CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Chesapeake Charities to honor Sheriff Joe Gamble

Record Observer - 10/20/2017

STEVENSVILLE - Chesapeake Charities announced the awards recipients to be honored during their Nov. 16 luncheon, "A Celebration of Charity," at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club. The event will focus on the individuals and organizations that are finding solutions to the heroin and opioid crisis, and Joe Gamble was named Volunteer of the Year for his personal dedication to the cause.

Chesapeake Charities Executive Director Linda Kohler commented, "The distinguished 2017 honorees have made extraordinary contributions to solve the opioid crisis in prevention, treatment, and in rehabilitating lives. By recognizing the truly remarkable work they are doing, Chesapeake Charities hopes to elevate the conversation about solutions to this daunting problem."

Volunteer of the Year Joe Gamble, Sheriff of Talbot County, is on a mission to educate and inform the people in his community about the heroin and opioid crisis, leading the large-scale youth drug prevention initiative, "Talbot Goes Purple." An initiative of the Talbot County Sheriff's Office and Tidewater Rotary, TGP promotes education and awareness, including the creation of purple clubs in the high schools, through which students learn they do not need drugs or alcohol to meet life's challenges. "Support for TGP has come from every sector, every demographic, every corner of the county and Joe has become the face of the movement. He's talking and people are listening ? and acting," said Lucie Hughes of Tidewater Rotary. Going far beyond his role as Talbot County Sheriff, Joe makes himself available to families and people in the community, relentlessly working to help change the response to what he calls "the deadliest drug epidemic in our history."

Named Philanthropist of the Year, Bernie Fowler, Jr. is a visionary leader who used his own personal struggles to transform a farm into a place of hope and new beginnings for those who have felt forgotten. He is helping families struggling to put food on the table, addicts and inmates in the justice system, and youth tempted by the lure of the drug culture. In 2012, he formed Farming 4 Hunger (F4H), to provide people in his hometown better access to fresh fruits and vegetables while simultaneously helping local farmers struggling to make ends meet. In growing this organization, Bernie formed a partnership with the Maryland Department of Corrections and has personally mentored 90 felons as they worked the many different phases of farming. When the opioid epidemic struck home, he added prevention and recovery activities and then developed the 2nd Chances program which is reducing recidivism, increasing valued assets to the workforce, and breaking through the wall of addiction in the community.

The Nonprofit of the Year award goes to Samaritan House of Annapolis. Since 1971, Samaritan House has been part of the solution for drug addicts and alcoholics, helping men on their journey to an addiction-free life. Founded by recovering addicts who saw a need for residential care, they serve approximately 75 clients per year, providing a continuum of care after medical detoxification. It provides individual and group counseling, case management, relapse prevention, life skills training, peer groups and family counseling, as well as career/ vocational counseling. Samaritan House changes lives. It provides a place to ease people recovering from addiction back into society while building a strong network of support around them that lowers their chance of relapse.