WLM Winter 2013-14 | Page 47

WLM F | people or over twenty-three years the 12-24 Club of Casper has provided a safe place for people seeking recovery. In addition to hosting various 12-Step and other recovery programs, the 12-24 Club has offered food for people in recovery and other community members at the Recovery Café. We feel that we have the best burgers and fries in town. The Café is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So stop by and enjoy some good home cooking! Community Events in 2013 For the past several years, the 12-24 Club has sponsored First Night Casper on New Year’s Eve--a fun-filled, drug and alcohol free, family friendly event in Casper. This year the festivities begin at 6 p.m. at various venues in the downtown area. The headquarters will be at the Yellowstone Garage, with ice sculptures and ice bowling also held at the Yellowstone Garage; other ice sculptures will be placed in the planters on 2nd Street. The First Night festivities will end with a firework display off the roof of the 12-24 Club at the corner of 5th Street and Wolcott. In March 2013, the 12-24 Club hosted the first Sober St. Patrick’s Day in Casper. The mission of Sober St. Patrick’s Day is “to reclaim the spirit of the day and to change the perception and experience of what St. Patrick’s Day can be, by providing familyfriendly, alcohol free events celebrating the best of Irish music, dance and comedy.” We were one of three venues in the world to sponsor an event-- the others being New York City and Belfast, Ireland! In addition to serving corned beef and cabbage, the club provided entertainment with Irish dancers, Irish music, and bingo. For the kids we had an Irish piñata filled with candy. The 12-24 Club will be sponsoring another Sober Saint Patrick’s Day event in March 2014. This year, the 12-24 Club has partnered with NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) Casper Chapter to provide monthly Community Forums with subjects such as Suicide Prevention, Hoarding Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder among others. These forums are provided for providers, students, those impacted by substance use and mental illness disorders. The goal of the forums is to provide education, outreach and advocacy. So mark your calendars for 6 p.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of every month and come to the 12-24 Club (500 S. Wolcott, Suite 200 in the Devil’s Tower Room) to learn more about substance use and mental illness and the resources in our community. In addition to these forums, the 12-24 Club hosted the Casper screening of The Bully Project which was introduced by volunteers with the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force, the Mattie Project and staff from the Wyoming Behavioral Institute. September is always a busy month at the 12-24 Club as staff gear up to support the Annual Recovery Rocks event held in Washington Park. This year participants kicked off the event with a parade of vintage cars and a march from the 1224 Club to the park. This year’s event was co-sponsored by HPCC Celebrate Recovery, Casper Community Meth Committee, Wyoming Behavioral Institute, Wyoming Recovery, Central Wyoming Counseling Center, and the Wyoming Meth Project. Two weeks later, the 12-24 Club hosted the Recovery Rally at the Parkway Plaza. This year’s festivities included a great dinner for over 500 guests, comedian Mark Lundholm, and a raffle with 50 gift baskets and over $25,000 in prize money. Another partnership formed this year was with the Youth Empowerment Council (YEC) at the Mercer Family Resource Center. Two YEC events were hosted by the 12-24 Club. The first was a Suicide Prevention Dance that hosted over 100 young people and their adult sponsors. The second was Fright Fest Haunted House 2013 where much of the 12-24 Club was transformed into a haunted house. In three www.wyolifestyle.com 47