S moke S ignals
JULY 15, 2016
9
Sobriety Dinners mark 10-year anniversary
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Tribe’s Post Treatment Pro-
gram celebrated reaching the 10-
year mark as a Tribal program with
its monthly Sobriety Dinner held on
Thursday, June 30, at the Tribal
Community Center.
Post Treatment Counselor Chris
Holliday, who acted as the host,
said the dinners are held the third
Thursday of every month and ev-
eryone is welcome to attend. He
said they have had as few as 35 peo-
ple at dinner and as many as 150
people on occasion. On this night,
they served dinner to 145 people.
Tribal Council member Tonya
Gleason-Shepek attended as did
Tribal General Manager Dave Ful-
lerton and former Tribal Council
members and Tribal Elders Kath-
ryn Harrison and Ed Larsen.
Holliday said people from Grand
Ronde, Willamina, Sheridan, Sa-
lem and Portland also attended.
“It’s an exciting day,” said Holli-
day. “We have anticipated it for the
last four or five months. We’re here
rain or shine. I think we have been
pretty successful.”
Chinuk Immersion Apprentice
Santiago Atanacio was joined by
Kim Contreras, Kalene Contreras,
Youth Prevention Supervisor Lisa
Leno, Youth Programs Assistant
Shannon Stanton and Teen Preg-
nancy Prevention Specialist Cris-
tina Lara for a welcoming drum
song.
Holliday offered the invocation.
“Thank you for being here; thank
you for being part of this event,”
said Holliday. “Without you we
wouldn’t be here. It’s really nice
Photo by Brent Merrill
The Tribe’s Post Treatment Program celebrated reaching the 10-year mark
with its monthly Sobriety Dinner held on Thursday, June 30, at the Tribal
Community Center. Post Treatment Counselor Chris Holliday, who acted as
the host, said the dinners are held the third Thursday of every month and
everyone is welcome to attend.
that we have grown to this number.
In recovery we only have just today.
“I want to acknowledge those who
have been with these dinners since
they started and I want to recognize
the staff. The staff always comes
through”
“In the 10 years we have experi-
enced a consistent turnout of people
supporting each other,” said Holl-
iday in an e-mail the day after the
dinner. “It has been a solid 10 years,
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and that is possible with the help
of many behind-the-scenes people.”
Holliday acknowledged Tribal
Elders, Tribal Council, Fullerton,
Chemical Dependency Counselor
Joe Martineau and many others.
Holliday credited Martineau with
starting the sobriety dinners back
when the program started. Mar-
tineau now works in the Tribe’s
Behavioral Health program at the
Health & Wellness Center.
Fullerton said the dinner made
him think of two late Tribal Elders
– Tom Bean and Charlie Haller.
“They held so many meetings for
years,” Fullerton said. “They held
AA meetings even if there was only
one person.”
Fullerton said Holliday and Mar-
tineau were honored for their years
of service when they received Tribal
Pendleton blankets from those
gathered. Another blanket that was
donated by Tribal Council also was
raffled off.
“You have a pretty amazing
group of people that are pretty
dependent on that support. I think
it was great,” said Fullerton of the
evening. “That support there, they
always know they can come back to
it. They have that mainstay. Every
third Thursday of the month they
can go in and be supported through
their sobriety and through their
recovery.
“I think it is a good thing to see
145 people turn out. It just shows
you how important it is and how
much they count on that.”
Tribal Elder Victor Cureton
raised his hand when Holliday
asked who had reached 10 years or
more in sobriety.
“It’s been more like 22 years
now for me and it means quite a
bit,” said Cureton. “It was a life
of alcohol and I fought it (getting
sober) tooth and nail. When I get
in a group of people like this and
I see what it has done for them, it
actually lifts me up and keeps me
encouraged for the things I look
forward to on a day-to-day basis.”
Cureton shared that he didn’t
believe alcohol was going to be a
big problem when he first started
drinking.
“In the beginning, I didn’t think it
was all that bad,” said Cureton. “But
then I got to the point it actually got
ahold of me. I got so bad it finally did
affect my job. By that time I needed
help and I found it. Actually I found
it through the Lord.”
Cureton said he attends the meet-
ings regularly because he wants to
encourage people and to let them
know there is help, too.
“Meetings like this one really
mean a lot to me because it is help-
ing our community,” said Cureton.
“There are people here that years
ago were really desperate for help
and here they are finally finding
it. At meetings like this one you
see smiles and you see hope, and it
makes a difference.”
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