With more than 130 family and friends looking on, 77 women graduated from the Louisville Diersen Center’s Substance Abuse Program (SAP) March 6. With Hope as its theme — and 13½ steps = 12 Steps, 1 God, No Half Measures as its motto — the group heard from keynote speaker Mark Meredith, director of the SAP program at Dismas’ St. Ann facility, about challenging their thinking, how to change that thinking, and about resentments and forgiveness and how the two are connected. The program included the Serenity Prayer by the class, other speakers, singing by different members of the graduating class, a skit performed with music dealing with issues unique to women, and the presentation of diplomas to the women. As part of their philosophy,the graduates pledged to “live by example and not by mere words.”
