BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Whether or not you misplaced a beloved one to habit or overcame it your self, it may be exhausting to speak to anybody about these struggles. The Be Lastly Free staff held their seventh annual “Gentle a Candle for a Liked One” to assist these struggling.
For individuals who are scuffling with habit themselves or who misplaced family members to habit, that feeling of vacancy and hopelessness would possibly really feel heavy. On Thursday, folks got here out to mild a candle for a beloved one, to present hope and assist.
“She was 17,” stated Be Lastly Free Founder, Debbie Ormonde. “So you realize, once you’re 17 there’s not an entire life forward of you. The factor is, her story has helped so many individuals, not simply in Bakersfield, however everywhere in the nation.”
For seven years, Debbie Ormonde took it upon herself to begin the non-profit, Be Lastly Free, after her niece was murdered in 2006 in Indiana by a person excessive on methamphetamine.
“4 folks had been shot there, and three of them died, and certainly one of them survived,” stated Ormonde. “And it was such a tragic factor for my household that I actually wished to have the ability to do one thing as a result of I do know there’s a whole lot of hurting folks. So I labored. I began to be lastly free, working with folks with addictions. And so the increasingly more that I work with households and stuff, you may see the way it belongs that there is so many individuals that had been shedding their kids.”
With “Gentle a Candle for a Life,” she turned a unfavourable scenario right into a constructive; by permitting the neighborhood to assist have fun individuals who have overcome addictions, standing alongside those that are battling, by displaying like to those that misplaced family members.
“You possibly can fall into psychological well being points, unhappiness, suicide, you could not know specific that,” stated Be Lastly Free Govt Director, Charlie Van De Voorde. “We’re out right here to be a assist for others, in order that they are not alone, that you realize there are different folks on this neighborhood which have skilled the identical issues. We’re right here to like on you, both for you, but additionally specific remembrance for people who we’ve got misplaced.”
Van De Voorde and the Be Lastly Free employees spotlight the significance of neighborhood in overcoming challenges and are there to assist.
“When the hearts have fallen, they have been there to assist elevate us up,” stated Van De Voorde. “Kern County Neighborhood, Bakersfield typically, is a neighborhood of hope, love, and alternative. We’re a supportive neighborhood that loves one another and that is what the neighborhood wants.”
“I wished to do one thing to assist people who have gone by means of this habit situation, are going by means of it,” stated Ormonde. “It is a place the place they’ll come, really feel snug, get assets. Now we have 18 cubicles out right here tonight with assets for every part from AA to CR to counseling companies and residential remedy packages. So, there’s a whole lot of issues happening, and lots of people do not know that there is fairly sure accessible for them right here in our city.”
If you need to be part of Be Lastly Free, go to them at click on right here.
