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The Cedar House in Abilene, KS - Recovery Begins Here

The Cedar House in Abilene, KS - Recovery Begins Here

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Cedar House builds a greenhouse

April 11, 2018 By CedarHouseAB

By Gail Parsons reporter2@abilene-rc.com. Courtesy of Abilene-RC.com

The Cedar House will soon open a greenhouse at the former Bergstrom’s Nursery, 307 Northeast 14th St. to support their mission and provide art, fresh produce and ornamental plants.

The greenhouse grew out of a program which Cedar House operator Patty O’Malley had come up with merely as a way to provide a wintertime activity for the ladies who live at the recovery home.

“We were trying to find something to do in the winter,” she said. “What do we do? We can’t just sit around the fireplace and stare at each other, and we can only talk so much.”

They started by building a small aquaponic farm and a hoop house where there would be greenery and provide a place where the women could stay busy. It ended up serving multiple purposes.

Recovery mission

The art and the planting provide therapy and meditation for the women at Cedar House. They can work together on a project with a purpose and a goal.

“We are working with our hands and while we are working we are talking,” O’Malley said. “When there is a new girl, she is scared and the last thing she wants to do is have the other girls staring at her, saying to her ‘tell us your story,’ but when we are working, it just comes out naturally.”

It also gives them a chance to discover a little about themselves. Some of the women are learning they have an artistic spirit within, others are learning they can take a seed and grow it into a beautiful flower. Some had never seen or actively participated in the process of growing a plant.

“They have planted the seed and they are turning it into a plant and turning it into a vegetable and putting it into their food and eating it and putting it into the food they give to other people,” she said.

Another component to the project that O’Malley said is important is that it gets the ladies out into the community, facing their addiction head-on and having pride in their recovery.

“We are the standing recovering alcoholics. We are the standing IV meth users. We are the standing IV heroin users. We are the opioid addicts. We are the ones who made it through and working toward recovery,” she said. “We are not hiding. We are not staying in our basements hiding from the world. We are standing proud, saying this is what recovery looks like.”

Self-sufficiency

Last year the women from the Cedar House brought what they grew in the greenhouse to farmer’s markets. But it was a lot of work to prepare for the markets and the abundance of the plants was making it more difficult to keep up.

Now they will take what is grown at the Cedar House and bring it to the greenhouse which will be open on Saturdays and after church on Sundays.

“My dream is that it will help them heal,” O’Malley said. “It gives us a program but because we are selling what we are growing, it also lets us be self-funding through our work. It also empowers the women to say ‘I can do this. I don’t have to have my hand out. I don’t have to wait for the check to come in the mail from the government. I can, with my own two hands, produce and do something to help myself and help my family’.”

When the women started bringing the plants to the greenhouse, it seemed a little sterile and a little boring.

“My artistic eye said that we need to do something,” O’Malley said. “It got us downstairs with canvases. I am showing them how to do acrylic pours and how to work with different mediums.”

Working on the art gives the women time for meditation “instead of letting their heads spin,” she said. “People knit, people crochet. They work on a collage. Next thing they know, they are in a healthy place thinking, not just the spinning in their head. They are slowly unpacking their journey.”

Some of their art will be offered for sale at the greenhouse but there will also be prints and retail art that matches the themes of hope, recovery, peace, and unity.

“There will soon be art everywhere. In the art, you’ll see a lot of women, a lot of different cultures, a lot from Bansky, a lot of pop art from the 70s,” she said.

‘Color and Sound’

The greenhouse will not have a name. It is simply the greenhouse. However, each year there will be a new theme. This year the theme is “Illumination: Color and Sound”.

“It is a play off of light. Illumination is part of our recovery – the awakening,” she said. “The color and the sound will be incorporated when you walk through. You will hear the rain storm. You will hear the tropical sounds.”

Great Plains Theatre is working with them with the audio effects. At the end of the season, it will all be taken down and a new theme will be determined to start working on for the next year.

The plants in the greenhouse and at the Cedar House are nourished and grown with an aquaponics system which combines aquaculture and hydroponics to create a natural, chemical free growing environment.

Visitors to the greenhouse can see how the system works and learn what it takes to create an aquaponics farm.

They will also have an assortment of plants to choose from including herb gardens, salsa gardens, succulent gardens, container plants and Bible gardens which consists of plants with biblical references. Children will be able to plant their own little gardens or choose an affordable gift for a loved one on Mother’s Day.

The next step

A group of young men from St. John’s Military Academy have worked with the Cedar House on their grow project.

Recently they helped with the construction of a 48-foot-by-20-foot structure at the Cedar House which will be where the ladies will grow culinary herbs. O’Malley said the plan is to start selling fresh herbs to area restaurants.

Kevin Beasley, volunteer project manager, worked with St. John’s Academy to coordinate the next phase of their growing operation.

“We started with a small hoop house, aquaponics and hydroponics,” he said when the boys were working on March 31. “What we have seen is a successful growing operation and we are now moving into a larger, more secure structure. The boys of St. John’s have been gracious enough to come out and help with the initial construction of that and will follow on another day to finish.”

Beasley spent 13 years in the military and said he liked the opportunity to work with this group of young men. There is often a misconception that the Academy is a place for boys that have gotten into trouble with the law.

“It really isn’t. It’s a community-service based organization. It is a great growing program for a lot of these young boys,” he said. “They will come out of this with college prep that a lot of high schools aren’t able to give and don’t give. They will come out of this with the discipline that a lot of high schools are not able to give and don’t give.”

Working with the young men was Senior Army Instructor Joseph Bilik who explained that part of the JROTC curriculum is learning about service learning.

“The intent is for the boys to plan an activity, go out and execute it, then go back and reflect on what they’ve done and how they have impacted something like Patty’s recovery program,” Bilik said. “We want to take it beyond the community service project where you go out and pick up trash in a playground for a day.”

In two words O’Malley summed up her thoughts on the action of the cadets: “Love heals”.

Contact the Reflector-Chronicle at reporter2@abilene-rc.com.

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

Drop-In Centers In Rural Kansas Aim To Address Dangers Of Isolation

March 27, 2017 By CedarHouseAB

Listen to Sister Loretta Jasper’s interview with KCUR 89.3 radio:

http://cedarhouserecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/032717_BT_DropIn.mp3

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

N2N project manager to help with dental ‘clinic’

January 17, 2017 By CedarHouseAB

By Gail Parsons reporter2@abilene-rc.com. Courtesy of Abilene-RC.com

The Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation will have its annual Free Dental Clinic Jan. 27 and 28 at the National Guard Armory in Manhattan. For the fourth year, Sister Loretta Jasper will be there to offer assistance and comfort.

Jasper, who is the project manager for the new Neighbor to Neighbor program housed on Cedar Street, says she is trying to get the word out in Abilene about the free clinic.

“Dental health is so important for the overall wellbeing of one’s physical and mental health,” she said. “It is a bigger deal than ‘if I don’t have mouth pain, I won’t be grouchy.’ The health of the mouth to the overall body is very significant.”

One of the goals of Neighbor to Neighbor on Cedar Street is to help women find resources for themselves and their families to improve their lives.
With so many people not having dental insurance, this annual event can make tremendous changes in people’s lives and wellbeing.

The two-day event is staffed by volunteers who will treat an array of dental issues, including cleanings, filling and extractions.

As a non-clinical volunteer, Jasper has helped with directing people from one station to another, sat with people who were scared, greeted those coming in, setting up prior to opening and letting people squeeze her hand as a dentist worked on their mouth.

“It is interesting how different people responded to getting that shot into their gums. It was such a fascination — here are these highly tattooed people and rough and tumble folks who could hardly stand the thought of getting a shot,” she said.

Spending a half-day helping with the clinic is time well spent. She said she knows she is quite fortunate to be able to go to a dentist whenever the need arises, but so many people can’t.

“I want to be available to help do my part to those who are not as fortunate,” she said. “I figure a half a day on the timeline of life is not that much.”

Doors open each day at 5:30 a.m. and people are seen on a first-come, first-served basis. As hundreds of people generally show up for both days, she recommends people plan on getting in line as early as they can.

“Plan to go early, plan to wait a long time, plan to be patient,” she said.

For those who go:

The Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation released the following information for people who plan on attending the event:

• Continue taking any prescription medication as directed and bring it along so a dose is not missed should the patient have to wait a good portion of the day.

• The patient will need to fill out a brief health history, so bring a list of allergies, prescriptions, etc. to have this information available.

• Patients do not need to bring dental records or proof of income.

• Services are first come, first served and all patients must be able to wait in line — no appointments.

• The clinic opens at 5:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27 and 28, and waiting in line or determining how early to get in line is up to the patient.

• Only as many patients as can be treated that day (about 800) will be admitted and then the doors will be closed. Standing in line on Friday and not getting in does not give the patient priority the next day. It is the same process on Saturday — first come, first served.

• Be prepared to wait and potentially be there all day. About 800 patients are admitted to the clinic, so it may be mid-afternoon before a patient is treated.

• Biscuits and gravy will be provided for breakfast and a sandwich will be served for lunch for all patients at no charge. Bring snacks and water.

• After a medical screening, the patient will be examined by a dentist at KMOM and the patient’s greatest need will be treated. For example, if a patient needs extractions and fillings, the greatest need (probably the extractions) will be treated at KMOM. The patient does have the option to come back the next day to get the fillings, but they must wait in line again like everybody else. No line priority is given.

• Services provided include cleanings, fillings,and extractions. No dentures will be provided at KMOM.

• Full mouth extractions will be done if determined necessary by the examining dentist. The patient will be able to discuss treatment/procedure options with the dentist prior to care.

• After treatment, patients will be provided a phone number to call for follow up emergency care if they experience any problems regarding the treatment received at KMOM.

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

Foundation to Open New ‘House’

January 4, 2017 By CedarHouseAB

Neighbor to Neighbor on Cedar Street

The Cedar House Foundation will start the New Year with a new initiative. On Jan. 1 they will get the keys to 805 Cedar Street, where they will open Neighbor to Neighbor on Cedar Street.

Neighbor to Neighbor on Cedar Street will be a place for women of all demographics to meet, share…

Read the rest of the article at http://www.Abilene-RC.com

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

Concert Raises Over $3K for Cedar House

July 28, 2016 By CedarHouseAB

By Tiffany Roney
For the Reflector-Chronicle

concertEmmanuel Church hosted recording artist Chris August Sunday night, drawing a crowd of 350.

The concert benefited the Cedar House, a ministry founded by Dickinson County resident Patti O’Malley to provide women seeking sobriety with a home, job opportunities and positive activities.

The event raised about $3,500 for the ministry.

“The Cedar House is such a great cause,” August said. “It’s important to me to perform for charities as much as I can.”

Helping people leave destructive paths to walk in God’s ways was not always August’s focus.

The musician began his career in the secular industry and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with top artists, including Babyface and Robin Thicke. When he realized he was falling into sin and “becoming the type of man I never wanted to be,” August moved home to Dallas, where he found himself in the bedroom he’d grown up in — walls plastered with Bible verses.

It was in that room that he recommitted his life to Jesus and wrote “Starry Night,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Songs Chart in 2010-2011. In 2011, he won GMA Dove Awards’ New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year.
He got married earlier this year and brought his wife with him to the concert at Emmanuel Church, where he changed the last line of his song, “Restore,” from “I pray I find a love like yours,” to “I found a love like yours.”

Between songs, August kept the crowd laughing by poking fun at himself, sharing stories of minor mishaps and even impersonating Stevie Wonder.
“He’s so hilarious,” said Rachel Heidorn, children’s minister at Emmanuel. “He’s like a comedian and a singer at the same time.”

August spent time after the concert signing autographs and taking photos with fans.

“The crowd was awesome and responsive,” he said. “They were my favorite crowd I’ve had in quite a while.”

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

Patti O’Malley of the Cedar House – Interview at Chris August Concert

July 19, 2016 By CedarHouseAB

http://cedarhouserecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Patti-OMalley-Cedar-House-Chris-August-Concert-Part-2.mp3

Filed Under: Blog, Latest News

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Testimonial

“My journey at the Cedar House has been an amazing spiritual experience.  I have learned to be humble, to help other people, to be in a community and learn new things.  My favorite new learning is gardening, which brings me peace. I have 15 months clean and sober and I have the recovery house and God to thank.  I have tried to be sober so many times in my life and have failed.  Along with my sponsor and all the programs The Cedar House has to offer, I believe in my “New” sober life every day.  No more lies. I now know I have a purpose.” – Renee

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