Living Free Health's Art for Recovery Fundraiser Raises Over $30,000 for Addiction Services

Eight mothers enrolled in Living Free Health and Fitness's programs have given birth to healthy, drug-free babies over the past three years. That statistic, shared by founder Shelley Poerio during the organization's 4th Annual Art for Recovery fundraiser on Saturday, March 14, landed in a room of approximately 180 people who had just helped raise more than $30,000 for Pahrump's most comprehensive addiction recovery provider.

The event, held at the Pahrump Nugget, combined a charity dinner with live and silent auctions built around original artwork donated by local artists. Among the standout sales: "Moonlight over Mt. Charleston" by Jeanne Cox King fetched $1,600, and "Discovery Park" by Charyl Madeline sold for $1,000, two of the evening's clearest illustrations of what Pahrump's arts community was willing to contribute.

"I couldn't be happier with the results of this year's charity dinner," Poerio said. "We had a full house of motivated donors, and truly outstanding original artwork donated to us by Pahrump's best artists."

Beyond the auction paddles and painted canvases, attendees heard deeply personal recovery stories from five speakers drawn from Living Free's treatment and housing programs. Poerio had previewed that lineup weeks before the event, noting the fundraiser would include "two males and three females from our treatment and housing programs."

The money raised goes directly toward sustaining a set of services that exist nowhere else in the county. Founded in 2013 and established in Pahrump in 2017, Living Free Health and Fitness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides outpatient addiction treatment, state-credentialed transitional living, and therapeutic workplaces through its café and gym. The organization also runs the only women and children's recovery program in Nye County, the only state-credentialed sober housing program in the area, and the only adolescent outpatient program locally.

It's essential work that comes with real operating costs. While many of Living Free's programs are covered by grant funding or Medicaid, gaps remain, and this is where the community comes in. Art for Recovery serves as the organization's primary annual fundraiser, designed specifically to bridge those gaps.

Poerio is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor-supervisor who founded the organization after her own path through recovery. Prior to founding Living Free, she worked as a stockbroker and brokerage principal but left that career behind in search of a more meaningful way to contribute to society. The therapeutic workplaces she created, the Living Free Café and the Living Free Gym, put clients to work in structured, supportive environments as part of their recovery. "Many people in early recovery lack the confidence and esteem they need simply to interact with coworkers and the public," Poerio has said, describing the café as "a perfect opportunity to feel supported by staff and slowly begin to believe in themselves."

The statistic about the eight drug-free births was one of the most vivid details of the evening, underscoring what the night's proceeds are actually protecting: a network of interlocking programs that, in a county without many alternatives, gives people a structured path off of substances and into stable lives.