 My name is Lila and I am the event and communications coordinator here at the Courage Center. I just want to thank all of you first for coming. It means a lot to us for y'all to spend your lunch with us. So we're just really grateful that all you people came out because it's definitely a lot and it's rewarding to see everybody. And if anybody wants to sit down, you are welcome to. There's plenty of seats. Come on. You don't have to. So as some of you may know, this is actually an expansion. So we have our first office on Park Road in Lexington and that's kind of what we call our home base. And then this is just an expansion. So we're super excited to finally have a space where we can help people in Richland on our mission to providing a safe and a supportive setting for individuals and for families that are seeking recovery from subsidies. So this is how this is going to go. We have some awesome individuals that are going to come speak, but I do want to thank the City of Columbia for putting all this up for us. I mean they brought the stands for our ribbon to go on, our podium, our sound. So I just want to thank you guys so much for coming and meeting with me. Thank y'all. And then we have some amazing speakers. So I'm going to ask Mayor Rickinman from the City of Columbia and then Sarah Goldsby from Dei Otis and then our amazing Executive Director Randy Rush to come speak. So thank you guys and I'll take it for Mayor Rickinman. Thank you. Well good afternoon everybody. What a great crowd. There are more people here than at a city council meeting. So obviously we need to work on our invitation list, but it's great to see. First of all I want to take an opportunity to thank all our law enforcement that are here today. I think I saw the sheriff out there. Also the elected officials that are here. I know Dr. Bussells from at-large members of city councils here. I don't know if there are any other elected officials I haven't seen, but thank y'all all for being here. This is a special day. You heard this is an annex. It's an annex that's very much needed in our community. I had an opportunity through a constituent who said have you ever heard about the Courage Center. And I said no I hadn't. But I got an opportunity to go visit out in Lexington and I was really blown away about what they do and how they affect lives every day and its families and do it at no charge. A lot of people don't understand addiction is not a character flaw. It's a disease. And you got to have help to overcome that. And being able to come to where people are and being able to work with them hand in hand I think is so important. And I can't thank Randy enough for coming over the river. And coming in over here and again this I hope that we see more and more of these pop up and that we can find more and more ways to support the Courage Center. I have a friend who's now at the Courage Center John Brunney. John and I have known each other damn near 40 years I think. But having that personal connection but understanding the challenges that recovery takes and today we need it more than ever. We need more people on the ground. We need more opportunities to help. We've seen an increase in addiction. And the only way we're going to fight it is fight it together. And so seeing all of y'all here today is what makes me proud of Columbia, South Carolina. So thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Sarah Goldsby. I'm the director at the Department of Alcohol and other drug abuse services. And I am so proud and so excited to be here celebrating with you all today. It's an incredible turnout to really celebrate one of the best recovery community organizations in the state of South Carolina. The Courage Center is a leader in our eyes. Like Mayor Rickman said, we all know that substance use issues mental health issues are on the rise and it's organizations like the Courage Center that are pivotal to turning all of that around building the resilience of individuals and families and communities. And I think what we're celebrating to hear today is a beautiful new space. The growth of an organization that's going to be doing even more outreach meeting people where they are both figuratively and literally which is something that we need more and more. The space behind me if you haven't seen it the inside is absolutely beautiful and it's exactly what folks in need of services here deserve. A place that gives them dignity, a sense of hope and hope can be the most important thing that folks need when they're seeking services and they deserve the space and the people here that are going to support their journey on recovery. The State of South Carolina could not be more proud to support the work here. The incredible leadership of Randy Rush and the Board of Directors who give their life and their passion to making recovery possible for so many individuals. And so we are just so proud to celebrate what will be a lot of services building resilience for a long time to come. So thank you very, very much. Thank you Mayor. Thank you Sarah. All the representatives from the community that are here today I got to meet so many of you and I just appreciate you taking the time out of your day to come out and celebrate with us as we open this new facility in this new location and you know we're here because we believe we're called to be here. You know this is not by accident and we believe that we're being obedient and to you know we're people of faith and we believe that we were supposed to be here and we're here and we can't wait to just make an impact and help the people that we can and the people that the Lord sends our way. I'm going to ask all of our staff all the Kurd center staff, the Board family coaches, everybody I want you all just to come up and gather around me, okay? Because I want you to see that it's more than just one person. You know I have a team I have an amazing team our people who understand what substance use is and what it does to someone's life. I have family coaches who have watched their loved one suffer from this disease and they understand that it's more than just an individual it's a family disease and these folks are non-shaming they're non-judgmental they want to partner with people and help these guys are amazing and I'm blessed to be with them every single day we thank you for being here we're going to try to cut this ribbon I told me he does this every day Sarah's probably done this a bunch we're newbies so if we all get behind this thing and don't cut it, it's okay right we'll figure it out afterwards we have sandwiches please stay if I hadn't had a chance to talk to you we'd love to meet you and again I can't thank you enough for being here today and helping us launch this new location to help bring life-affirming recovery services to all of Richland County