Honoring Faithful Friends - Recovery Café Lowell

On Tuesday, February 24, the Recovery Café community came together to honor three amazing women for their commitment to our healing work. Recovery Café has been privileged to have the time and energy of Diane Tomhave, Deborah McConnell and Maureen Lee for over 5 years helping out with everything from data entry to our capital campaign. Our gathering brought together Members, volunteers, donors and staff to say thank you to these incredible volunteers!

A little about each woman:

Chair of the Board Service Award
Diane Tomhave

Diane Tomhave has been an essential part of Recovery Café’s growth over the past 7 years. While on the Board she served as the Chair for two years and kindly extended her term to help us navigate our move to the new building. In addition, she has served as a Bridge Builder, on the Capital Campaign, made the “ask” at Standing in the Gap, guided Recovery Café staff through diversity training, secured speakers for special events and played a critical role as an “ambassador” for Recovery Café as we met our new neighbors here at our permanent home. Diane has been a wise voice at several critical decision points for the Café. Her sense of humor, fearlessness when advocating for this healing community, and practical way of considering important issues has been a great gift that will benefit this place for generations to come.

Executive Director Award
Deborah McConnell

Deborah’s contributions to the transformative work of Recovery Café are profound. It is almost impossible to capture the myriad ways she gives of herself and her resources to support our mission. When Recovery Café implemented our data management system, it was Deborah who painstakingly entered the data to get our system up to speed. For years following this, she diligently updated the database. This critical work informs everything from grant reports to strategic planning. Deborah serves faithfully as a Bridge Builder, holiday party organizer, and Walking Club volunteer. Deborah helped pioneer what our Volunteer Minister of Presence position is and today she is a leader of and mentor for many of the Café’s Ministers of Presence. Her kindness, grace, generosity and welcoming spirit warm the hearts of everyone who encounter her. Her gifts are a fundamental part of the healing and hope that embodies our community today.

Founding Director Award
Maureen Lee

Maureen Lee is a brilliant light of leadership, commitment and love in the Recovery Café community. Her service to this healing work goes back to attending our first Standing in the Gap. Since then, she has served as Bridge Builder, Walking Club Volunteer, Member of the Board of Directors, and in this role, served on the Resource Raising Committee and Co-Chaired our successful Capital Campaign. Without Maureen, our permanent home that we are standing in right now would not have been possible. Her incredible advocacy for ensuring this place of miracles thrives includes always willing to use whatever influence she has for the sake of the poor and suffering. She constantly gives voice to those without a voice by seeking out and asking for resources on their behalf. Maureen is the rare combination of someone who provides crucial strategic thinking at the Board level, revels in having lunch with Café Members, and whose energy and spirit inspires those around her. A few additional highlights of her contributions include: playing a fundamental role in finding our Director of Resource Development, David Uhl, convincing Macklemore to make a Recovery Café video for GiveBIG and facilitating an invitation to the current Drug Czar, Director Michael Botticelli to visit Recovery Café recently. Her contributions to building Recovery Café over the past 9 years are profound; Maureen has given her time, talent, treasure, and truly her heart to the women and men Recovery Café serves. The results of her efforts are manifest in the life transformation that happens here on a daily basis.

Thank you Diane, Deborah and Maureen for your commitment to Recovery Café. We wouldn’t be where we are today without your unique contributions to realizing and deepening our mission!