Anaheim Lighthouse Staff Receives Anaheim Beautiful Garden Award

Anaheim, California – Anaheim Lighthouse, an addiction recovery center in Southern California, received recognition for its team of staff and volunteers who built a fully-functioning garden at the Mother Colony House and Founder’s Park. The purpose of the garden project is to help teach Anaheim’s youth how early settlers grow food to survive.

The Anaheim Lighthouse team was honored with the ‘Anaheim Beautiful Garden Award’ during a luncheon held on September 4, 2019. The award was given by Anaheim Beautiful, a community of Anaheim citizens, businesses, and organizations that aims to initiate, encourage, promote and actively participate to preserve and enhance the beauty of Anaheim.

According to Michael Tupponce, who spearheaded the project and won the award together with the Anaheim Lighthouse volunteers, he felt that the project was a perfect fit because it can demonstrate concepts of rebuilding and growth for people in recovery.

"The garden project had a goal of showing the parallelisms of building a new sober life with the building of a garden. We took something that had been abandoned and brought it back to life, just like what sobriety can do for a person in recovery that has been stuck in a downward spiral,” said Tupponce.

Tupponce also believes that by participating in these types of projects, people in recovery can slowly integrate themselves back into the community. “We hope that the volunteers can learn that not only can they stop being detrimental to society, but they can actually be assets to the City of Anaheim."

Tamara Jimenez, the Anaheim Lighthouse Communications Manager said, “Anaheim Lighthouse is honored to receive this award. We love Anaheim and are constantly looking for ways to give back to the community.”