Susan Ford Bales Highlights SSF’s 40th Anniversary Gala

In 1976, the United States was celebrating its bicentennial year with patriotic pride (and some disco fever), led by President Gerald Ford and the nation’s First Family. At the same time in Denver, Stout Street Foundation, a comprehensive addiction-treatment center, was opening its doors to serve the recovery community. For Stout Street Foundation’s 40th anniversary gala, there was no better choice for a keynote speaker than Susan Ford Bales.

There were lots of hugs at the VIP reception.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, nearly 400 supporters, all dressed to the nines, headed to Infinity Park Event Center for an uplifting evening displaying the reality, courage and successes of recovery from addiction. The evening began with a VIP reception with Susan Ford Bales, and as people continued to arrive, hugs and warm greetings multiplied all over the building. Guests had the opportunity to bid on an array of niceties at a silent auction table that remained busy from open till close.

An uplifting dinner program emceed by Joe Bevilacqua featured a short video covering 40 years of history and personal success stories at Stout Street Foundation, followed by one program graduate who spoke to the crowd summing up his own experience. Board chair Joe Girardi addressed the crowd and President/CEO Christopher Conway read two letters of hope and gratitude from a program resident’s 9-year-old daughter—one to her dad, the second to the venue.

Margaret McConnellogue (left) and Sara James

Susan Ford Bales had the crowd riveted as she spoke with emotion about her beloved mother Betty Ford’s battles with both breast cancer as well as addiction, along with its impact on the family. She detailed Ford’s journey of addiction recovery, beginning with the family’s initial intervention. Bales told the crowd her mom (who passed on in 2011 from natural causes) would expect nothing less than a completely candid account of the experience, and she was happy to comply, especially if it would help even one person. Bales has gone on to numerous philanthropic and community-service endeavors, including work as ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and serving on the board of directors for Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.

Teri Smith, vice president of development, vividly showed the audience an exercise in the infectious, positive power of recovery that had everyone on their feet. A group of lucky guests won prizes in on-stage drawings, and the evening ended with guests kicking up their heels to dance music and catching up with friends.

(l to r): Dave Spieth, Father Tom Dowd and Derek Espinosa

Stout Street Foundation was incorporated in 1976 by Bradley R. Lucero Jr., Lillian Potter and Jim Doyle. Lucero was in a halfway house in Denver when his good friend, Father Tom Dowd, recommended he visit a long-term drug and alcohol therapeutic community in California called Delancy Street. Impressed by what the program offered, Lucero set out to open his own version of a therapeutic community. From the start, Stout Street adopted the motto of “People Helping People Help Themselves.” Over the years SSF has grown and expanded from a small house in Denver on Stout Street with just a handful of residents to a newly refurbished hotel in Commerce City accommodating more than 125 residents in a self-contained community. Stout Street Foundation’s mission is to provide a supportive therapeutic community for addicts and alcoholics to help them help themselves so they may return to society as recovering, productive and responsible citizens. For more information on Stout Street’s array of programs and services, please visit www.stoutstreet.org, or call 303-321-2533.