Winter Update

As beautiful as Winter can be here on Cape Ann, it can also be the toughest time of year for many people, especially those dealing with mental health issues, homelessness, and addiction. It is during these months that the detox and treatment beds are usually full, and if it isn’t for treatment of their addiction, it is simply for a warm bed. The summer months tend to not be as full because people are more apt to seek shelter outside when the weather is nice. We understand the struggle of finding a bed during these months and, especially, the feeing of hopelessness that accompanies it.

What's New with 2020?

We held our first fundraiser at Giggles in Saugus to kick off the New Year right! The performing comedians, Johnni Pizzi, Kathy Gilmour, Lenny Clarke, and Dave Russo, brought their A game and had people in tears. If you asked us who was funniest we couldn’t tell you, even though Dave’s impression of Robert De Niro is going to be something we will never forget because it was dead on!

The night was filled with great raffle prizes, including a 50 inch flat screen TV, delicious pizza and drinks. AND not to mention, we raised $6750.00 for the sunrise fund in the process! Thank you so much to everyone who donated and bought tickets! We may even repeat the event next year!

What are the latest happenings with the sunrise fund?

In the last two weeks we have funded two more women into treatment. To date we have funded 5 women and 7 men into drug treatment or sober living placements. These twelve people have put recovery above all else in their lives. We were even so lucky to have two of the women and recipients families join us at our Giggles fundraiser! It really is a great feeling to have helped transition an addict from a point of such desperation to a point where they are doing so well in their program they are able to join and laugh at the fundraising event that got them there. And it’s an even better feeling to see their families laughing and smiling again.

We also have two new members on our board of directors that we would like to introduce to the community! Jessica Lindley and Elaine McKechnie have joined our team, bringing years of non-profit experience. They are both very eager to start helping the sunrise fund expand our network and help as many people get into recovery as we can. We are very excited to have them! Keep an eye our for their pics and bios on the website soon!

2nd Annual Jillian Latham Memorial Softball Tournament

Another annual Jill Latham Memorial Softball Tournament 2-2 for the books! Saturday, September 28th was a heartwarming, motivational, and emotional day. We had a big Co-ed softball tournament in honor of Jill and this year all proceeds were donated to the sunrise fund.

All together the event raised $4751.00! There are many people to thank that made this day happen:

Stacie and Matt Nicastro- Stacie helped collect numerous donations and bring the event together. They also brought the enormous grill that was borrowed from the JJ nicastro events (thank you Jon Nicastro as well) And Thank you Matt for being the grill master for most of the day!

Jess Delisi- Thank you for making the shirts, gathering sponsors and putting the event together.

Shawna Palmintieri- Thank you for helping shop for all the concession supplies and also pulling the whole tournament together as well.

Amanda Goveny- Thank you for getting teams together and making sure everything was completely legit, not too mention being another huge part of putting the event together.

Sadie Mello- Jill’s favorite niece was the head of the concession stand and helped out immensely in taking in all the proceeds for the day.

Jennifer Beliveau of Jennifer Lee Photography- Thank you for taking pics of the day!

Lou Mcgrath- Thank you for umpiring and getting a crew to help out as well!

Thank you to all the people that donated the 15+ raffle items and baskets.

Thank you to all the businesses that sponsored the T-shirts:

Cape Ann Oil, Cape Ann Travel Service, Captain Hook’s, Celia’s Flowers, F/V WEBB II , Gloucester Boxing, Hoots and Moots, KC White Contracting Inc., Maki’s Moving Co., Marissa and Mike Goodwin, Paramount Financial Solutions, Polaris Sheet Metal, Seasonal Control, The Bridge, and Wolf Hill

And last but not least the volunteers!

Thanks Cat, Emily, Marissa, Krystle, Jess, Jenna, Alicia and all the softball players!

Congratulations to team Sky for winning the whole tournament! Jill would be proud.

As hard as it is to come to this tournament every year, it is always worth it in the end. Jill’s happy place was with all of these girls and guys whenever she played softball, which was one of her main passions in life. It was a beautiful sunny day filled with all the people that she loved, and we thank everyone that was a part of it. :)

9th Annual Overdose Vigil, Gloucester

This last Monday, Christian and I, accompanied by friends and family attended the 9th annual Overdose Vigil in Gloucester.  This event is held on the boulevard each August in honor to remember all the loved ones we have lost to their addiction.  I couldn’t even guess the amount of people that were there, mostly because I am just very bad at estimation, but 100 people? maybe 200? To say it was an emotional experience is an understatement.  Every person that was there that night has lost someone they loved,  whether it was their mother, father, sister, brother, best friend, son, daughter, girlfriend, wife, and many others.  Everyone was encouraged to write names and tributes on white bags that are then filled with a small sandbag and glow stick.  The luminaries were then lined along the boulevard so that when it got dark they would “light up the night” with love.   And that is just what it did. 

Throughout the night there was music and guest speakers.  Each person had lost a love one to addiction and used their grief to help others.  A couple that we met briefly was Gordon and Colleen Bullard.  They had lost their son Cory in 2017 to addiction and have since started the CCB Foundation in his memory.  We love their mission.   They are a non profit raising funds to help support addicts in recovery after they get back in to the real world and focus on helping them get jobs, education and training to get into the workforce.  More info can be found on their website https://ccbfoundation.com/

The first speaker was Franklin Cooke from Unified Community solutions and the SADOD (Support After Death by OverDose) project.  He is a grief counselor that specializes in grief support for sudden deaths from either suicide or an overdose.  

https://sites.google.com/a/personalgriefcoach.com/ucs/

She second speaker was Elaine Hoctor-De Vos, a mother from Wakefield who spoke about the loss of her daughter, Amandee, in December 2018.  In May 2019 she held a Cut-a-thon hair cutting event to raise money for many different addiction related charities/foundations in memory of Amandee. 

The third speaker was Lindsay, a volunteer with the vigil who has spoken in the past about her experiences with family members addiction.   Her speech was told from her best friends point of view that she met through their shared tragic experiences of losing a sibling.  

We were invited to speak as the fourth speakers and spoke about Jill and the sunrise fund.  It was very tough, as it was only 4 days after the 1 year mark of Jill being gone, but we got through it. 

The last part of the night was the reading of all of those we have lost.  The list of names seemed like it went on forever.  If I had to guess I would say around 500 names were read.  Although it was a very sad event, it is put on each year to let people know that we are not alone in this fight.  This disease has literally touched everyone.  That amount of names is not okay, it's mind blowing.  Talk about addiction to your kids.  Talk about your loved ones who have died.  Let's raise money and get these people the help they need.

Thank you to everyone that came to the vigil.

Thanks for reading,

Jackie