I’m Kim B. and I’m a compulsive overeater gratefully recovered one day at a time for about 13 years.  I have done various service work as suggested by my sponsor and other wonderful OA fellows over the years.  I have found service work on any level is amazing and helps keep me abstinent and out of my stinking thinking.  Being of maximum usefulness is a vital part of my daily spiritual practice.

When I heard about the Marching Band campaign that the Milwaukee Area Intergroup was starting, and that it met weekly at a time I could join, I signed up.  

I discovered that the Milwaukee Area intergroup had a paid staff member that was helping with this campaign.  We worked on fliers, posters and my favorite – social media outreach – to help spread the message of Overeaters Anonymous.  

We used a source called Patch, which is an online community newspaper filled with news reports, local events, and Neighbor Posts. We posted using various writing prompts and OA pictures.  We were given pseudonyms and emails so our anonymity would not be broken at the level of media. 

We posted carefully written Neighbor Posts at various times throughout our campaign as directed by our professional and our fearless chairperson of the committee.  We also posted Calendar Events on Patch about our local OA meetings.  Then we posted our intergroup’s special events as well, like our Newcomers Workshops and even holiday marathons.

It has been a lot of fun! In our next campaign we’re going to look at reaching out to professionals specifically on social media platforms, like on LinkedIn.  As a professional in the Healthcare field, I’m still amazed at how little healthcare professionals know about OA or even just 12-step groups in general.  I have done plenty of health fairs where we had a booth, which have been great. Going to social media platforms also seems like a great idea, especially since the pandemic. 

I’ve learned from doing Public Information and Professional Outreach work in the past that it’s just planting a seed in the community; maybe planting a seed for the still-suffering compulsive overeater in our community.  We might never see the harvest, but we know we did what we could to get the message out about this wonderful program. 

I highly encourage anyone in OA to join the Marching Band! It’s a fabulous way to serve and reach out to help those who are still suffering with this progressive, life-threatening disease of compulsive overeating. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Marching Band, please contact PublicInformation@OAMilwaukee.org

– Kim B.