Will Bright Foundation to hold “Restoration Swings” fundraising golf tournament

Photo courtesy of TopGolf.

In late August, the Will Bright Foundation will hold a golf tournament at TopGolf in Birmingham to benefit its scholarship program and the recently opened Restoration Springs in Fayette, a facility dedicated to helping addicts who have completed recovery programs.

The Will Bright Foundation was started by Lisa and Bill Bright, Trussville residents who lost their son to a drug overdose in 2012 after a struggle with addiction. The Bright family now devote their time to helping addicts in recovery through various projects, including Restoration Springs.

The Will Bright Foundation is seeking to raise funds for its programs in addition to Restoration Springs with a fundraiser dubbed “Restoration Swings” presented Courtesy Buick GMC.

Restoration Springs is a facility that opened in the spring of this year where people who have undergone a drug addiction program can stay and continue their recovery. The facility offers help in job skills and life skills to get them back on their feet. The 126 acre property has three cabins, a stocked fish pond and a picnic pavilion.

“When they’re in recovery and they do well, it’s like a bubble,” said Lisa Bright of people who enter and complete drug recovery programs. “There’s lots of rules that you follow. They know they have to follow those rules or they get kicked out. Well, when they get out of recovery, they’ve got to go somewhere.”

Bright said that Restoration Spring offers a place to stay after these programs are completed, especially for those that can’t go back to where they came from just yet.

“They may not necessarily go back to where they came from, because you’re just going right back and a lot of times you just don’t have the support that you need to go back to where you came from,” she said. “So they need that little extra step depending on the level of drugs they’ve been taken. It takes a while for your brain to reset.”

Those that staying are provided with means to help them when they eventually leave, namely in the workplace.

“That’s what we offer, three to 18 months for just men. We don’t have a women’s facility right now but one day we will. [We] provide them with job skill training, life skills mostly,” Bright said. “This is your new life. Chances are someone’s been on drugs 10-plus years. They don’t really know a life without that. So it’s just training that mind a little bit longer without as much rules and regulation. We obviously have rules but it’s not a recovery place, it’s a place to get yourself back and be able to be a successful person in the real world.”

Those who participate in the tournament can win several prizes. The team in first place will win a TopGolf Platinum Membership. The second place team will win a Titleist wedge and the third place team will win a dozen Titleist ProV1 balls.

In addition to the tournament there will be a buffet style breakfast as well as a silent auction and a “Hole in One” contest to win a new Buick Lacrosse valued at $40,000. For more information and to sign up, visit www.willbrightfoundation.com/golf.

Restoration Swings will be held on Friday, August 25, at 9 a.m. at TopGolf, which is located at 1111 24th St. N. in Birmingham.