Thanks to the hard work of several WMARI members the 18th Annual Basics of Substance Use Disorder Conference on December 7th was a great success! This was our first year of taking the lead on planning the event, and we’re very pleased to share that about 80 people attended and things went well. We’ve started to look at the evaluations and they look very positive, although there are certainly areas where we can improve.
For many years the conference was held at the First Congregational Church in South Paris, but this year we decided to try something new and move things over to the Community Room at the Paris Fire Department. A delicious lunch of lasagna, salad, and freshly baked garlic knots was generously provided by Daddy-Os of Oxford. Our keynote was again Dr. Mark Publicker and we welcomed back some familiar speakers like Bill Lowenstein, but also heard from some new voices like Jesse Harvey of Journey House Recovery and Paris Police Chief Skip Mowatt. Immediately after the conference there was an optional Narcan training provided by Krista Comas of PACE Ambulance Service in Norway. About 15 people stuck around for this valuable training.
Thanks to all of our speakers, donors, and volunteers who made this event possible! We look forward to bringing you an even bigger and better event next year!
