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Many have reached out to ask what our founder & CEO Jean Krisle and her husband Hal Krisle are doing, so here’s a quick overview:
Jean and Hal have been #ontheroad4recovery for 10,000 Beds in their personal RV for nearly half of the past several years. The forty-foot-long 5th wheel was pulled cross-country by Hal’s Ford 350 Diesel covering more than 30,000 miles. Our 2017-18 corporate sponsor, Elevated Billing, sponsored the truck wrap! Jean and Hal paid for the RV and for the RV wrap!
In March 2017, Jean and Hal sold their home in Utah, purchased the RV, and until Covid, were criss-crossing the country for 10,000 Beds: meeting with partners and speaking at industry conferences, schools, service clubs, state and county rallies, churches, meet & greets, and community organizations. The #ontheroad4recovery motto “changing the face of recovery” was a 24/7 effort.
In 2020, Jean launched the On The Air For Recovery podcast as an alternative, online outreach program, in lieu of the face-to-face meetings prohibited by Covid precautions. Jean and Hal will be meeting and greeting again very soon, but sadly not in “Big Blue”; we can’t wait to see them on the road again!
OH THE PLACES WE’VE GONE!
2017
March 2017
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10,000 Beds Founder Jean Krisle, with husband Hal Krisle, sold her home and bought a 40′ 5th wheel! Then they had it logo-wrapped and offered its use for the nonprofit organization, 10,000 Beds, Inc.
April 2017
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Early April: Jean and Hal stored their belongings in 4 pods and sent them off to 1-800-PACKRATS, packed the 5th wheel, then tearfully said goodbye to family and friends before hitting the road for more than a year.
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Mid-April: Southern California and Arizona for meetings, tours, and an event at the Arizona State Capital.
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Late April: Eastward bound, they drove straight across the country to Hilton Head, Florida. It was a long haul!
May 2017
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May 4-15: Hilton Head, SC for Treatment Center Executive & Marketing Retreat
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May 20: Cleveland, OH to support Steps of Change, Summit OhioCAN
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May 25: Dallas, TX for NEST Park Cities/Dallas Networking event
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May 26: Ft. Worth, TX for Stonegate Center-hosted event at the Dean & Deluca Invitational PGA Golf Tournament
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May 27 – 28: Tours of Stonegate Center and Touchstone Ranch Recovery Center
June 2017
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June 5: Salt Lake City, UT for Interview with ABC4, Randall Carlisle (aired 6/5/17)
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June 7: South Jordan, UT for strategy meeting with our partner Elevated Billing Solutions
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June 8: Draper, UT to tour Deer Hollow Recovery
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June 9: American Fork, UT for strategy meeting with our partner Revity Solutions
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June 12: Lake Arrowhead, CA to tour Serenity Lodge
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June 13: San Juan Capistrano, CA to tour Hope by the Sea
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June 13: Pasadena, CA for meetings with Ryan Hamption and Garrett Hade of Facing Addiction and AddictionXAmerica and 10,000 Beds board member Kristina Steele
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June 15: Lake Arrowhead, CA for meeting with 10,000 Beds board members Doreen Rutherford and Terry Patton
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June 17: Back in OHIO! (we love sleeping in our own bed)
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June 19 – 21: Austintown, OH to tour California Palms Addiction Recovery Campus and strategy meeting with Michael Lohan and PJ Schrantz
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June 24: Anderson, IN for the HOPE Concert at Bridges of Hope
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June 29: Chicago, IL for ETHOS Series
July 2017
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July 7 – 8: Lake Worth, FL for The Art of Recovery Film Festival
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July 9 – 11: Orlando, FL for National Speaker’s Association’s Influence 2017
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July 12 – 14: Hollywood, FL for State of Recovery Conference
2017, cont.
August – September 2017
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Jean and Hal will spend most of August and much of September working on fundraising, sponsorships, and partner outreach from their Utah office. Of course, there will be events too!
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August 16-20: Baltimore, MD for National Conference on Addiction Disorders (NCAD)
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August 25: Denver, CO for ETHOS Series
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August 31: Salt Lake City for International Overdose Awareness Day at Utah State Capitol
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Meet & Greets! Utah, Nevada, SoCal
October – November 2017
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Meet & Greets! Utah, Pennsylvania
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October 24: Salt Lake City Roundtable, sponsored by Rivermend Health
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October 26: Philadelphia, PA for ETHOS Series
December 2017
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December 3: Los Angeles, CA for Recovery Reform NOW Event
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December 4 – 6: Scottsdale, AZ for Treatment Center Investment & Valuation Retreat
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December 14: New Orleans, LA for ETHOS Series
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December 19: New Jersey, meeting with families of children lost to overdose
2018
January 2018
Jean and Hal will spend January working from their Utah office
February – March 2018
Meet & Greets! in California, Oregon and Washington.
April, May, June, July, August 2018
Meet & Greets! Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon & Washington
Atlanta, GA for National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit
Denver, CO for National Addiction Leadership Conference
Palm Springs, CA for C4s West Coast Symposium on Addictive Disorders
Anaheim, CA for NCAD
September & October 2018
BigBlue will be resting.
November & December 2018
Home for the holidays!
2019
May 2019
Santa Ana, CA for our 2nd Annual CA Gratitude Gala: Celebrating Recovery!
July 2019
Salt Lake City UT! Phoenix AZ! Meetings, rallies and more!
September & October 2019
We are heading to Idaho, Colorado and Arizona!
November & December 2019
Home for the holidays! See you #ontheroad4recovery in 2020! We will have made some changes and our program will be slightly different, but it’s going to be a lot of fun! Details soon!
2020
January – March 2020
Phoenix, Arizona for our Gratitude Gala preparation – and then COVID hit! One week before our scheduled gala. It was such a disappointment.
April – June 2020
Big Blue was parked and our road trips were postponed indefinitely due to COVID. The well-being of our treatment partners became our focus as COVID challenged every aspect of every program. As the weeks passed it became apparent that our treatment partners needed help as much as our scholarship applicants, graduates, and anyone in recovery. As a result, we began regular calls with treatment partners to assess their status (were they open or closed, complying with COVID guidelines, creating new protocols, etc.) We were able to help share information directly to help them keep their doors open.
July – December 2020
Our efforts to support our treatment partners were hugely successful. We were able to share the COVID protocols implemented by other programs and hasten the ability to successfully admit clients for those who stayed open. Unfortunately, many closed and we lost valuable partners as a result. They were simply unable to meet the guidelines quick enough to sustain a positive cash flow through maintaining a full census. Since placing people in need is our primary focus, working directly with our partners became the priority. As this crisis was met, we continued to move forward with our podcast which was originally scheduled to launch in Summer 2020, but finally launched on Valentine’s Day 2021 – an appropriate date since 10,000 Beds is all about love and hope and recovery.
In December, we hosted and produced our first ever virtual Gratitude Gala! This event had been rescheduled multiple times, hoping for a live event and then realizing COVID would not allow one. We appreciate our sponsors so much, every one of them stayed with us and helped us celebrate another year of changing lives. We are grateful.
2021
10,000 Beds is forging ahead with scholarships, podcasts, partnerships and more! We expect this year to be our best ever! In February we made a quick turn around trip to Arizona, almost a year to the day that we packed up and left for home when news of COVID hit and life changed in an instant. It was great to be on the road again.
And there’s no doubt we will be out and about more this year and next, and we expect our 2022 to be incredible!
But we cannot do it with your help. Every scholarship requires financial costs, we cover travel, prescribed medications and incidentals for our scholarship recipients. We get them from where they are to where they need to be. Please help us help the many who are seeking help but do not have the resources themselves.
