreciated.
Cindy from Clubhouse sat in on the meeting and was voted in to head the Art Show Committee, assisted by Maggie and Betty. Cindy also takes a group from Clubhouse Outreach to the Friendship House apartments community room. They take snacks and invite residents to visit and get to know each other. It helps our members to give back to the community.
We discussed trivia night and making a basket from the board for the raffle. We decided to do a basket for guys including tools, car stuff, fishing supplies, or sports supplies.
We got to see the new clubhouse logo and graphic design for our new sign.
The board discussed people from different businesses in the surrounding communities that might like the support Friends in Action Clubhouse or other projects from BJC.
Our next meeting will be January 26th, although sub-committee will be meeting before then.
Thank for reading our blog.
Maggie P, Clubhouse/Board Member