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Reports From the 2005 LifeRing Congress

Friday evening April 29, 2005
All day Saturday April 30
Sunday morning May 1
Guelph, Ontario, Canada

A Message of Thanks from the 2005 Congress Coordinator

I owe a great deal of thanks to a great many individuals who helped make this event one of the best LifeRing Congresses ever. Here I will acknowledge their contributions:

Our guest speakers, Alan Ogborne of Ogborne & Associates, Ron Warner from the University of Toronto, and Charlotte Kasl delivered excellent presentations and kept the audience captivated and enthused.  I especially appreciate the fact that Alan Ogborne and Ron Warner volunteered to speak at our conference.  They both waived their professional fees.   All of the speakers took a lively interest in our positive and supportive process and publicly endorsed LifeRing, without any request to do so.

We understand that all of our guest speakers took home with them a greater understanding of LifeRing and that we gave them a positive impression of LifeRing.  We hope that they take this back with them to their own communities and institutions. 

A big thanks goes out to Lisa Tersigni-Holt and her staff from the University of Guelph Conference Services for their tireless efforts, for permitting us to use the conference facilities and for placing their equipment and staff at our disposition.   An additional thanks goes out to Julie and her banquet and kitchen staff for an excellent reception and banquet presentation in the Faculty Club.

We are indebted to Debb Ritchie, the Marketing Director of Miller Thomson LLP who provided so much advice and support to our organizational team here in Guelph.  Debb also referred us to Judy Suke of Triangle Seminars who was very supportive with the presentation and coordination of public speaking at the congress.  

We owe thanks to Leanne & Shelley, of the CACCF, the Canadian Addictions Counsellors Certification Federation in Kitchener, for recognizing our event as important to attend and for helping us to market this year’s congress to their membership.  Thanks also for promoting the Silver Ribbon Campaign, supporting persons in recovery, and for certifying LifeRing as a provider of Core Continuing Education Units for the event. 

Thanks to Dr. Wendy Tolmie of Guelph for her referrals and for her tireless efforts to support local persons with addictions in a gentle, non-confrontational way.  Wendy is a leader in our community for offering and supporting CHOICE in recovery.  Her methods of support are truly inspirational to her colleagues.

Thanks to Heather Kerr of Stonehenge Therapeutic Community demonstrated that Stonehenge is a progressive treatment centre that does advocate for honouring a client’s choices in recovery.  Thanks to Stonehenge for sending alumni, staff and scholarship recipients from their therapeutic community.

Thanks goes to Ian Robertson of Newport Centre in Port Colborne, Ontario for also being a progressive Addictions Counsellor/Social Worker who advocates for respecting clients rights, choices and dignity in treatment.  Ian you too are an inspiration to addictions professionals.

The manager Cheri and her staff at Staples on Stone Road in Guelph deserve our thanks for accommodating our requests for expedited production and special orders.   Their efforts are certainly recognized.  An additional thanks for providing our speakers with their special gifts after the event.

The reporters from the Guelph Tribune and the Guelph Mercury for their fantastic coverage of this event.  I would like to say a special thanks to Virginia McDonald for her excellent story “Highway Myway #1 is closed.”  I really appreciated that she felt it was important enough to write this story highlighting that “Choice” is something that needs to be respected and encouraged.  Thanks also to Rogers Television for their coverage of this year’s congress.

To Chapters bookstore in Guelph for supplying and selling Charlotte Kasl’s various books and for their donation to the congress.

Thanks to Krystal for doing a great job thanking our guest speakers and presenting them with gifts.

But most of all we owe thanks to all the LifeRing volunteers who gave their time, talents, and other resources, for about six months before the event. In particular, we need to acknowledge:

• Gordon H, Ed B and Heiti J for help with mailings, with the registration packet, and for helping with fundraising, administration and coordination of events.  These key volunteers worked hard for several months prior to the conference and met every Sunday to plan and organize this event.
• Adriana Di Santo (my partner), for her works on administration, marketing, and excellent all around support for yours truly, the conference coordinator.  I really could not have pulled this off without her support.  Your hospitality was amazing and appreciated by all.
• Sylvia Kelly (my Mom), for her outstanding and dedicated efforts in marketing and administration of mailings, her hospitality and her generous donation to the event.
• Gillian Ellenby and Katie Frohmberg., who arrived from San Francisco and immediately went to work assembling the program, staffing the registration table, and being all-round helpers. 
• Susan Lanoue who helped staff the registration table.
• Katie Frohmberg and Martin Nicolaus and the other convenors that spoke at the convenor workshop on Saturday afternoon.
• Katie Frohmberg who worked the registration table Friday night at the reception and did a very good job even though she was still healing form knee surgery.  Thanks for operating the video camera throughout Saturday.  Congrats on being elected to the board of directors!
• Martin Nicolaus, Katie Frohmberg, and other volunteers at the LifeRing Service Center in Oakland who worked for months before the Congress producing publicity, doing mailings, obtaining insurance, setting up and tallying registrations, dealing with finances, generating and updating web pages, and consulting with the Guelph organizing committee and with the University on endless details based on their experience working on previous LifeRing Congresses; and to Marty for his Saturday afternoon presentation.
• Belinda Marazzato, thanks for all of the help prompting this event to the Hamilton treatment community.
• Jane George, thanks for the help with public service announcements.
• Matt R., who worked on the mailings and the registration table and was a general help.
• Jack P who picked up Don in London on the way to the congress.
• Genevieve N., who escorted Charlotte Kasl back to the airport on Sunday morning.
• Don W., for his help with the MC speeches.

I would like to thank the following list of progressive treatment centre and addictions counselling practices that attended this year’s congress and/or pre-congress workshop with Dr. Warner: Addictions Therapy Practice (Guelph), Stonehenge Therapeutic Community (Guelph), Newport Centre (Port Colborne), St. Mary’s Counselling Service (Kitchener), WomanKind (Hamilton), New Choices (Hamilton), Choices for Change (Stratford), Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis (Guelph), Wendy Tolmie G.P. (Guelph), Ontario Works/Social Services Wellington County (Guelph), Jellinek Society (Edmonton), Homewood Health Centre (Community Care Division, Fergus ACTT Team, MacKinnon Unit & Trillium Unit), Family and Children’s Services (Guelph).

A special thanks to the following Event Sponsors: 

And many others who helped with program ideas, arrangements, finances, transportation, supplies, and any of the thousand other details that went into making this Congress a success. Not least, to all the LifeRing members, conveners and guests who came from all over North America to participate in this gathering. It has been a privilege working with all of you and serving as Coordinator of the Organizing Committee this year.

When this all started I wanted to achieve a couple of things.  The first was to advocate for choices in recovery with the entire treatment community and service providers.  This was accomplished.  The second was to showcase LifeRing as an organization dedicated to helping individuals with recovery by providing a warm, positive supportive atmosphere for them to strengthen their respective commitment to sobriety.  This was also accomplished.  On top of all this we had a great congress business meeting and really achieved some fantastic direction for the next year.  Thanks to all those involved in whichever respect their contributed to this!!!

You all made this possible!

Jason Kelly

2005 LifeRing Congress Coordinator