Offering Hope

Amanda Price wanted to do something. She just wasn’t sure what.

About five years ago, a family friend died of a drug overdose. Her children were left without a mother.

“Having seen what people go through when they lose somebody, I didn’t ever want anybody to go through that again, if I could do something about it,” said Price, who has also seen family members in West Virginia struggle with addiction.

She initially started attending Al-Anon meetings.

But it wasn’t until A Better Life – Brianna’s Hope was founded and the first training session was held in Dunkirk that she found what what she was looking for. Now on Tuesday night’s it’s easy to find her — at First American Baptist Church for the regular meeting of the Dunkirk chapter of the organization that has become her passion.

“I think a lot of people want to help,” said Price, a Dunkirk resident and 2000 graduate of Jay County High School. “They just don’t know what to do. And ABLBH offers that kind of structure that you need.

“The addicts are absolutely amazing. I love ’em. They’re like my family. I wouldn’t miss a Tuesday night.”

Price, who knew A Better Life – Brianna’s Hope founder Randy Davis through her church, met Debra and Randy Storie during that first training session in Dunkirk. The couple wanted to form a chapter there. Price immediately got involved.

Now she serves as secretary of the organization’s board and is a regular at meetings, not only attending in Dunkirk but also visiting the Redkey, Portland and Hartford City chapters. She also plans to go to meetings in Albany, which is becoming home to the 16th A Better Life chapter with its first gathering tonight.

Price’s involvement varies from meeting to meeting. As secretary she takes care of the minutes at board meetings as well as any other paperwork that is necessary. During weekly meetings, she handles the “Save a Friend” offerings, organizes any food that has been donated, listens to addicts and is generally available to help with anything that needs to be done.

Occasionally she’ll lead a weekly meeting.

While Price has dived in all the way, she emphasized that there are plenty of opportunities, large and small, to help the organization.

Each chapter keeps a list of items or services that are needed. They range from preparing meals to providing household items such as paper products to simply giving someone a ride.

Price’s personal involvement has been deeper. She’s even been asked by one of the recovering addicts to serve as her sponsor, a role that is typically filled by another recovering addict.

“I refer to her as my little sister now,” said Price, who counts many recovering addicts as her friends. “It feels good. It’s actually doing something. It’s very rewarding and feeling like that you have an impact.”

In addition to A Better Life – Brianna’s Hope, Price, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Ball State University, is also secretary of the council at Fairview United Methodist Church. And she’s been involved with Walk Indiana through her job at Muncie Indiana Transit System, where she’s worked since 2007.

But there’s nothing she feels more deeply about than the work she gets to do as a part of A Better Life – Brianna’s Hope. So that’s where she wants to focus as much of her attention as possible.

“I don’t know if anything would capture my interest and be as rewarding as what ABLBH is,” she said. “I think when I was younger I had a lot of irons in the fire. But the older I get I’d rather do one thing and do it well. It would be really hard to find anything that captures my heart the way this group does.”