Wellness, Sobriety Focus of New Year's Eve Bash
Comanche Nation Prevention and Recovery held its annual New Year’s Eve Bash on Wednesday, December 31, at Great Plains Coliseum in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Substance Abuse Program Project Director Adrianne Roughface said the community plays a major role in the event.
“Even closer towards the ball drop at the end, having people who have never been there before, encouraging them, like, ‘please, come out,’” she said. “It's such a great experience to be under the balloon drop if you've never been underneath it, or, like, to even first-timers coming to our event, and it's something new, and getting to experience a different way to spend New Year's, like, that is my favorite part, being able to bring an event to the community on a holiday that has so much, you know.”
Roughface said the event is a safe place for all.
“If somebody has lost somebody this year specifically, and they're not wanting to go into the next year because this is the last time that they've got to experience, or the last year that they've had with their loved ones, I totally get that, too,” she said. “There were a couple who had mentioned that to me while we were there, and how do you make the best, or meet people where they're at, and give them kindness and grace when, like, they're going through it, and want them to have a good time, and just meeting them where they're at in the chaos of our loud New Year's Eve event.”
Roughface said it’s important to give others her full attention.
“Sometimes it takes a lot to even speak about things that you're troubled with, and if we're creating that safe space where people can come to us and to talk to us…I love that. I love having people who are new to sober events, to participating in them, and choosing to do something different for their New Year's Eve is a big deal,” she said. “So being able to celebrate that with them, and tell them I'm glad that they're here, because I am, and, you know, I work with a lot of different people who come from all areas of the world..of you know, Comanche territory, and being able to see them making different choices, and putting in the effort to do something different, like a sober event, I love that. I love it so much.”
The New Year’s Bash is important to her own healing journey.
“My first time going to the event, I didn't work with prevention and recovery. But being able to see it and experience it, I was like, ‘Wow, I had no idea that this event was here.’ So, to be able to start working with prevention and recovery and be able to be a part of the event, and to be able to learn for myself, learn that there are other ways to celebrate New Year's, and to learn that…recovery doesn't just mean substance abuse. Recovery can mean so many things, and the umbrella of it, and to be able to make a conscious decision to do that, and to be in recovery for mental health, or for wellness, or for whatever the case may be, for me specifically, is changing behaviors, and learning that there's a different way to live. And to be able to give my children more, to change the cycle for my children. And that's why it's so important to me. And being able to show my kids, like, ‘We can go here and have fun, and not have to deal with alcohol, or substance abuse, or, not substance abuse, but substance use,’ like, at the New Year, and, you know, like, that part of the celebration of it,” Roughface said. “And my kids don't even like Welch’s Juice, but being able to…celebrate that part of it with them, which they weren't there this year, but in years prior, they went home early. But it's that part, being able to let my kids have fun, and have fun myself, with the music, with seeing, you know, kids out there dancing, or the couple two-stepping to music…a different way of living. And something that is still so new to me, within literally the last five years of a way of living that I had no idea about.”
She said the planning begins in August and the program hosts about 800 people a year.
“There's amazing people at the outpatient office who pull together, who make sure everything's ordered, who go get the quotes, and that is a big team effort of all the staff at outpatient, who show up, who help decorate, who pick up food, who all of the things,” Roughface said. “It's a big event, a really big event. And trying to prevent any hiccups, and trying to keep everybody safe, and adding security, keeping certain lights on. Like, it's a, what are we missing, what are we, like, all the things.”
The night was complete with a DJ and plenty of dancing.
