Grapevine Center welcomes crowd for Recovery Fest
When walking up to Grapevine Center’s North Elm Street home this past Thursday, July 23, patrons were greeted by friendly faces all dressed in white Recovery Fest T-shirts.
Lively bands set a musical backdrop, playing songs like Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Therapy chickens gave patrons a moment to de-stress. The smell of delicious food permeated the dining room. A lucky winner or two even walked away with a raffle prize.
“Everybody is safe here,” Hugh Miller, who does a large portion of the cooking at the center, said of Recovery Fest and its host.
The Elm Street-based center welcomed Butler patrons from all walks of life to a day of fellowship and activities. During the event, the center offered games, food and camaraderie, while also providing health and lifestyle resources for those struggling with mental illness or experiencing homeless.
Recovery Fest is one of Grapevine Center’s largest yearly community resource fairs and continues to grow.
Tyrone Smith, who used to volunteer as a peer specialist with Grapevine Center, said in the past, people would wander by for about half an hour. This year, some people stayed for the majority of the event.
Grapevine Center’s Dee Fields coordinated with all of the vendors for the festival and aimed to welcome local community services that care for people holistically. She brought in organizations which provide clothing, vet care, gardening and nutrition, legal help and others to teach healthy attitudes or healthy lifestyles.
Smith added an event like Recovery Fest not only draws attention to the Grapevine Center, but it also builds camradery among people navigating mental illness and addiction.
It creates an environment “where we can gather together with our peers,” Smith said. “That’s very encouraging for people in recovery to be around people that are struggling as well and then we learn from each other.”
Miller, who has been volunteering with the center since 1986, is a veteran who was injured in the military. He said Grapevine helped him navigate his mania, depression and bipolar disorder, as well as other health issues.
“This place helped me out with a lot of stuff,” he said. “So, every year they ask me to do the Recovery Fest.”
Miller attended culinary school and, by putting those skills to use, he finds solace in feeding those at the festival who helped strengthen him.
Organizations like Lighthouse Foundation, which was tabling during the event, are a prime example of the kind of outside organizations that support the work that Grapevine Center does.
The Lighthouse Foundation’s services includes a food bank that is open four days a week, transitional housing in Butler and resources for financial help for people experiencing homelessness or economic hardship.
Community resource manager Jen Bellis has attended Recovery Fest for the last three or four years with Lighthouse.
“It helps us get our resources out for people that might not know about it,” Bellis said. It just brings the “community together to have fun, have some food.”
