Sisters of Sobriety Board of Directors

When I was 4 years clean and sober in 2008, I had a dream of helping women in recovery and to give back what was so freely given to me.  My husband Rick and I were taken to this house and I immediately saw my disease looking straight back at me.  This house was a replica of what I had been for 30 years.  Beat down with no ambition, self-loathing and no self-esteem.  I didn’t want to live.  I was going to die an alcoholic/addict, I accepted the truth in my despair.  I was incomprehensibly demoralized.  A stranger at that time stood before me and showed me that there was hope.  This person taught me unconditional acceptance and love like I had never known.  I surrendered my will September 27, 2004 and was blessed with a pathway to recovery through my higher power and the tables of NA & AA.  This began to feed my want to live.  My life hasn’t been the same since.  Just as the stranger stood before me, I stood before this home and saw hope and the potential of something “Grand”, as a couple had described it.  Recovery for this home was born that day.  My dream is now a goal for women that enter through SOS doors will feel the serenity and calmness of a life that they thought never existed.  I now can share with women a new peace and a new happiness, as I do now with my spirituality, my husband Rick, my children, and my recovery family.

I invite you to visit and share your experience, strength and hope with SOS residents or to support a sister of sobriety.

Richard Kazemier was born in Grand Rapids Mi in 1957. He is first generation American. His parents immigrated with their families after WWII. Oldest of six children he attended west side Christian and Calvin Christian high school. He entered the construction industry as a laborer in 1978 in San Diego, California. Worked as a laborer, and joined the Carpenters’ Union and the apprenticeship program and received his journeymen’s card.

In 1983 he entered his first treatment for drug addiction and alcoholism in Phoenix, Arizona. Three years later he was back in treatment after a serious relapse. He returned to Grand Rapids in 1988 clean and sober for 18 months.

In 1990 he experienced what he was told was a career ending injury. Enrolled in GRCC in the youth services program. Started working at Glenbiegh Recovery Center in Grand Rapids. For the next nine years he worked for care unit of Grand Rapids, North Ottawa Community Hospital Adolescent Treatment Center in Grand Haven MI, and Reality Counseling Services in Grand Rapids.

In 1999 Rick experienced another relapse after 14 years of sobriety that lasted 9 years.  He returned to construction during that time doing bridge work. He remarried in 1999 to his current wife Angela, they will celebrate 19 years together this year.

In 2008 rick entered Brighton Hospital for opiate addiction. He will celebrate 10 years of long term recovery this year. He retired from the union in 2013.

Angela had a dream…and that dream became a reality in 2015 with the birth of Sisters Of Sobriety… and retirement ended. Rick’s experience working in the social work field of substance abuse and his personal experience with recovery and relapse were all necessary to prepare him for the mission here at Sisters Of Sobriety.