Bird Sisters Oxford House fundraiser brings in $5,000
Don and Lynn Bird enjoy the spaghetti dinner fundraiser held to help open the second Oxford House. The new house is named after the Birds’ daughters, Megan and Jennifer, who lost their battles with addiction in 2004.
Cousins Beth Ann Hewitt (pictured on right) and Megan Arbogast are all smiles during the spaghetti dinner fundraiser held at the Morris Township Community Center.
Megan Bird
Jennifer Bird Porter
Don and Lynn Bird enjoy the spaghetti dinner fundraiser held in December to help open the second Oxford House. The new house is named after the Birds’ daughters, Megan and Jennifer, who lost their respective battles with addiction.
A benefit spaghetti dinner to help open the second Oxford House in Greene County left little doubt the residents of Greene County recognize the value of this sober house for women struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.
The dinner was held last Sunday at the Morris Township Community Center in Nineveh, where approximately 238 people sat down and enjoyed a meal of salad, spaghetti and meatballs, rolls, beverages and a dessert.
And when the proceeds from the dinner, a Chinese auction and a 50/50 were tallied, there was little doubt the house on Richhill Street would open on schedule Jan. 1.
“That event brought in $5,000,” said George Blystone, a member of the Community Recovery Committee of Steps Inside, a nonprofit drug and alcohol drop-in center in Waynesburg whose members and officers spearheaded the opening of the county’s first drug rehabilitation house for men on Cumberland Street and is now following up with this second house for women.
The house is named the Bird Sisters Oxford House in memory of Don and Lynn Bird’s daughters, Jennifer and Megan, who lost their battles with addiction in 2004, four months apart.
“This was a great effort by great people, including about 30 volunteers,” Blystone said.
“It was just a marvelous response.”
The money will be used to furnish the six bedrooms, a living room, dining room and study. Blystone noted that the First Baptist Church in Waynesburg has committed to furnishing the living room.
At present, three residents have completed the screening process but that number could grow before the first of the year. The house is able to accommodate up to eight women.
Some of the contributors to the Chinese auction were Lippencott Alpacas, Nancy Horr in memory of her son, Sheer Expressions in Carmichaels, Bob and Lynn Bird, Direct Results, 5 Kidz Kandy and Yum-Yum Tasty Donuts.
Oxford Houses maintain zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use and are run democratically, and all residents pay their equal share of expenses.
“In a county currently under a heroin epidemic that reported 24 children born addicted last year and without a long-term recovery facility for women, this is both a responsible and humane endeavor to support,” said Bob Terry, president of Steps Inside and project manager for the Oxford houses in Greene County.