Only by the Grace of God by Joe Morgan On June 1st, 1997 Discovery Place opened their doors. “There is no way Joe and Gabby will make it work....They have no idea what they are getting into....I give them 9 months and they will close.” The NAYSAYERS were plentiful and quick to profess doom and gloom for us. They did not know or believe what Gabby and I did....Gods work done Gods way will never fail. We both knew that we were just instruments in Gods hands. If God wanted this place to succeed it would. All we had to do was to “suit up and show up, let go and let God” We did and he did. Without Joe and Henry Rodgers financial support and help from Dan Evins in securing a loan from Sun Trust we could not have gotten started. Contributions from hundreds of people over the past 10 years have enabled us to run the least expensive most successful recovery facility in Middle Tennessee. Literally hundreds of men and women have made financial contributions to Discovery Place. In fear of leaving some of them out I will not endeavor to name them all. I feel that I must acknowledge some who are responsible for us being able to make it through the first five years when we did not have the funds to advertise and had to rely on word of mouth and friends to get the word out about our program. It is a historical testmament to the Providence of God in starting and maintaining Discovery Place. In July of 1998 we had been in operation 15 months and had exhausted the start up loan we received through Dan Evin’s help. There were 5 of us who had not received pay for 9 months. Our census was running around 6 to 8 men a month. It looked like the naysayers were going to be proven right.That very month we received our first grant of $50,000.00 from The Memorial Foundation. GLORY! In December of that same year we needed $3,000.00 to make the December 15th payroll and we were broke. The first Christmas card I received that day had a check in it for $3,000.00. GLORY! In the early part of 2000 Gabby, Euel and I had a meeting concerning our finances again. Once again things looked bleak. We needed $5,000.00 to stay open and had no prospects of getting it. The father of one of our alumni had a business in a Middle Tennessee town and had told me to call him if we needed help. He had given small amounts in the past and I did not know if he would give thousands of dollars at one time. When I called him and asked him for $5,000.00 there was a long pause before he replied. When he asked when we needed the money I said , now.Once again there was a long pause. He then asked if I could drive to his town that day. I made the 40 mile drive right away. When I met him over coffee at a restaurant he explained that the reason for the pause on the phone was that he had just been re paid a debt that morning which he had never expected and had written it off his books. The debt was paid for $5,000.00 in cash. He could not believe that the amount I was calling about was for that exact amount. He said he knew that this had to be a “God thing”. He reached in his coat pocket and gave me an envelope that he had just received hours earlier containing 50, $100.00 bills.GLORY! Euel Mahoney was our director from 1998-2004 and we had many needs including updating the main house. Velma MacGuire in Chattanooga was a close friend of Euels. Her first husband, Joe Dewitt was a recovering alcoholic and a wealthy man. When he died Velma began giving generously to recovery programs. She asked the DeWitt foundation to contribute to Discovery Place. The foundation helped us to remain open, make improvements to our main house and to construct a new building, The Dewitt Building” with gifts of over $100,000.00. Velma herself gave $40,000.00 from her own assets. My long-time friend Don Hunt is very interested in helping the suffering alcoholic and drug addict recover and has been a source of provided pizza for our men every week at no charge. As we grew from an average census of 6 to 8 a month to 16 to 20 in 2004 we needed office space and large meeting areas for both our guests and their families. The DeWitt building which is a 2 story, 6000 square foot structure was built at a cost of $435,00.00. Thanks to the generous gifts of The Christie Houston Foundation, The Martin Foundation,The Cal Turner Foundation and Robert G. Anderson we have the new building paid for. Generous contributions in excess of $30,000.00 by Carter and Beth Newbold and from the Estate of Tim Carroll have allowed us to keep our tuition low, at $5,200.00 for a 30 day stay. “ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD.” GLORY!!