Outreach in Action

Cindy Ashley devotes time to two passions: Stockbridge Community Outreach and Celebrate Recovery

by Jo Mayer and Paul Crandall

Cindy Ashley, a retired General Motors machinist after 32 years, loves a lot: God, her family and friends, horses, donkeys, dogs, sweets, and much more. Two passions, in particular, keep her fulfilled and grounded: volunteering at Stockbridge Community Outreach and volunteering with Celebrate Recovery.

Mondays find Cindy at Outreach, where she organizes the food pantry and assists clients with their monthly shopping. Known to fellow Outreach volunteers  as the “meat queen,” she carefully keeps meats as well as dry goods inventoried, up to date, and easy to find.

On Wednesdays Cindy returns to Outreach for its “Pop Up” operation, where she helps sort, pack and hand out bags of food from the Greater Lansing Food Bank.

If Outreach receives items that don’t fit the needs of the pantry or its clients (an oversized bag of parsley, for example), Cindy is quick to find a way to use it for the dinners she makes each week for Celebrate Recovery.

Faith and service are the threads that connect Cindy to both Outreach and Celebrate Recovery. Outreach works to meet the physical and social needs of its clients, while Celebrate Recovery tends to its clients’ emotional and spiritual needs.

Celebrate Recovery helps people “looking for healing from their hurts, hang-ups, and habits.” The program, founded in 1991, follows a 12-step scripture-based structure offering eight principles based on the beatitudes. This Bible-inspired approach helps bring solace, hope, sobriety, and healing to participants suffering from grief, addictions or other types of pain.

The local Celebrate Recovery group meets at 7 p.m. on Thursdays at Crossroads Community Church and offers pre-meeting dinners for $3 per person. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and dinner is served at 6:15. All are welcome. If you go, keep an eye out for Cindy, who will likely be there with a delicious dinner, ready to serve.

For more information about the local Celebrate Recovery, contact Mike Glair at mikeglair@yahoo.com.  For nationwide info: https://www.celebraterecovery.com/about/history

Cindy Ashley demonstrating her love of horses with old gelding Diesel last year. Photo credit: Ethel Mason

Cindy Ashley has plenty of love to go around, shown here with granddaughter Hannah, Priscilla the horse, and Josie the donkey. Photo credit: Becky King

Outreach volunteer Cindy Ashley is busy stocking shelves and breaking down boxes during a recent Pop-Up Distribution. Photo credit: Paul Crandall

This column is sponsored by Stockbridge Community Outreach, our local food pantry, crisis, and referral center located in the Stockbridge Activity Center (old middle school) near Cherry and Elm streets in Stockbridge. Office hours are 1-3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and by appointment. Outreach49285@gmail.com, 517-851-7285, or find us on Facebook.