Grateful for support during outbreak
In all my 40 years with Teen Challenge, I don’t think we’ve ever faced anything like the past two months!
Not only did I test positive for COVID-19, so did 26 of our students and staff. Even though we had taken every precaution in the weeks leading up to this outbreak, we still found ourselves facing an invisible enemy and the potential of very serious consequences. I am forever grateful for the guidance of the Arkansas Department of
Health and their wonderful staff who stepped in, ordered testing for our students and staff, mandated that our campus be quarantined, and advised us every step of the way. During the first few weeks of the outbreak, I was on the phone with them multiple times a day. I have no idea how they remained so compassionate, attentive, positive and professional, but they did.
In those first weeks, so much happened all at once that it made my head spin, but thanks to the Garland County COVID-19 Call Center and the amazing medical staff at CHI Convenient Care, we were able to rapidly test our campus, learn the results within a matter of 48 hours, and then could make the adjustments that needed to happen in order to appropriately care for our students and staff. I can’t say enough good things about these wonderful people who helped us get through some very difficult days. When faced with the need for masks and protective gear for our campus, County Judge Darryl Mahoney stepped up to make sure we had what we needed on our campus.
Almost overnight, two major sources of our funding vanished — our Vintage Mall thrift store closed and our work program stopped. With this rapidly developing reality, we had to make some major adjustments to our annual fundraising banquet that was scheduled in April. We moved it to an online event we called Cross the Finish Line. For seven days, we featured video testimonies of our graduates and board members and watched in awe as this virtual event became a great success. We were blown away by the support of our community. I cannot tell you how incredibly encouraging it was to face these overwhelming challenges and realize we were not alone.
From the moment that our community knew about this situation, there was a steady procession of people, groups, and churches who brought food, supplies, and donations. Village Bible Church, under the leadership of their senior pastor Dr. Jason Lancaster, organized the Hot Springs Village churches to come to our aid with donations, prayer, and compassion. Churches in Hot Springs, as well as from around the state prayed for us, supported us, and offered to help in so many ways. What a blessing to be part of this compassionate community!
Even though the majority of my staff, including myself, tested positive, these courageous men and women did whatever it took to make certain our students were well-cared for. With the direction of the Arkansas Department of Health, we reconfigured our dormitory so that our positive students were moved into one hallway, and our negative students were moved into the other. The great news here is that most of our students and staff who tested positive were asymptomatic, and for that we are so grateful. We then reassigned caseloads so that our positive staff cared for our positive students and our negative staff cared for our negative students. We staggered our meal service, classes, and activities and worked hard to keep our campus as “normal” as possible. Everyone wore masks and practiced social distancing, which we continue to do at this time.
I have never been more proud of my staff who had to overcome their own circumstances to comfort and care for our students. I am profoundly grateful to our board of directors who remained extremely involved as we navigated through each day with prayer, wisdom and concern for our students.
On May 1, the Arkansas Department of Health released our campus! With utmost caution, we are slowly resuming our normal schedule. Under these extremely stressful and frightening circumstances, it has been a joy to watch our students grow and deepen in their commitment to each other, to God, and to their own sobriety. And as we look ahead, we are getting many calls each day from families desperate for help because their loved one is caught in the grip of addiction and ready for change. We will soon welcome new students who will enter a program filled with fellow students and staff who found they had the “right stuff” to overcome fear and sickness.
I am profoundly grateful to our community. I am overwhelmed by the courage of our staff. I am deeply moved by the compassion and generosity of those who stepped up in this unprecedented time of crisis and invested in the lives of both our students and staff. This experience has changed us.