Tween

Here we are, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our Thanksgiving celebration was hosted at St Pauls Lutheran Church on Madison Road. The congregation picked up 15 of our guys and prepared a feast for about 75 JH residents. These are some of the most generous people I've ever met.

They will also be hosting our Christmas part Dec 20th. We are planning on 120 or so for the party. Lots of gifts/donations will be coming in between now and then.

Today the generous folks from the St. James church in Westwood brought us 65 pair of new underware and 5 tee shirts. These are the necessities that new men really need.

Thanksgiving

Here we are at another Thanksgiving. There is so much to be grateful for. Recovery, sobriety, happiness, acceptance, service, God's grace, just to name a few.

JH census in now hovering around 100 wounded warriors. These guys come to us very broken and needy. Many do recover if they stay around for a while and work the steps of recovery. When they complete the 90 day treatment program and phase up the work really begins. It is out of the hands of the staff and in there hands to apply the tools they have been taught. Some make it and some don't. We can't hope to save them all but just do the best we can do. None of us are God.

Long Time Coming

I have been remiss in keeping the blog up to date. Sometimes life just seems to happen all around you.

We have grown the capacity of JH from 76 to 100 residents recently. The goal is to always have a few empty beds so we never turn any of our wounded veterans away. But, we are again at capacity. We're not sure what to do but when we "build it they come".

We've begun to see the impact of the economy among our alumni population. We have a couple guys who are still sober, but they lost their jobs and are in need of help. We are formulating a plan to provide transitional housing to some of our alumni, as long as they are clean and sober.

Our 9th annual Armed Forces Day Golf Outing concluded on May 16th. Another successful sold out event. The weather could have been better but I think a good time was had by all. Next up will be the mailing for the Valley Forge Raffle followed by (yikes) the Christmas mailing.

Whew - take a breath!

The holidays here at JH were busy and wild. The generosity was overwhelming this year. Many organizations gave the guys gifts. We, again, thank our friends from the Lutheran Church for allowing us to use their space and for serving our Christmas meal.

Having said all of that, I for one, am glad it's over. Now we can get back to some kind of "normal" schedule.

I have posted several pictures on the web page if you want to see what went on at the Prince of Peace Church on Race Street in Cincinnati.