Happy 22nd Birthday Oxford House!

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addiction, Alberta, Calgary, compassion, Diana Schwenk, Edmonton, non-profit, Oxford House

I’ve been working here at Oxford House for just little over two years and I can attest to what a great organization it is!

Hardly a day goes by that I am not hearing an amazing story, or learning something new about myself about honesty, integrity, sweating the small stuff, and the list goes on and on!

So I’ve just now decided a small way I can give back. As soon as I’ve published this post, I am making a $22 donation to Oxford House in honour of its 22nd birthday here  and I’m going to challenge you to do the same.

So…

if you’ve ever been helped by Oxford House, or you know someone who has, or you knew Ron MacMillan, Founder and past executive director of Oxford House, and want to donate in his name, or you know someone who is struggling with addiction or has lost their battle with addiction, and you just want to help someone else in their name, who is living in an Oxford House, will you consider donating today?

Thank you for considering my request.

Diana

Click here to download a copy of Oxford House’s annual report

 

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We Did It Together – Thank You!

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Alberta, Calgary, community, compassion, Diana Schwenk, Edmonton, Events, Fundraising, Hump Day Chronicles, Oxford House, recovery, Ride for Refuge, thank you

Here are all the people who rode and walked for Oxford House on Saturday, October 1, 2016. That’s me, second from the left!

It was a great day. It was raining and I was soaked to the bone, but they told me that last year there were some pretty strong winds which made the hills all the much harder.

Let’s ride!

Some of the hills were a challenge for me, but I pushed through one push of the pedal at a time. I just kept thinking about the residents we would be helping and those of you who supported my ride.

And at the eleventh hour, a final donation came in that helped me reach my personal goal of $2,000 which will provide 1 resident in recovery with a safe and supported home for an entire year – thanks to you and all the others who supported me!

At an organizational level, Oxford House raised in excess of $13,000 which will provide an entire house of 5 residents, and then some, a safe and sober home for an entire year!

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Thanks again to everybody who supported me and all the Oxford House riders and Walkers!

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Thank You For Your Support!

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addiction, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Edmonton, Fundraising, living in the moment, mission, Oxford House, passion, Purpose, recovery, Ride for Refuge

It means so much more than I can express in words, but I’m going to give it a shot!

On October 1st, I’m taking part in the Ride for Refuge to support a charity that’s very close to my heart – Oxford House Foundation of Canada.

I am so grateful to those of you who made a donation. Your support means so much to me, but more importantly it makes a huge difference in the life of someone in recovery living in an Oxford home.

To date, you have helped me raise $725. That translates to providing a safe and sober home for a man or woman in recovery for 133 days! And that’s just amazing – YOU are amazing!

Let me tell you why this matters so much to me; why I’ve decided to participate in the Ride for Refuge to support Oxford House.

As you might know, I’ve spent the last twenty-five plus years in the non-profit sector, working toward empowering some of the most vulnerable people to live their lives to the fullest. I have now found myself at Oxford House, an organization that helps men and women in recovery by providing a home – a safe place where they can be themselves and honest about their situation. Where they can get support from experienced and caring support workers. Where they can be supported by, and provide support for, their roommates who are taking the same journey toward an enriched and full life equipped with the tools they need to stay sober.

I’ve only been at Oxford House for a little over a year and have met so many amazing people through Oxford House, like John, who made an insane amount of money up north and fell headfirst into addiction. When he was finally ready to take his life back, he found his way to Oxford House where he found a job with way less pay than he was used to, yet allowed him the space he needed to work on his sobriety and help others along the way by volunteering at meetings. To his amazement, John was able to save more money than he thought possible because he was no longer feeding his addiction. John has come a long way since he first landed on our doorstep. He continues to go to meetings, work with sponsees and share his story.

John plans to marry his girlfriend soon and has just purchased his first home. I am so proud of John, and so proud to work with the amazing and passionate team at Oxford House as they help countless other men and women to take their lives back.

So thank you so much for supporting my ride. You are making a huge difference!

Can I ask one more thing of you? Would you kindly share this post with others in the blogosphere or Facebook, Twitter, etc., who may be interested in supporting me on my ride to help others like John?

Donations to this worthy cause can be made securely through the link below – using credit card or Paypal, and your friends will receive a charitable receipt immediately. 

https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3475343&langPref=en-CA

Thank you again for helping me to reach my goal!

Diana

Meeting Half Way

Tags

Alberta, Calgary, Canada, children, Diana Schwenk, Edmonton, family, happy, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, kids, laughter, life, living in the moment, love, memories, Red Deer, Relationships, Tourist in my own city

On Saturday morning I got up at the crack of when-I-was-good-and-ready. I made myself some coffee and managed to get out the door and into my car by 9:30AM to go to downtown Red Deer, Alberta where I would meet up with Michaela and Werner.

Upon arriving in Red Deer, I quickly found a parking lot on 48th Street and it was free to boot, thank-you-very-much and walked the four blocks to Hudson’s Pub where we had agreed to meet. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then headed out the door to walk the streets of downtown.

But first we picked up Werner’s truck and drove it to the lot I was parked in. Werner had recently gifted Michaela with a guitar and she’d brought it so I could see it. It’s been a long time since I have played; and I never really learned to play well, but I had to try it out. Then Michaela played two songs for us. I’d forgotten what a beautiful singing voice she has.

Seriously Michaela, you need to get out there and start busking for twonies while you’re waiting to hear back from all those places you’ve applied to!

For the umpteenth time – I AM NOT A HIPPY!

I made Michaela and Werner pose for this picture. People like that kind of thing, right?

We were actually surprised (sorry Red Deer) at how cool and quaint and well laid out downtown is. There are statues throughout the downtown area that they call ghosts. They tell the story of Red Deer. One of them has good ole Reverend Gaetz, founder of Red Deer sitting on a bench. Another is a wagon hitched to spooked horses. Another is a child feeding scraps to a dog.

Michaela got all google-eyed at the Reverend

Whoa there Nelly!

They have parking meters… and dance!

Thanks for holding my foot Rev

Peek-a-boo

Werner is…I don’t know what he’s doing here.

And just as the video I featured on last week’s post boasts there are many shops, benches and trees! We passed an ice-cream store vowing to come back after our tour of downtown to have one. Sadly when we went back they were closed, so we opted for iced coffee on a sidewalk café patio.

Our coffee time quickly became an adventure when the gorgeous sky suddenly turned dark and a gale force wind pushed through town. We helped the Café owner close the sun umbrellas that threatened to blow right out of their stands before rushing to the truck to figure out our next move.

Michaela pulled out her trusty iPhone while remarking, sarcastically I might add, what a fine example of modern technology my BlackBerry Q10 is, to google ‘what to do in downtown Red Deer.’ I could mention that her so-called superior iPhone is the one that took all the itty bitty, low resolution photos above, but that kind of tit-for-tat discourse would be childish and is below me.

Anyway, we settled on visiting the local art museum. Werner drove us there, past the 10,000 Villages store, past the bus depot, past the Spray Park that we’d visited earlier on foot, to the museum.

What a cool museum! It tells the stories of the early settlers in very creative ways and has interactive activities for kids, or adults if you happen to be us.

A game we played while learning Red Deer’s history. Werner lost badly. Sorry Werner…

Red Deer is almost exactly half way between Calgary and Edmonton

By the time we got out of the museum it was sunny again. We hugged out our goodbyes and headed back to our respective homes.

Hey Michaela, that was a lot of fun. We should meet up in downtown Red Deer more often so I don’t have to miss you so much. What do you say kiddo?

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What’s your favourite not-too-far place to catch up with family friends?

 

Making a Big Deal Out of Nothing

Tags

Alberta, attitude, Calgary, children, Diana Schwenk, Disneyland, Edmonton, family, friends, Gratitude, growing up, happy, humour, joy, kids, laughter, living in the moment, Red Deer, Relationships, Tourist in my own city

Michaela and me the last time she visited Calgary

I’m not being a Negative Nancy here. It’s not about turning a minor incident into a major catastrophe.

I’m talking about making a big deal out of nothing in a positive way; taking a mediocre event and turning into a really good time.

So I guess I’m being more of an Optimistic Olga or a Gratitude Gertrude.

Like when my daughter Michaela was little and I built up a trip to Shopper’s Drugmart to the equivalent of going to Disneyland.

One’s attitude can go a long way in determining how you experience things.

You choose:

Do you roll your eyes and just endure it? Or do you have the time of your life?

My daughter lives a 3 1/2 hour drive north of Calgary where I live, in a small town called Camrose, 45 minutes east of Edmonton. When I visit her or she visits me, which isn’t very often, it includes at least one sleepover, we DO have lots of fun. But it usually works out to only spending 5 or 6 hours together in a two-day period.

So we came up with a plan, one that took way too long for us to figure out, I might add.

This Saturday, we’re going to meet up in Red Deer to spend the day together and then both of us will drive back to our individual homes. You see, Red Deer is half way between Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta’s two major cities. Red Deer is small compared to these two metropolitans, in fact Red Deer only has a little over 10% of either city’s population.

But just like the long ago Shopper’s Drugmart adventures, we aim to spend a fun-filled time in Red Deer.

In preparation for this adventure, I needed to find out if Red Deer even has a downtown area and by golly they do, as seen in the promo video I found on YouTube below.

Trust me, you want to watch this video!

We plan to visit all the featured places in the above video and maybe even find some other hidden Red Deer gems!

I will share our adventure with you next week right here on TALKTODIANA

Stay tuned you don’t want to miss it!  😉

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

When’s the last time you made a big deal out of nothing?

 

Oxford House is on Facebook and Twitter!

Tags

addiction, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, caring, community, compassion, connecting, Diana Schwenk, dry housing, Edmonton, facebook, home, Hump Day Chronicles, non-profit, Oxford House, recovery, stories, Twitter

Meet Earl, Oxford House’s Program Coordinator and Tracey, Finance Coordinator and Vince, Support Worker and yup, that’s me at the end as we appear on our new Oxford House Facebook page!

See that yellow oval circle I drew around the sign up button? That’s where you would click on our Facebook page to sign up to receive awesome emails from us. And that’s just what I’m asking you to do. Sign up and like our page. You can also find us on twitter @OxfordHouseAB!

It just blows my mind that as of today, I’ve been at Oxford House for 271 days and I’m feeling very grateful to be here. I’ve participated in two events. Arranged for three plaques to be given to generous funders. Developed and implemented a monthly donor program. Sent out a media release for needed items during the holidays. Created an annual report. Thanked countless folks for their generosity. Pulled and analyzed loads of data and…and can you tell I’ve been in up to my armpits in stats???

Yet stats are only what we use to back up our incredible stories and that, as you know if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, is what really turns my crank. Because stories are what connect us.

Like Janice who told me in a matter-of-fact way, “I’ve been a low-life my whole life.” Heart-breaking words, but it’s not unusual for people to feel this way when they first come to Oxford House.

“I love it here,” she said while we chatted on the phone.

Believe it or not, it’s also something she has to get used to – living in a sober house, free from the pressure of people enticing her to have a drink, that is.

Last year Janice was in a serious car accident that resulted in brain damage leaving the whole left side of her body numb.

She spent a month of her four-month stay at the hospital in a coma. “It was a wakeup call.”

More determined than ever, Janice signed up for a six-week treatment program and then applied for housing with us.

Since living here, Janice is grateful to have a place to call home. “It is hard sometimes, I feel lonely.” But she’s working on that too, having recently signed up for an art journal course and registering with a job placement agency.

Janice is not a low-life. And we will stick by her until she knows this for herself and is ready to move on.

I think we can all relate to Janice in the sense that we’ve all had wake up calls, we’ve all felt lonely and deficient in some way. I know there have certainly been times when I’ve felt that I didn’t quite measure up.

Our stories and your stories and their stories form a beautiful tapestry of our collective human experience.

And that’s why we want to share our stories with you. And we really, really want you to share your passions and stories with us.

So what do you say?

Will you connect with us on Facebook and Twitter?

I hope you say yes by clicking the links above!

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

I Kinda Like Edmonton, It’s Not Scary At All

Tags

Alberta, all in fun, Calgary, Canada, daughters, Edmonton, embarassing your kids, family, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, Karaoke, Life's like that, living in the moment, Michaela, rivalry, road trip, rudeness

5:30 sunrise – Edmonton Alberta Canada

I had arranged to meet my northern colleagues in Edmonton this past Monday, and I’d decided to come early so I could spend some time with my daughter, Michaela and her boyfriend Stephen.

That way I wouldn’t have to drive three hours there and three hours back in one day.

I always get all turned around when I drive to, and try to navigate, another city. I have no sense of direction whatsoever. In fact, it’s a fair bet that if I feel strongly about going one way, I should probably be going the other way!

Luckily, I only had to circle once to get to the Ramada Hotel when I arrived in Edmonton on Saturday afternoon.

The kids met me at the hotel for dinner. Much to my dismay, it was Karaoke night.

I don’t like Karaoke and I’m not very good at hiding my dislike of Karaoke.

Turns out my face gives me away and I just can’t keep my opinions to myself.

Me, Michaela and Stephen

If loose lips sink ships, I sunk a whole fleet!

I really don’t mean to be disrespectful or rude – honest!

It’s just that Karaoke is the equivalent to fingernails scratching across the black board to me.

Michaela was a tad mortified by my behavior but aside from that, we enjoyed a nice dinner, caught up on all the latest news and met some really cool people!

The next day, I met the kids in their part of town.  We enjoyed a lovely brunch at Smitty’s and afterwards they introduced me to their two Siamese cats Lily and Keetah and their hamster Enchilada…

no that’s not it – Fajita

nope that’s not it either, Burritos – yeah that’s it!

They also brought me to the coolest coffee shop in St. Albert, a small town on the outskirts of Edmonton.

The coolest coffee shop in St. Albert

You know…I hear a lot of talk about rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton.

Something to do with hockey, I think; Calgary Flames vs. Edmonton Oilers. Or the Calgary Stampede vs. Klondike Days. Or Edmonton is getting a new arena and now we want one too or something along those lines.

I suspect the two cities secretly like each other though, why else would Calgary have a street called Edmonton Trail and Edmonton have a street called Calgary Trail?

I guess I’ve never really gotten caught up in that whole Calgary/Edmonton rivalry because I’m from Montreal originally, and I know the real important thing is The-Montreal-Canadiens-are-better-than-the-Toronto-Maple-Leafs.

Dinosaur on Calgary Trail in Edmonton

I kinda like Edmonton. It’s not scary at all!

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Does your city have a rival city?

My little girl found the dress she will get married in!

Tags

Alberta, Calgary, children, daughters, David's Bridal Shop, Diana Schwenk, Edmonton, family, growing up, Hump Day Chronicles, joy, kids, life, living in the moment, love, parents, Relationships

ON SATURDAY I DROVE THREE HOURS NORTH TO EDMONTON to meet with my daughter Michaela, her sister Alana, her future mother-in-law Judy and her Maid of Honour Jessica at David’s Bridal Shop.

You didn’t think I would show you the entire dress did you?

She had a 3:30 appointment with a wedding dress expert/consultant/employee. Having never married myself, I had no idea you could make an appointment like this.

But it’s brilliant and I highly recommend it!

When we first got there, they handed Michaela an iPad that featured all their dresses and told her to scroll through the pictures and pick the ones that she liked.

When she had chosen her favourites, the expert/consultant/employee handed her a form to fill out and asked her some questions about budget, etc., to further narrow the search.

Then she walked us to the fitting rooms, lined up some chairs for us to sit on and pulled several dresses based on those Michaela had chosen and the information she had gleaned.

She was very good at her job. She helped Michaela get into and out of the dresses, gave advice on veils, corsets and jewelry and made it all a very good experience for all of us.

I’m not a big fan of shopping and Michaela and I never expected that we would find the perfect dress that day, but we did, largely due to a very helpful and competent employee.

Because I don’t trust my failing night vision for highway driving, I decided to take a hotel room and return to Calgary the next morning. To my delight, Michaela decided to spend the night with me.

We stayed at the Coast Plaza Hotel in downtown Edmonton, so we went out on foot to do a bit of exploring and find a place to have supper. We settled on a pub a couple of blocks away where we enjoyed a great meal, wonderful conversation and a drink to celebrate finding the perfect wedding dress.

I am grateful that Michaela found the dress of her dreams and it was a pleasure to meet her future MIL and Maid of honour. But mostly I cherish every opportunity I get to spend with my beautiful daughter.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

One day she was a little baby, and suddenly she’s a grown woman. Where did the time go? I’m new at this whole Mother of the Bride thing, do you have any advice or helpful tips for me leading up to the wedding date?