October 2, 2025 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow visits with Director of Advocacy & Development, Ginny Atwood to talk everything that is The Chris Atwood Foundation, topics include: Why they started the foundation, her brother Chris Atwood, Treatment centers, medicines, advocating, upcoming Gala and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome back
to the program Jenny Atwood. She is the director of
Advocacy and Development for the Chris Atwood Foundation, supporting those
in recovery dealing with substance use disorder and their families
in Northern Virginia. We'll talk more in detail about what
the foundation is, what it offers, how you can help
(00:25):
with donations and volunteering, and much much more, plus a
big gala that's coming up in Vienna, Virginia on October fifteenth,
and of course hearing about the start and the origin
story of the foundation with Chris's story along with the families.
Here's my conversation with Jenny. I hope you enjoyed as
much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good morning, Jenny, Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's great to have you back on the program to
talk about the Chris Atwood Foundation. Of course, you have
a big gala coming up Heroes for Hope October fifteenth
in Vienna, Virginia. We will talk a lot about that
because I know that's right around the corner. But what
I would like to do, Jenny, even though there's a
lot of listeners in community d C. They kind of
know what you and the Chris Outwood Foundation do. I'd
love for you to tell the story because I know
(01:06):
it's close to home on how it started. It means
a lots. You've been doing this for years now, tell
us about your story because I know it's real special.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I'm now a director of development and advocacy. Advocacy is
my biggest passions. I'm hoping to be able.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
To get more involved in, you know, federal.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Legislative advocacy as well, you know, creating a system, improving
the system that we have for people and families with
substance use disorder because right now the system is kind
of set up for a lot of people to fail
and then punishes them when they do. And we did
have that experience with my brother who he was fifteen
(01:45):
when he got addicted to heroin and then he passed
away at the age of twenty one after a long
up and down battle, you know, in and out of treatment.
He wanted so badly to you know, get his life
back on track, soak. But you know, when you opioids
are extremely powerful no matter what age you are, but
(02:06):
when you're fifteen and you your brain becomes dependent on them.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's it's really hard to shake.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And unfortunately, in twenty thirteen, I was at work, and
you know, my brother had been kind of doing okay,
but in a weird place, and i'd seen him that morning.
We lived together at the time, and there was I
had a little bit of concern about him, but I
(02:32):
always had concern about him, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I was like, all right, I got to get
to work, said goodbye.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was sitting at my office or sitting at my desk
and just about to answer some emails, and I got
kicked by this feeling of dread like I've never felt before,
just out of nowhere, and I knew that something terrible
had happened. And I drove straight home and I found
him unresponsive in his room. And unfortunately, in twenty thirteen,
(03:01):
access to narcan was not what it is now. It
was really hard to get You had to have a
prescription and go to the pharmacy, and I didn't have it,
and so I wasn't able to revive him, and he ended.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Up passing away in the hospital the next day.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And you know, we sat around the kitchen table just
a few days after his death going like what just happened?
How could we have gotten here? And we all were
just struck by this realization that if we if this
could happen to us, it could happen to anybody. And
if we don't do something to try to fill these
(03:39):
gaps in care, then we're just going to watch our
friends and neighbors and other family members go down the
same path. And so we decided to start the Chrisowd Foundation,
and our goal is to is to fill those gaps
in care and to navigate people through this complicated system
of getting help for substance use disorder and mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Jenny, if you don't mind me asking, because I know
you've talked about this before of your personal experience, you know,
because I think it's one thing to have a horrific
thing happen like your brother passing the way he did
and what he was up against, and the family too,
because families are involved in this, since our friends and
co workers when it comes to substance abuse, when it
gets to the level it did for Chris. But I'd
(04:21):
love for you to share about what that's like because
I think most people when it comes to a disease
or something like happening with your family and Chris, it's
never going to happen to me, and then it does,
and then it's awe and shock, isn't it? And then
what you do afterwards? In your family responded incredibly by
coming up with the foundation. But what's it like to
happen in the family like it did with you guys?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, I, you know, dealing with any kind of chronic,
life threatening disease and your family is tough. But I
always say that dealing with addiction is its own special
kind of hell. As a family member, it is just
so incredibly difficult because not only are you dealing with
(05:04):
this disease, and that's what it is, it's a disease.
It's a horrific disease that can destroy lives, and but
also you're dealing with this huge stigma, and there's stigma
against your loved one, but there's also stigma against the families.
Like my mom when she was, you know, sharing with
(05:25):
one of her friends about what was going on with Christopher.
You know, something dramatic had happened. I don't remember the details,
but she was kind of sharing with her friend and
her friend goes what why is he like this?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
What did what did you do wrong? Oh? Boy?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
You know, and that's kind of you know, that was her.
Usually you don't hear that said to your face. But
that's what a lot of people think, is that you
know that this is bad people doing bad things, or
you know, bad families doing something wrong. You know it's
the parent's fault, and there's all this pressure people and
(06:00):
who have a loved one often here you know what
I think is well meaning advice but also very misguided
that you know, you have to let them hit rock bottom,
you have to practice tough love, you've got to kick
them out, throw them in jail, all these things. And
it's said as if that's the prescription for fixing the person.
You do these things, they're going to hit rock bottom,
(06:22):
they're going to see the light, and they're going to
turn around and make different choices and then it'll all
be okay. But that's not how addiction works, right, Because
one of the key components of addiction is continued use
despite negative consequences. So, whether it's the justice system or
families or whoever, throwing more negative consequences at the person
doesn't make them use less. If anything, it makes them
(06:43):
use more because their life that was already so difficult
for them to cope with if they had to turn
to drugs is now even harder. So it's just sometimes
it feels like, you know, just an uphill battle.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But we do know.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I don't want to paint too morose of a picture
because actually there's a lot of hope. Seventy five percent
of people with substance use disorders find recovery, So recovery
isn't just possible, it's probable. There's a lot that families
can do. Families are told that they're totally powerless, and
it's true that we didn't cause our loved ones addiction.
(07:17):
We can't cure it, but we can contribute positively to
their healing. And there is a lot of empowerment and
education that families can have, and that's one of our
programs actually, is a family education and support program that
helps families to learn about what addiction is and isn't
and what their role is in this process.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You know, I love that you do that because I've
talked to enough nonprofits that back in the old days,
when there weren't people to relate to, that had either
the same disease or the same issue that happened with
a singularly or a family, including my story too. I've
told you and many people and my listeners that when
I had ra rumatariarthritis back in eighty seven, there's no internet,
no social media education, I thought I was the only
(08:02):
person on the planet that had it. So it's very isolating.
And what I love, Jenny, that you do with your
family and the Chris Atwood Foundation and what you're doing
to advocate, is that you're having families come together saying, hey, listen,
we went through almost the same thing. We can talk
about it together. And I love that you offer that
up because talking and relating human condition, right, it's a
really big deal.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Oh yeah, It's impossible to overstate the impact of lived experience.
That's the core of everything that we do at the
Chris Outwood Foundation is it's lived experience. All of our
staff are in recovery from substance use disorder or mental health,
and we've got, you know, a few people who are
our family members of somebody and we've been there, we
(08:45):
get it. And so like this huge stigma that people
face when reaching out and asking for help is so
much less when you're coming to somebody who you know
gets it because you know they're not going to judge you,
and that brings down the walls. It makes people so
much more likely to be open to treatment and support
and education. And yeah, it really is a game changer,
(09:09):
both for the individual and for the families.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, always every time I talk to a person
starts a nonprofit or a profit, they come up with
the idea and they have and they execute it and
then it turns into something either better or very different.
When you started the Atwood Foundation for Chris, as it
started out, what did you think you wanted it to be?
And then I want to talk about what it is today.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So the very very first idea that we had was
to help people get access to treatment, and we were
going to provide treatment scholarships. And we pretty quickly veered
away from that just because of how expensive treatment is
when you're paying out of pocket, and you know, we realized, well,
(09:52):
we could.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Help I don't know, a dozen people a year.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
We didn't know what our fundraising potential was going to
be at the time, but maybe we could like a
dozen people a year with this, or you know, if
we pick some other gaps to fill. We can help
a whole lot more people, and luckily insurance has gotten
a little bit better about paying for treatment, but it's
still that that whole system still needs so so much work,
(10:17):
you know, because people can get into treatment and have
it covered by insurance now, but insurance is still only
covering thirty days. Maybe some insurances only want to cover
two weeks, and that's nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
People are just barely getting their their the drug out
of their system at that point, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And so we we eventually went in a different direction.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And the direction that we went in first was access
to nar can because that was my experience, you know,
not having it and realizing, well, this is a huge
gap because all of these deaths from opioids are preventable.
Nar Can will reverse an overdose every time you get
it there in time, and you use enough narcan, it
works every time. So just the idea that this safe medication,
(11:08):
it's even safer than tile and all, you know, that
we had no access to it was ridiculous, I mean.
And we had sent my brother to some of the
best treatment centers in the country and at that point,
like none of them were providing access to narcan either.
And that I think really just shows how far addiction
treatment and the field has to come to catch up
(11:29):
with other diseases, because can you imagine, you know, you
send your kid with a life threatening allergy to one
of the best allergy clinics in the world and they
come back without an EpiPen. I mean, that just would
never happen, right, that would be probably malpractice.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And so yeah, again it's that stigma. So we.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Changed some laws in Virginia to allow community dispensing of narcan,
and then we started dispensing narcan out, you know, in
the field, rather than trying to get people to go
to the pharmacy. And we've now given out over one
hundred and thirty four thousand doses of free miloc zone
and we've received reports of over twenty eight hundred lives
that have been saved with it.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
That's extraordinary. And you know, one of the things I
was thinking as you were talking about and what you
do specifically on a daily basis with advocating, we always
find out that when it comes to the laws or
the process is how appalling the system is. Right now,
and I can just hear it in your voice as
you talk to me about what you're up against daily
as you advocate. I'd love for you to talk about this,
about what you're doing now, finding out what's going on,
(12:30):
how you can hopefully make the system better, what you
and your team have. But where are you right now
with advocation?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, I mean, our most recent advocacy work was in
opening a recovery community center in Fairfact City. We faced
a lot of exclusionary zoning laws that did not support
work like ours coming into the community, and there was
some nimbi's, you know, some not in my backyard people
who said, oh, well, you know, helping people is great,
(12:57):
but not here.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
We don't want that.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Here, And so we had to do a lot of
advocacy around this isn't those people, this is you. This
is your community. This is your neighbors, your children, your coworkers.
You know, addiction impacts. Seventeen percent of Americans have had
a substance use disorder.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Right, that's a.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Big chunk of our community and helping them makes our
whole community better in so many different ways, and so
we were ultimately successful. We now have had our recovery
Community center up and running for a couple of years now,
and some other areas that we've done work is in
(13:36):
promoting harm reduction, which is a really misunderstood philosophy and
set of tools. You know, people think it's enabling drug use,
when in fact it's actually enabling recovery because people who
are enrolled in a harm reduction program are five times
more likely to get into treatment than folks who are
actively using drugs who are not in a harm reduction.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Program can refe You don't mind me interrupting, because I
want to know why that is? Why why is there
such a misnormal Why is there misinformation about that, specifically.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
About harm reduction.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean because one of the tools
of harm reduction is providing sterile use supplies like needles
and so on its face, that's really like counterintuitive to
a lot of people. Okay, you want somebody to stop using,
so give them needles.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
What That makes no sense, right?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
But the truth is is that because of the power
of addiction and the way that it just hijacks people's brains,
they are going to find a way to use no
matter what. Once they're addicted, their brain is literally telling
them they need this drug the same way that they
need food and water and oxygen. It is a requirement,
and so they will use a dirty needle, they will share,
they will do anything, and so providing a syringe is
(14:50):
not helping them do it. It's just helping them not
to overdose or to get a you know, a disease
like HIV or hepatitis C. And what that means is
that we can keep people healthier and keep them alive
because dead people don't recover. So that's a key component.
We got to keep people alive first and foremost. And
(15:11):
then the message of harm reduction is so important. It's
that we care about you, and you matter. Your life
matters even while you are using drugs. Right you are
valuable enough that we care more about you than we
care about what you put in your body. And that
powerful message of love and compassion, and we're going to
(15:32):
help you wherever you are. We're not going to force
you to be perfect. We're not going to force you
to quit right now when you're not ready. Because people
don't just make one eighties overnight. They make small incremental changes,
and harm reduction is all about celebrating those small positive changes,
and oftentimes that leads to abstinence. But when you come
(15:54):
in and your requirement is your life only matters, and
we're only going to help you if you can complete, letately,
quit using all drugs. People just can't get there, you know.
They're like, that's that's too far, that's too much for them,
and they get left behind and they get diseases and
they die. So, you know, and the other piece of
it is just that that lived experience. So our peers
(16:16):
are out on our harm reduction van. And when I
say peers, I mean people with lived experience. So these
are people who've been in addiction and now they're in recovery,
and they're out in the community on the van providing
all kinds of things. Because harm production is a lot
more than needles too, they're they're providing that and then
they're disposing of the used ones. But they're also providing
(16:36):
HIV and HEPSE testing. They're providing hygiene kits and NARCAN
and education and assistants seeking you know, housing and transportation
and nutrition support, all these different things that people need.
And they're developing trust with these individuals who don't trust easily,
(16:57):
and then that means that when that person does decide,
you know what, I don't want to live this life anymore.
I think I'm ready to make a change. They know
exactly who they can go to. They have that trusting relationship,
and then we can scoop them up, get them into detox,
get them into treatment, and start them on the.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Way same day. And that's the.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Power of harmon And that's a really big deal. So
I want to keep on going on that because I
think we got everybody's attention. So if there is a coworker,
a family member, somebody on their own, anybody that wants
to reach out to you, how far does your net
spread to you can help somebody, And then what kind
of tiers of levels do you have to help somebody
that might have an addiction problem.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, so we serve all of Northern Virginia, and we
actually can serve a little bit the whole state with
one of our programs. We have a free Narcan mailing program.
So if you're hearing this and you're not in Northern Virginia,
you can go to our website, THECAF dot org and
go to get help, and there's a place where you
can order Narcan through the mail and just watch a
quick training video and we'll mail it anywhere in the state.
(18:02):
Our other programs are more local to Northern Virginia, and
we have I mean we don't we don't look at
them as tears necessarily, but we have services for the
whole spectrum of substance use disorder and mental health. We've
in recent years gotten a lot more into mental health support.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I love, I love, I love to do that too,
because they're they're kind of interconnecting, right.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, there's kind of this like false dichotomy that you
have an addiction or you have a mental health problem,
but usually it's both. They overlap a lot, uh, and
so yeah, it really depends on the individual what they need.
Every everything that we do is just completely customized to
the person. We have a warm line that people can
call and it's going to be answered by a peer
(18:47):
every time, who you know is non judgmental and gets it.
That number is seven oh three six five three four
two two one, and we'll just ask you what do
you need?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Sometimes, you know, we we think we may know what
somebody needs, and we don't. Right, It's our philosophy is
and this is part of harm reduction as well, that
we need to respect people and respect their autonomy and
respect that they are the experts on their themselves and
(19:20):
their own stories, and so we just have an interview
process of figuring out like, what is it that's a
challenge in your life and what are your goals. If
we come at you and we say our goal for
you is that you get this job and you you know,
get into abstinence, people don't respond to that. But if
it's self driven, if it's if it's person centered, then
(19:42):
it's a lot more successful. And so we have services
all the way from you know, support for people in
active use, all the way into long term recovery. And
we are in the jail helping people in the Fairfax
County Jail as well as the Prince William County Jail.
We're out in the community in our narcan van. We
have a housing program. A lot of people getting out
(20:04):
of treatment, getting out of incarceration, they don't have anywhere
substance free to live. So if they go back to
that house they were living in where they were using,
that's a recipe for disaster. So our housing program is
also a big part of what we do all.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Right on the nap bar on the website to take action.
There are two big deals that I want you to
talk about donations and volunteering, and then I want to
talk about funding, but let's talk about donations volunteering. How
do people get involved in that?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, you can also call the wormline for that and
say that you're interested in helping out, and there's lots
of ways that we can get you plugged in.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We have events.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
We have kit packing, so all of the the narcand
kits and the harm reduction kits. There's a lot of
components that go into those, and we always need volunteers
to come and help us put together kits.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And then there's our gala.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
We have two big events every year and our galas
coming up in just two weeks actually exactly today, and
that is a great way to help out by donating
through that, but also to learn more about what we
do and meet our peers. And it's such an inspiring
night of hope.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We call it Heroes for Hope because.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You know, it's we recognize all the loss that we
have experienced as a country, all the thousands and thousands
of people who have lost their lives, but it's mostly
about the hope of recovery and the hope of of
change and lived experience, and so it's a really it's
a really wonderful night.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And we invite people to go to.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Our website, THECAF dot org and a box will pop
up about the gala and you can click on that.
There's also raffles through that and other ways. Yeah, and
then as far as funding, you know, we're we're funded
by a lot of different things. We're funded by the community,
but a big chunk of our funding is grants. We
have a lot of government grants, which have been challenging
(22:00):
recently because we have experienced some of the federal funding cutbacks.
And so the new Recovery Center that we opened up,
a lot of our rent money for that was from
a federal grant which just got swiped out from underneath
of us. It's about two hundred thousand dollars that we lost.
And so the gala is more important than ever this
(22:21):
year because we really need to find other ways to
fund our works and send things in the government realm
or a little unstable right now, all.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Right, And one of the things of this program that's
great to Jenny is that I always get a lot
of small medium and business owners to say, hey, that
subject matter actually is part of my family, and i'd
allowed to be part of it. So if there's anybody
listening in the business community and DMV and they want
to reach out to you maybe to partner up with something,
whether it's an event, the Gala or anything else regularly
or even one time, how do they do that with you?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, they can call the mormline. They can go online
click on the Gala information. There's a link there for sponsorships,
and we have sponsorships all the way from a thousand
up to ten thousand dollars, so it's pretty affordable for
smaller businesses too, and we welcome support. I mean, like
I said earlier, helping people with substance use disorder helps
(23:14):
the entire community. And I know a lot of business
owners have had trouble with hiring sometimes because you know,
people aren't passing drug tests or things like that. You know,
family members that are impacted by their loved ones. You say,
the ripple effects just go on and on. So having
business owners support this is it would be hugely helpful.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I know you've touched on the Gala, but if somebody
were to get on there and get tickets and want
to be part of the evening, where's it at and
what can they expect that entire evening if they attend.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, it is October fifteenth at Westwood Country Club in Vienna,
and it starts at six and we do awards for
local recovery hero those that have been doing wonderful work.
So we get to celebrate that, we talk about the
work that we do. It's a nice sit down dinner,
(24:07):
we have some fun entertainment. This year, we're having a
spoken word performance by a local guy to actually who
are in recovery sharing their experience.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So it's a great night outstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
A few things that I want to talk about before
I let you go, and then some final thoughts once
again back to advocating and all that you've done and
all that you've learned, and as we're in present day
with all the challenges, as you look forward to the foundation,
what are you looking forward to talk about maybe passing
and what's on the horizon for you that hopefully is
something special that will happen not on with the foundation,
(24:41):
but in the arena that you're doing everything with.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Well, the first I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's hard to pick one, but I think the first
thing that comes to mind for me because it's something
that's impacted my family personally. Is I am looking forward
to manifesting that the hospital systems and the justice system
are going to continue. And they have made improvements, but
(25:09):
there's a lot of them that happened. It's kind of
pockets here and there in how they support people. Because
if you're using for long enough, odds are you're going
to end up either in a hospital or a jail
or a morgue. Two of those places. We can intervene
and save people one of them. Obviously it's too late.
So those two critical intersections need to be armed to
(25:32):
the teeth with all of the best evidence based resources
that we have. And I'm really proud that in Fairfax
County and some of the other areas of Northern Virginia
we've been able to partner with law enforcement in a
really impactful way and just transform the way that the
jail helps people. And I say help people because they're
(25:53):
not just locking people up now they're actually helping people.
And it's huge and I want to see that all
across the country. So that's my dream.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Do you have any peers across the country that do
kind of what the Atwood Foundation does and what are
you hearing from other regions in the country. If you
do have a chance to talk to other people, imagine
they either you run into them, they reach out. You
reach out. What's happening around the rest of the country
right now and kind of what you do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Well.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Funding is a big concern for everybody right now with
you know, a lot of us are grant funded, and
so we're all kind of feeling the squeeze there. We're
worried about Medicaid losing Medicaid and so many of the
people we serve are on Medicaid and if that gets
taken away, that's going to be really truly catastrophic for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
So there's a lot of anxiety right now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
But yes, there are a lot of different peer organizations
around the country and the number is growing because the
evidence is showing just how impactful lived experience is. And
we have the opioid settlement money that is starting to
come through, which you know, it's not going to solve
the whole problem, but it is it is something that
(27:02):
is you know, starting to have an effect. And one
thing that I also want to advocate for, since you
asked earlier, is that that those settlement dollars make it
to organizations like the Chrisoud Foundation because right now, only
the parties of the lawsuit, which is the state and
local governments, can receive the funding, and not all of
them are partnering with organizations like ours. But when public
(27:26):
and private, you know, nonprofits partner together, it's way better
than either of us trying to do it alone.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, that makes sense. So okay, well listen, we only
have a few minutes left. I just want to get
some final thoughts from you. We'll also talk about the
gala one more time. Give the website and the phone number,
and let's kind of wrap it up, so the floor
is yours, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, I think that there are many people who are
listening to this right now who have been impacted by
addiction and mental health in some way, and I just
want to empower you to do something big or small
to make a difference in the community and for your
loved ones. And you know, you can call our warmline
at seven oh three six five three four two two
(28:12):
one to seek support for yourself or for a loved one,
or to offer to volunteer. You can go on our website,
THECAF dot org to make a donation, buy a ticket
to the gala, or a sponsorship and truly make a difference.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Outstanding, and then it looks like the recording as we
play this on the Sunday morning on all our Ihart stations. Uh,
it is just around the corner. In fact, it's about
a week and a half away from the gallas. So
I know that you don't want people to wait till
the last second to get tickets on the website. Let's
give the website just one more time. Remind them about
the time and the location, just so that we can
get that on everybody's radar.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yes, October fifteenth in Vienna, Virginia at Westwood Country Club.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Tickets are at the CAF dot org Outstanding.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Well, j do think tickets will sell out this year,
so I would say if you get them now, it's
a good problem to have, so you don't.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Wait till the end. Is the message from Jenny. It's
great to see you and great to talk to you,
and please give my best to your family and everybody
at the foundation. You do such great work and you
know I always tell you this, Jenny. And while what
happened to your family and losing your brother hasn't happened
to me, but we've all had enough tragedy in our
life for for for a lifetime. I'm just in awe
(29:28):
about what you took out of losing a family member
with Chris, your brother, and what you've turned it into.
And it's just remarkable, and you continue to get bigger
and better all the time, and it's just really cool
what you're doing. So continue success. Thank you for your
valuable time on Community DC and we'll check it again. Okay,
(29:48):
I killed clean the oceans and make the world and better.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Say learn more at she Can. Stamps and message brought
to you by the AD Council
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome back
to the program Jenny Atwood. She is the director of
Advocacy and Development for the Chris Atwood Foundation, supporting those
in recovery dealing with substance use disorder and their families
in Northern Virginia. We'll talk more in detail about what
the foundation is, what it offers, how you can help
(00:25):
with donations and volunteering, and much much more, plus a
big gala that's coming up in Vienna, Virginia on October fifteenth,
and of course hearing about the start and the origin
story of the foundation with Chris's story along with the families.
Here's my conversation with Jenny. I hope you enjoyed as
much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good morning, Jenny, Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's great to have you back on the program to
talk about the Chris Atwood Foundation. Of course, you have
a big gala coming up Heroes for Hope October fifteenth
in Vienna, Virginia. We will talk a lot about that
because I know that's right around the corner. But what
I would like to do, Jenny, even though there's a
lot of listeners in community d C. They kind of
know what you and the Chris Outwood Foundation do. I'd
love for you to tell the story because I know
(01:06):
it's close to home on how it started. It means
a lots. You've been doing this for years now, tell
us about your story because I know it's real special.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I'm now a director of development and advocacy. Advocacy is
my biggest passions. I'm hoping to be able.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
To get more involved in, you know, federal.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Legislative advocacy as well, you know, creating a system, improving
the system that we have for people and families with
substance use disorder because right now the system is kind
of set up for a lot of people to fail
and then punishes them when they do. And we did
have that experience with my brother who he was fifteen
(01:45):
when he got addicted to heroin and then he passed
away at the age of twenty one after a long
up and down battle, you know, in and out of treatment.
He wanted so badly to you know, get his life
back on track, soak. But you know, when you opioids
are extremely powerful no matter what age you are, but
(02:06):
when you're fifteen and you your brain becomes dependent on them.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's it's really hard to shake.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And unfortunately, in twenty thirteen, I was at work, and
you know, my brother had been kind of doing okay,
but in a weird place, and i'd seen him that morning.
We lived together at the time, and there was I
had a little bit of concern about him, but I
(02:32):
always had concern about him, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I was like, all right, I got to get
to work, said goodbye.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was sitting at my office or sitting at my desk
and just about to answer some emails, and I got
kicked by this feeling of dread like I've never felt before,
just out of nowhere, and I knew that something terrible
had happened. And I drove straight home and I found
him unresponsive in his room. And unfortunately, in twenty thirteen,
(03:01):
access to narcan was not what it is now. It
was really hard to get You had to have a
prescription and go to the pharmacy, and I didn't have it,
and so I wasn't able to revive him, and he ended.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Up passing away in the hospital the next day.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And you know, we sat around the kitchen table just
a few days after his death going like what just happened?
How could we have gotten here? And we all were
just struck by this realization that if we if this
could happen to us, it could happen to anybody. And
if we don't do something to try to fill these
(03:39):
gaps in care, then we're just going to watch our
friends and neighbors and other family members go down the
same path. And so we decided to start the Chrisowd Foundation,
and our goal is to is to fill those gaps
in care and to navigate people through this complicated system
of getting help for substance use disorder and mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Jenny, if you don't mind me asking, because I know
you've talked about this before of your personal experience, you know,
because I think it's one thing to have a horrific
thing happen like your brother passing the way he did
and what he was up against, and the family too,
because families are involved in this, since our friends and
co workers when it comes to substance abuse, when it
gets to the level it did for Chris. But I'd
(04:21):
love for you to share about what that's like because
I think most people when it comes to a disease
or something like happening with your family and Chris, it's
never going to happen to me, and then it does,
and then it's awe and shock, isn't it? And then
what you do afterwards? In your family responded incredibly by
coming up with the foundation. But what's it like to
happen in the family like it did with you guys?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, I, you know, dealing with any kind of chronic,
life threatening disease and your family is tough. But I
always say that dealing with addiction is its own special
kind of hell. As a family member, it is just
so incredibly difficult because not only are you dealing with
(05:04):
this disease, and that's what it is, it's a disease.
It's a horrific disease that can destroy lives, and but
also you're dealing with this huge stigma, and there's stigma
against your loved one, but there's also stigma against the families.
Like my mom when she was, you know, sharing with
(05:25):
one of her friends about what was going on with Christopher.
You know, something dramatic had happened. I don't remember the details,
but she was kind of sharing with her friend and
her friend goes what why is he like this?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
What did what did you do wrong? Oh? Boy?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
You know, and that's kind of you know, that was her.
Usually you don't hear that said to your face. But
that's what a lot of people think, is that you
know that this is bad people doing bad things, or
you know, bad families doing something wrong. You know it's
the parent's fault, and there's all this pressure people and
(06:00):
who have a loved one often here you know what
I think is well meaning advice but also very misguided
that you know, you have to let them hit rock bottom,
you have to practice tough love, you've got to kick
them out, throw them in jail, all these things. And
it's said as if that's the prescription for fixing the person.
You do these things, they're going to hit rock bottom,
(06:22):
they're going to see the light, and they're going to
turn around and make different choices and then it'll all
be okay. But that's not how addiction works, right, Because
one of the key components of addiction is continued use
despite negative consequences. So, whether it's the justice system or
families or whoever, throwing more negative consequences at the person
doesn't make them use less. If anything, it makes them
(06:43):
use more because their life that was already so difficult
for them to cope with if they had to turn
to drugs is now even harder. So it's just sometimes
it feels like, you know, just an uphill battle.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But we do know.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I don't want to paint too morose of a picture
because actually there's a lot of hope. Seventy five percent
of people with substance use disorders find recovery, So recovery
isn't just possible, it's probable. There's a lot that families
can do. Families are told that they're totally powerless, and
it's true that we didn't cause our loved ones addiction.
(07:17):
We can't cure it, but we can contribute positively to
their healing. And there is a lot of empowerment and
education that families can have, and that's one of our
programs actually, is a family education and support program that
helps families to learn about what addiction is and isn't
and what their role is in this process.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You know, I love that you do that because I've
talked to enough nonprofits that back in the old days,
when there weren't people to relate to, that had either
the same disease or the same issue that happened with
a singularly or a family, including my story too. I've
told you and many people and my listeners that when
I had ra rumatariarthritis back in eighty seven, there's no internet,
no social media education, I thought I was the only
(08:02):
person on the planet that had it. So it's very isolating.
And what I love, Jenny, that you do with your
family and the Chris Atwood Foundation and what you're doing
to advocate, is that you're having families come together saying, hey, listen,
we went through almost the same thing. We can talk
about it together. And I love that you offer that
up because talking and relating human condition, right, it's a
really big deal.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Oh yeah, It's impossible to overstate the impact of lived experience.
That's the core of everything that we do at the
Chris Outwood Foundation is it's lived experience. All of our
staff are in recovery from substance use disorder or mental health,
and we've got, you know, a few people who are
our family members of somebody and we've been there, we
(08:45):
get it. And so like this huge stigma that people
face when reaching out and asking for help is so
much less when you're coming to somebody who you know
gets it because you know they're not going to judge you,
and that brings down the walls. It makes people so
much more likely to be open to treatment and support
and education. And yeah, it really is a game changer,
(09:09):
both for the individual and for the families.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, always every time I talk to a person
starts a nonprofit or a profit, they come up with
the idea and they have and they execute it and
then it turns into something either better or very different.
When you started the Atwood Foundation for Chris, as it
started out, what did you think you wanted it to be?
And then I want to talk about what it is today.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So the very very first idea that we had was
to help people get access to treatment, and we were
going to provide treatment scholarships. And we pretty quickly veered
away from that just because of how expensive treatment is
when you're paying out of pocket, and you know, we realized, well,
(09:52):
we could.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Help I don't know, a dozen people a year.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
We didn't know what our fundraising potential was going to
be at the time, but maybe we could like a
dozen people a year with this, or you know, if
we pick some other gaps to fill. We can help
a whole lot more people, and luckily insurance has gotten
a little bit better about paying for treatment, but it's
still that that whole system still needs so so much work,
(10:17):
you know, because people can get into treatment and have
it covered by insurance now, but insurance is still only
covering thirty days. Maybe some insurances only want to cover
two weeks, and that's nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
People are just barely getting their their the drug out
of their system at that point, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And so we we eventually went in a different direction.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And the direction that we went in first was access
to nar can because that was my experience, you know,
not having it and realizing, well, this is a huge
gap because all of these deaths from opioids are preventable.
Nar Can will reverse an overdose every time you get
it there in time, and you use enough narcan, it
works every time. So just the idea that this safe medication,
(11:08):
it's even safer than tile and all, you know, that
we had no access to it was ridiculous, I mean.
And we had sent my brother to some of the
best treatment centers in the country and at that point,
like none of them were providing access to narcan either.
And that I think really just shows how far addiction
treatment and the field has to come to catch up
(11:29):
with other diseases, because can you imagine, you know, you
send your kid with a life threatening allergy to one
of the best allergy clinics in the world and they
come back without an EpiPen. I mean, that just would
never happen, right, that would be probably malpractice.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And so yeah, again it's that stigma. So we.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Changed some laws in Virginia to allow community dispensing of narcan,
and then we started dispensing narcan out, you know, in
the field, rather than trying to get people to go
to the pharmacy. And we've now given out over one
hundred and thirty four thousand doses of free miloc zone
and we've received reports of over twenty eight hundred lives
that have been saved with it.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
That's extraordinary. And you know, one of the things I
was thinking as you were talking about and what you
do specifically on a daily basis with advocating, we always
find out that when it comes to the laws or
the process is how appalling the system is. Right now,
and I can just hear it in your voice as
you talk to me about what you're up against daily
as you advocate. I'd love for you to talk about this,
about what you're doing now, finding out what's going on,
(12:30):
how you can hopefully make the system better, what you
and your team have. But where are you right now
with advocation?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, I mean, our most recent advocacy work was in
opening a recovery community center in Fairfact City. We faced
a lot of exclusionary zoning laws that did not support
work like ours coming into the community, and there was
some nimbi's, you know, some not in my backyard people
who said, oh, well, you know, helping people is great,
(12:57):
but not here.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
We don't want that.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Here, And so we had to do a lot of
advocacy around this isn't those people, this is you. This
is your community. This is your neighbors, your children, your coworkers.
You know, addiction impacts. Seventeen percent of Americans have had
a substance use disorder.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Right, that's a.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Big chunk of our community and helping them makes our
whole community better in so many different ways, and so
we were ultimately successful. We now have had our recovery
Community center up and running for a couple of years now,
and some other areas that we've done work is in
(13:36):
promoting harm reduction, which is a really misunderstood philosophy and
set of tools. You know, people think it's enabling drug use,
when in fact it's actually enabling recovery because people who
are enrolled in a harm reduction program are five times
more likely to get into treatment than folks who are
actively using drugs who are not in a harm reduction.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Program can refe You don't mind me interrupting, because I
want to know why that is? Why why is there
such a misnormal Why is there misinformation about that, specifically.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
About harm reduction.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean because one of the tools
of harm reduction is providing sterile use supplies like needles
and so on its face, that's really like counterintuitive to
a lot of people. Okay, you want somebody to stop using,
so give them needles.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
What That makes no sense, right?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
But the truth is is that because of the power
of addiction and the way that it just hijacks people's brains,
they are going to find a way to use no
matter what. Once they're addicted, their brain is literally telling
them they need this drug the same way that they
need food and water and oxygen. It is a requirement,
and so they will use a dirty needle, they will share,
they will do anything, and so providing a syringe is
(14:50):
not helping them do it. It's just helping them not
to overdose or to get a you know, a disease
like HIV or hepatitis C. And what that means is
that we can keep people healthier and keep them alive
because dead people don't recover. So that's a key component.
We got to keep people alive first and foremost. And
(15:11):
then the message of harm reduction is so important. It's
that we care about you, and you matter. Your life
matters even while you are using drugs. Right you are
valuable enough that we care more about you than we
care about what you put in your body. And that
powerful message of love and compassion, and we're going to
(15:32):
help you wherever you are. We're not going to force
you to be perfect. We're not going to force you
to quit right now when you're not ready. Because people
don't just make one eighties overnight. They make small incremental changes,
and harm reduction is all about celebrating those small positive changes,
and oftentimes that leads to abstinence. But when you come
(15:54):
in and your requirement is your life only matters, and
we're only going to help you if you can complete, letately,
quit using all drugs. People just can't get there, you know.
They're like, that's that's too far, that's too much for them,
and they get left behind and they get diseases and
they die. So, you know, and the other piece of
it is just that that lived experience. So our peers
(16:16):
are out on our harm reduction van. And when I
say peers, I mean people with lived experience. So these
are people who've been in addiction and now they're in recovery,
and they're out in the community on the van providing
all kinds of things. Because harm production is a lot
more than needles too, they're they're providing that and then
they're disposing of the used ones. But they're also providing
(16:36):
HIV and HEPSE testing. They're providing hygiene kits and NARCAN
and education and assistants seeking you know, housing and transportation
and nutrition support, all these different things that people need.
And they're developing trust with these individuals who don't trust easily,
(16:57):
and then that means that when that person does decide,
you know what, I don't want to live this life anymore.
I think I'm ready to make a change. They know
exactly who they can go to. They have that trusting relationship,
and then we can scoop them up, get them into detox,
get them into treatment, and start them on the.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Way same day. And that's the.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Power of harmon And that's a really big deal. So
I want to keep on going on that because I
think we got everybody's attention. So if there is a coworker,
a family member, somebody on their own, anybody that wants
to reach out to you, how far does your net
spread to you can help somebody, And then what kind
of tiers of levels do you have to help somebody
that might have an addiction problem.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, so we serve all of Northern Virginia, and we
actually can serve a little bit the whole state with
one of our programs. We have a free Narcan mailing program.
So if you're hearing this and you're not in Northern Virginia,
you can go to our website, THECAF dot org and
go to get help, and there's a place where you
can order Narcan through the mail and just watch a
quick training video and we'll mail it anywhere in the state.
(18:02):
Our other programs are more local to Northern Virginia, and
we have I mean we don't we don't look at
them as tears necessarily, but we have services for the
whole spectrum of substance use disorder and mental health. We've
in recent years gotten a lot more into mental health support.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I love, I love, I love to do that too,
because they're they're kind of interconnecting, right.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, there's kind of this like false dichotomy that you
have an addiction or you have a mental health problem,
but usually it's both. They overlap a lot, uh, and
so yeah, it really depends on the individual what they need.
Every everything that we do is just completely customized to
the person. We have a warm line that people can
call and it's going to be answered by a peer
(18:47):
every time, who you know is non judgmental and gets it.
That number is seven oh three six five three four
two two one, and we'll just ask you what do
you need?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Sometimes, you know, we we think we may know what
somebody needs, and we don't. Right, It's our philosophy is
and this is part of harm reduction as well, that
we need to respect people and respect their autonomy and
respect that they are the experts on their themselves and
(19:20):
their own stories, and so we just have an interview
process of figuring out like, what is it that's a
challenge in your life and what are your goals. If
we come at you and we say our goal for
you is that you get this job and you you know,
get into abstinence, people don't respond to that. But if
it's self driven, if it's if it's person centered, then
(19:42):
it's a lot more successful. And so we have services
all the way from you know, support for people in
active use, all the way into long term recovery. And
we are in the jail helping people in the Fairfax
County Jail as well as the Prince William County Jail.
We're out in the community in our narcan van. We
have a housing program. A lot of people getting out
(20:04):
of treatment, getting out of incarceration, they don't have anywhere
substance free to live. So if they go back to
that house they were living in where they were using,
that's a recipe for disaster. So our housing program is
also a big part of what we do all.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Right on the nap bar on the website to take action.
There are two big deals that I want you to
talk about donations and volunteering, and then I want to
talk about funding, but let's talk about donations volunteering. How
do people get involved in that?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, you can also call the wormline for that and
say that you're interested in helping out, and there's lots
of ways that we can get you plugged in.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We have events.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
We have kit packing, so all of the the narcand
kits and the harm reduction kits. There's a lot of
components that go into those, and we always need volunteers
to come and help us put together kits.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And then there's our gala.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
We have two big events every year and our galas
coming up in just two weeks actually exactly today, and
that is a great way to help out by donating
through that, but also to learn more about what we
do and meet our peers. And it's such an inspiring
night of hope.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We call it Heroes for Hope because.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You know, it's we recognize all the loss that we
have experienced as a country, all the thousands and thousands
of people who have lost their lives, but it's mostly
about the hope of recovery and the hope of of
change and lived experience, and so it's a really it's
a really wonderful night.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And we invite people to go to.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Our website, THECAF dot org and a box will pop
up about the gala and you can click on that.
There's also raffles through that and other ways. Yeah, and
then as far as funding, you know, we're we're funded
by a lot of different things. We're funded by the community,
but a big chunk of our funding is grants. We
have a lot of government grants, which have been challenging
(22:00):
recently because we have experienced some of the federal funding cutbacks.
And so the new Recovery Center that we opened up,
a lot of our rent money for that was from
a federal grant which just got swiped out from underneath
of us. It's about two hundred thousand dollars that we lost.
And so the gala is more important than ever this
(22:21):
year because we really need to find other ways to
fund our works and send things in the government realm
or a little unstable right now, all.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Right, And one of the things of this program that's
great to Jenny is that I always get a lot
of small medium and business owners to say, hey, that
subject matter actually is part of my family, and i'd
allowed to be part of it. So if there's anybody
listening in the business community and DMV and they want
to reach out to you maybe to partner up with something,
whether it's an event, the Gala or anything else regularly
or even one time, how do they do that with you?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, they can call the mormline. They can go online
click on the Gala information. There's a link there for sponsorships,
and we have sponsorships all the way from a thousand
up to ten thousand dollars, so it's pretty affordable for
smaller businesses too, and we welcome support. I mean, like
I said earlier, helping people with substance use disorder helps
(23:14):
the entire community. And I know a lot of business
owners have had trouble with hiring sometimes because you know,
people aren't passing drug tests or things like that. You know,
family members that are impacted by their loved ones. You say,
the ripple effects just go on and on. So having
business owners support this is it would be hugely helpful.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I know you've touched on the Gala, but if somebody
were to get on there and get tickets and want
to be part of the evening, where's it at and
what can they expect that entire evening if they attend.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, it is October fifteenth at Westwood Country Club in Vienna,
and it starts at six and we do awards for
local recovery hero those that have been doing wonderful work.
So we get to celebrate that, we talk about the
work that we do. It's a nice sit down dinner,
(24:07):
we have some fun entertainment. This year, we're having a
spoken word performance by a local guy to actually who
are in recovery sharing their experience.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So it's a great night outstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
A few things that I want to talk about before
I let you go, and then some final thoughts once
again back to advocating and all that you've done and
all that you've learned, and as we're in present day
with all the challenges, as you look forward to the foundation,
what are you looking forward to talk about maybe passing
and what's on the horizon for you that hopefully is
something special that will happen not on with the foundation,
(24:41):
but in the arena that you're doing everything with.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Well, the first I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's hard to pick one, but I think the first
thing that comes to mind for me because it's something
that's impacted my family personally. Is I am looking forward
to manifesting that the hospital systems and the justice system
are going to continue. And they have made improvements, but
(25:09):
there's a lot of them that happened. It's kind of
pockets here and there in how they support people. Because
if you're using for long enough, odds are you're going
to end up either in a hospital or a jail
or a morgue. Two of those places. We can intervene
and save people one of them. Obviously it's too late.
So those two critical intersections need to be armed to
(25:32):
the teeth with all of the best evidence based resources
that we have. And I'm really proud that in Fairfax
County and some of the other areas of Northern Virginia
we've been able to partner with law enforcement in a
really impactful way and just transform the way that the
jail helps people. And I say help people because they're
(25:53):
not just locking people up now they're actually helping people.
And it's huge and I want to see that all
across the country. So that's my dream.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Do you have any peers across the country that do
kind of what the Atwood Foundation does and what are
you hearing from other regions in the country. If you
do have a chance to talk to other people, imagine
they either you run into them, they reach out. You
reach out. What's happening around the rest of the country
right now and kind of what you do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Well.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Funding is a big concern for everybody right now with
you know, a lot of us are grant funded, and
so we're all kind of feeling the squeeze there. We're
worried about Medicaid losing Medicaid and so many of the
people we serve are on Medicaid and if that gets
taken away, that's going to be really truly catastrophic for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
So there's a lot of anxiety right now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
But yes, there are a lot of different peer organizations
around the country and the number is growing because the
evidence is showing just how impactful lived experience is. And
we have the opioid settlement money that is starting to
come through, which you know, it's not going to solve
the whole problem, but it is it is something that
(27:02):
is you know, starting to have an effect. And one
thing that I also want to advocate for, since you
asked earlier, is that that those settlement dollars make it
to organizations like the Chrisoud Foundation because right now, only
the parties of the lawsuit, which is the state and
local governments, can receive the funding, and not all of
them are partnering with organizations like ours. But when public
(27:26):
and private, you know, nonprofits partner together, it's way better
than either of us trying to do it alone.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, that makes sense. So okay, well listen, we only
have a few minutes left. I just want to get
some final thoughts from you. We'll also talk about the
gala one more time. Give the website and the phone number,
and let's kind of wrap it up, so the floor
is yours, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, I think that there are many people who are
listening to this right now who have been impacted by
addiction and mental health in some way, and I just
want to empower you to do something big or small
to make a difference in the community and for your
loved ones. And you know, you can call our warmline
at seven oh three six five three four two two
(28:12):
one to seek support for yourself or for a loved one,
or to offer to volunteer. You can go on our website,
THECAF dot org to make a donation, buy a ticket
to the gala, or a sponsorship and truly make a difference.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Outstanding, and then it looks like the recording as we
play this on the Sunday morning on all our Ihart stations. Uh,
it is just around the corner. In fact, it's about
a week and a half away from the gallas. So
I know that you don't want people to wait till
the last second to get tickets on the website. Let's
give the website just one more time. Remind them about
the time and the location, just so that we can
get that on everybody's radar.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yes, October fifteenth in Vienna, Virginia at Westwood Country Club.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Tickets are at the CAF dot org Outstanding.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Well, j do think tickets will sell out this year,
so I would say if you get them now, it's
a good problem to have, so you don't.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Wait till the end. Is the message from Jenny. It's
great to see you and great to talk to you,
and please give my best to your family and everybody
at the foundation. You do such great work and you
know I always tell you this, Jenny. And while what
happened to your family and losing your brother hasn't happened
to me, but we've all had enough tragedy in our
life for for for a lifetime. I'm just in awe
(29:28):
about what you took out of losing a family member
with Chris, your brother, and what you've turned it into.
And it's just remarkable, and you continue to get bigger
and better all the time, and it's just really cool
what you're doing. So continue success. Thank you for your
valuable time on Community DC and we'll check it again. Okay,
(29:48):
I killed clean the oceans and make the world and better.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Say learn more at she Can. Stamps and message brought
to you by the AD Council
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