A Message from LifeRing’s Chairman of the Board

By The Chief | December 16, 2011 |
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One of my jobs for LifeRing is keeping an eye on the website comments. It’s a regular occurrence for someone to post a plaintive plea for help as a comment, often as a response to an item that seems completely unrelated. “I just found your website. I’ve tried and tried to quit drinking. Nothing I do works. Please help me,” they write, or words to that effect. I get similar messages in emails sent directly to me. I respond trying to give them hope and get them involved, usually online because they live in an area where we don’t yet offer face-to-face meetings.

The messages are often heartbreaking in their sadness and desperation. But they also remind me of how I felt when I first stumbled across LifeRing a dozen years ago. I feel undying gratitude to LifeRing for the support I received in overcoming my own addiction. I want everyone to have access to that kind of help. Becoming known to more people who need what we offer is a daunting task. We’re a tiny boat in a huge ocean. We’re trying to grow and are steadily doing so, but it’s slow and there aren’t very many of us and we don’t have much money. We could use your help.

There’s a button on this page that links to the donation section of this website. Or you can just click HERE. I used to spend a lot of money on alcohol; now I try to donate a fraction of that each month to LifeRing. We’re a volunteer organization with one part-time office worker – everybody else works for free (although the psychic rewards are huge). But we do have expenses and they’ve been growing. We’re running a deficit this year as we try to do more. In the new year we’ll either have to reduce our spending or increase our income, particularly from donations.

There aren’t very many causes you can contribute to that will do more good than this one – every day we work hard to save the lives of people, give them hope and allow them to regain a life of meaning and self-respect. Please help if you can. Donate.

Yours in sobriety,

Craig Whalley

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2 Comments

  1. Chris on December 18, 2011 at 10:53 am

    Great message Craig. It really prompted me to stop and think of the financial costs of my drinking and drug use. When I went on a binge I drank and threw money around like there is no tommorrow. And if I ended up rounding off the binge with drugs multiply the cost ten fold. (And if I ran out of money I was good at lying and manipulating friends, family and co-workers for loans. Oh, and I even went to a legal loan shark (eka Pay Day Loans) once. I’d continue to mention how this affected my family as well, but I don’t want this to get too depressing.

    Here is the good news. LifeRing has been immensely helpful for me and I would love to see it continue to grow. I’ve been trying to get out of the pit of self-centeredness, which is my addiction and think of others. The online chats, forum e-mail groups and face to face meetings have allowed me to get out of my own head!

    I have found pay days on every other friday to be big “cues” to have throughts and urges to drink. So, lately I’ve been making a point to contribute to Life Ring each pay day morning. For as little as $10 I get to give something back and it helps me focus at least for a moment on my priorioty. Heck, I even feel grateful for still having a job. Who says you can’t buy sobriety?

    Chris



  2. Bob O on December 16, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    Thanks Craig, I have copied your message and will pass out at all the meetings I attend. Thanks for all you do.
    Take care
    Bob O.