LifeHouse Celebrates Initial Chairman

By Misty Cryer

Dinner and entertainment can have meaning at "The Roast of George Dunagan" event hosted by LifeHouse. This event is to show appreciation for Dunagan's service and commitment to the startup of this nonprofit in its mission to help with substance use and mental health services in Eddy County.

On a side note, Dunagan is also being honored by friends and family for 50 years of service to Dunagan Associates in a separate celebration.

"The Roast of George Dunagan" will be at the Hyatt House (4019 National Parks Highway) at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, April 19, with dinner being served at 6:15 p.m.

"It's fifty bucks to come out for the night. We'll provide dinner and the entertainment of roasting George, expressing our appreciation for his work. All the proceeds will go to LifeHouse," said Philip Huston, Executive Director of LifeHouse.        

"George Dunagan was our chairman from the inception of LifeHouse until this last fall when he retired from our board," said Huston. "He was such a crucial part in LifeHouse becoming what it is and getting the community support to get us going and off the ground. We wanted to do something to show our appreciation for George and to build some awareness about LifeHouse. We thought a roast would be a fun way to do that," he said.

"We've got a few of his friends, some of the LifeHouse board members, and myself that will be hosting the event. Roasting George is a way to show our appreciation for all of his work and commitment to LifeHouse and what it has enabled us to accomplish with substance use and mental health services here in Eddy County," said Huston.

He said the organization officially became a nonprofit around 2015 before opening the first house. Dunagan was the chairman for that entire time until last fall.

"Our main office is on Westridge. We have the Avalon program, which is for women and children. We have children's therapy over on Mesquite Street by the police station. We have four sober living homes—three in Carlsbad and one in Artesia. We expect construction on our two sober homes to be completed in the next 30 days or so," said Huston.

"We also recently launched our Mobile Crisis Response Teams to respond to behavioral health crises all throughout Eddy County. That runs 24/7, 365," said Huston.

"We have several other things coming up. Our ACT Team is about to launch to help serve high psychiatric need clients," said Huston. He explained that ACT stands for Assertive Community Treatment, which is geared toward helping folks with high psychiatric needs to stay out of the hospital and out of institutions.

"Our main goal is showing our appreciation for George. There's a little benefit to LifeHouse as well. It's driven with appreciation with the benefit of raising a little money," said Huston.

"If people are interested, they can give us a call to buy tickets at LifeHouse," he said. "We would love to have a great turnout. George has been a big influence on a lot of people in the community, and a lot of other areas of the community. We're hoping to get a lot of folks out there to show what he's meant to them and to show our appreciation," he said.

In addition to "The Roast of George Dunagan" on Saturday evening, Dunagan Associates is celebrating George's 50th anniversary with the family business on Friday, April 18. "We're having a big party," said Kerri Fowler, George's daughter and co-owner of the company, noting that George isn't retiring. For information about this gathering, Fowler can be reached at 575-499-9427.