Thank You......The Journey Has Only Just Begun

This summer I was in the middle of a bike ride with my wife Julie when I had an epiphany. I was listening to Chris Tomlin on my ipod when I suddenly was told what to do. There was a voice that spoke in my head, and it said that I needed to make a documentary and help children/teens learn about the dangers of addiction and the power of recovery. That will give me the opportunity to get into schools and colleges with a message of hope.
That was why we competed for a Pepsi Refresh grant last month. We reached as high as 21st in the voting, but we never reached the top 15 like we needed to in order to win. 31st out of 224 is not bad considering we did not do a lot of preparation ahead of time. There were two ways that people could vote, online and through text. We had many people who were taking time out of their busy lives to vote for us daily.

I want to say thanks to all of the people who voted for the Better Life in Recovery project on line. I know that it was an investment of your time that you made, and I want you to know how much it is appreciated. We learned a lot from the experience, and will be better equipped next year if we again decide to compete for a Pepsi Refresh grant (which I know we will).

My thanks go out to all of the people who voted, and the people who helped me come up with ways to reach more people. The Rotary Club and David Parnell were nice enough to let me talk to a group that they were hosting at Drury University. Thanks to the Randy Bacon Studio for letting us set up a table there. Steve Donaldson, who is dealing with a lot currently with his son having a stroke (please pray for his son Bryant and the Donaldson family for healing, strength and understanding) helped me brainstorm. Dan Prater at Drury was also a big help.

In the media I would like to thank KLFC radio for the on air interview, in particular Keith O'Neal for his help there. KOLR 10 news team, in particular Joy Robertson who got the ball rolling. At KY 3 new I would like to thank Maria Neider and Dustin Hodges. I would also like to thank Linda Leicht for the amazing article that she wrote in the Newleader for the project.

When it come to churches there were several that were very helpful. I would like to thank my church, New Life, for all of their help. They allowed me to talk to the congregation several times as well as set up in the auditorium. I would like to thank Ridgecrest Baptist Church for all of their help. They also made their congregation aware and also helped us get a table at Randy Bacon Studio during the artwalk and at Ozark Technical Community College. Finally, I want to send a huge thank you to Life Fellowship, who heard about our need for a place to have the Pepsi Refresh Grant Kickoff and offered us their church as a place to have it if we could not find a place. I also want to thank the OTC and MSU Baptist Student Association for letting me talk to all of their students and encouraging them to vote.

I know that I am missing people, but thanks to everyone so much. It was nice to feel that there was support for what we did. I would talk to people just to find out that they had already heard from an email from a professor at MSU who sent out a mass email or at the OTC Student Government Association meeting. That was also very encouraging. This all leads me to the next part of my blog.

I will be starting a nonprofit organization before the end of the year. We will have many more needs as this progresses. The immediate need is volunteers. I need a couple of people who feel passionately as I do about children and young adults abusing drugs and alcohol. I need to find several people who are willing to be board members within the next two weeks. They will be unpaid positions that will will meet once a year unless there are major concerns as well as attend several fundraisers yearly and help with fundraising and spreading the word to all about what we are doing. It will be a three year committment that will be both highly rewarding and extremely appreciated.

We will also need people who have various trainings. We will need some help from an attorney at times as well as an accountant. If you are a grant writer, we will definitely need that help. We will also need talented graphic designers to create logos as well as advertisements, promotional posters and DVD covers. If you have a superb knowledge of online technology, we could use your help making the website more visually appealing and user friendly. With Facebook and other social mediums we need the visually appeal that will bring people to it also. If that is your area of expertise please donate some of your time to us.

We will also need people who have various abilities and positions. If you are a business owner we could use gift certificates for door prizes as well as catering at some of our fundraisers. If you own a resort or hotel a couple of rooms and/or boat rentals to auction off would be amazing. If you do massage therapy, paintings, sculptures, horseback riding lessons, etc that would be amazing to let us have some of your time or work to auction off. If you have a band it would be awesome if you would volunteer a set or two so that we could have you play at fundraisers and silent auctions.  If you are a writer please feel free to share essays and blogs that would go well within the arena of substance abuse you can contribute them also. Gift baskets would also be a huge help.

Politicians, pastors, youth ministers, teachers, principals, school counselors, substance abuse counselors, administrators, parents and professors we need you too!! We are here to help you and you can help us by fundraising to bring us to your community and by word of mouth. We need you to speak up to your congregations, student bodies, parents and constituents.

Authors, actors and musicians if you would donate signed books, DVDs and CDs that we could auction off that would be a huge help. Give us a night and play a fundraiser concert for us or let us auction off people having dinner with you while you are in town. Let us speak at one of your concerts or give us a shout out in an interview or acknowledgements. You will especially have the networks that we need to reach many. Please tweet, blog, Facebook and share what we are doing and how people can get in contact with us!!  

We will also need people with large networks of people and/or general knowledge. I will need others to be volunteers and help us with fundraising and gathering donations. If you know of any grants that might help, please let me know. If you are in recovery or know someone who is and would be interested in sharing your testimony, please let us know.

Finally, tell all of your friends about what we are doing. Like the Facebook page, follow me on twitter (davidstoeckersr) and Google+ and read my regular blogs. Share about our project on your blogs and Facebook pages, tweet about it, Google+ it, etc. We will need that word of mouth to help us in all of our endeavors. There will be contribution levels that will be listed on our site after we become a nonprofit. Feel free to make tax deductible donations as soon as the first of the year begins. Mostly, please lift us up in prayer so that we might be the hands and feet of Christ and be able to do his will through this nonprofit.

We will also allow you to suggest churches, junior highs, high schools, colleges, seminars, recovery & rehabilitation centers, youth groups, community events, trainings, etc for us to come and talk at. We will list the expenses that are needed to get to each place and will give people the ability to contribute to bringing either me or the entire documentary and several of the youth in it to speak.

Again, I just want to send out a huge thanks of appreciation to all who have helped so far and everyone that is going to help in the future. The website is http://www.betterlifeinrecovery.com/ and my email is david.stoecker@gmail.com I truly look forward to answering any questions and seeing all of the blessings that you can bring to the project so that we can reach our youth and give them a better shot at living incredible lives. I also look forward to getting the opportunity to work with all of you and bring the incredible message of recovery to all that I can. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Mixed Emotions - What Are You Passionate About?

Sometimes, I get a little frustrated. I think that part of it is because not every one's passion is for the same thing as mine. Many of us probably feel that way. We cannot understand why people are not as concerned as we are about whatever it is we are concerned about. Some of you feel strongly about finding veterans jobs. Others of you feel strongly about starving children in foreign countries, while still others make it their life's mission to save dogs from being put to sleep. Those are your passions.

Today, I am going to talk about my passion. I hate Satan vehemently. I know that drugs are from Satan. Therefore, I hate drugs vehemently. Even more than that, I hate that we have children who are addicted to them. I spent 23 years of my life abusing drugs and alcohol. I do not want children to have to do the same thing I did. Children deserve to have a childhood. Children should never have to go to prison. Children doing drugs breaks my heart. When you combine those two, drugs and children, you have arrived at what I am most passionate about. 

Due to my passion, I feel that others should be as passionate about the issues as I am. I think that it is our duty to protect our youth. Yet, I see people get more wound up about abused animals than abused children. I see people more upset about Skepticon coming to Springfield than I do about a 12 year old overdosing. Put up a political caption on Facebook and you will get 100 comments. You put up a picture of a 13 year old girl missing for a week and there might be 5 comments.

I just don' t get it? When did we begin to put more value and importance on our pets than our children? Why is a gathering of Atheists and Agnostics causing more of an uproar locally than a 14 year old that has been missing for the last 72 hours? Why is it that drugs are becoming less and less of a big deal. We have not really made a dent in the statistics of those who use illegal drugs. It has shifted from one drug to another being the most popular, but the rates are not improving much.

I have mixed emotions. Part of me knows that politics are a big deal. That is where funding should come from for the education of our youth. That is where money should be coming from when it comes to prevention strategies for substance abuse. But we keep cutting the funding to our programs for children, then wonder what is wrong with them. I guess that I don't have mixed emotions, I am feeling a righteous anger. Why are our children not of the utmost importance? What could be more important than our youth, who are the future of our world?

I had churches that I went to and asked if I could set up a table in their church lobby to let people know about the program that we are starting. Some of those churches said that they had too much going on to do that. I had other churches that approached me and asked what they could do to help. Some of the churches that said they did not have time in service or for us to set up in their lobby told us we could post on their Facebook walls. That would have been better than nothing. Of course, when we posted on their walls the posts were immediately taken down. Gee thanks............but no thanks!

In the next several weeks I am going to be starting  a 501(c)3, and my hope is that some of the churches in the area who are saying that they are helping the community will do just that. If they claim they want to make an impact on the community, we will have a great opportunity for them to help us do just that. I really hope that I do not feel as let down as I have by some of them. The other churches that have already offered help, we will be in touch and thank you so much for all that you do.

It seems like the smaller churches are more ready to help projects that do not promote their church. Some of the biggest churches acted like if it did not promote them, they were too busy. Don't get me wrong, we have had a couple of bigger churches that we are not members of offer us some great help. To those bigger churches that did not have the time, I hope that my first impressions of you are wrong. It is not about business or attendance, it is about making a difference in people's lives. I truly hope we can work together and help each other make an impact in the lives of our youth!!

Goals for 2012

These are the goals that I will accomplish by the end of next year. I am unsure how I will accomplish them, but I know that I will. I have the drive and ambition and a lot of great people in my life. Here they are and I will keep you updated as they progress.


Goals for the next 14 months
1. Win the Pepsi Refresh Grant                                                                                                                 Voting starts November 1st and we will let you know how to vote and have a flyer you can copy off and put up and hand out on the website http://www.betterlifeinrecovery.com/ as soon as we get the information on the 1st
2. Complete Documentary "Better Life in Recovery"                                                                                 We have shot the first person for the documentary and are in the process of finding more people to interview. I am checking on some that would be perfect but there may be a conflict of interest that has to be looked at.
3. Complete writing Spiritual Spackle and have it published                                                                       I have about 60 pages written so far. That  is about 8 chapters, but I still have 12 or so chapters to go. I am getting the chapters out to several people to read for feedback.
4. Have shown documentary to several test audiences and gotten feedback
5. Begin motivational/inspirational speaking at least once a month
6. Raise enough money to fund 1st year of "Better Life in Recovery" in 2013
7. Have at least 50 engagements set up for 2013
8. Begin filming second documentary of parents who have had children in addiction, some who have recovered and others who passed away while still in their addiction
9. Start a nonprofit ie 501(c)3

I do have some needs that people can help me with.
1. If you are an attorney and would like to volunteer some of your time to help us the beginning of next year with the forming of the nonprofit, let me know.
2. If you are a grant writer I could really use your help next year also. Let me know if you would like to help out because I know that is a daunting and time consuming process.
3. I still need volunteers for the documentary. Right now my big need is 18-25 year olds in recovery who would be willing to go in front of the camera and share their strength, experience and hope.
4. I will also need help orchestrating fundraisers, getting items donated for silent auctions and getting organizations to pay for advertising. I could use help with that and may try to work with the college on getting an intern for the nonprofit once it is formed.
5. If you would like me to come speak at your church, recovery center, homeless shelter, small group, forum, college or elsewhere in your community contact me and we will set something up.

This blog will be reposted as progress is made on the goals and as more needs either arise or are filled.