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Rippy grateful for community support, Chamber award
When Eric Rippy founded Recovery Raw almost six years ago, it was with a tough but empowering motto.
We can’t drag you through recovery, but we will walk next to you.
It’s the model that Recovery Raw has followed, with lots of accountability and few boundaries for people struggling with addiction and so much that comes with it.
What has been a pleasant surprise for Rippy, though, has been how much the Putnam County community has supported Recovery Raw every step of the way.
“Putnam County has just been our backbone,” Rippy said. “When you come to something that has such a stigma behind it, you kind of worry about it. It’s nice to say that I’ve never had one naysayer. Everybody’s always had our back 100 percent.”
The community again had Rippy’s back on Saturday evening when he was surprised with the Amazing Dedication Award as the Putnam County Chamber’s annual nonprofit organization of the year.
In accepting the award, Rippy joked that he had no idea, but instead that he had simply been invited because of the connections he and wife Brooke have made in seven years in the community.
When Rippy started Recovery Raw, all he really knew was that he and Brooke were on board, with some from outside telling him Putnam County wouldn’t support the program.
“I had a mission. My wife supported me,” Rippy told Saturday’s audience at the Inn at DePauw. “Everybody told me a small town didn’t want to pay attention to the pain that’s going on.”
Fast forward to Recovery Raw’s annual benefit dinner last spring, when 500 seats sold out in a day and a half.
When audience members clapped for this, Rippy turned it back on them.
“That clapping is not for me — it’s for you guys,” Rippy said. “It’s for Putnam County.”
With community support, Rippy has turned Recovery Raw into more than a weekly meeting with pizza purchased by himself and a few dedicated supporters. Additional programs have been added to support recovery efforts.
“This is a lot bigger than I am,” Rippy said. “I originally didn’t want any of this. But it’s great to have the community behind us, and we’ve been able to do so much more than just feed the group every week. We’ve been able to supply appliances and detox and anything that these single moms need.”
He also does not plan to stop building the organization, having previously stated he hopes to give Recovery Raw a space of its own, one that gives the group more freedom as well as a way to reciprocate support to the community with a meeting and celebration space.
For now, the group continues to meet each Thursday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Lifebuilder Community Center, 701 E. Washington St., Greencastle
“The award is great. We’re going to keep doing what we do,” Rippy said. “We could not have done it in a better community.”