Happy Hour Service Center to host inaugural State of Organization Address

WARNER ROBINS — The Happy Hour Service Center will host its first-ever State of Organization Address Nov. 7 at the Homer J. Walker Civic Center from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Executive Director Ryan Turner said Happy Hour Service Center is a facility that helps adults with developmental and physical disabilities. 

“We have day program services that are able to come to our campus and we have transportation that handles them getting on our campus, and we have residential services that take care of about 40 participants that live in our homes here 24/7,” he said. “We also have a community employment department that helps get special needs participants jobs in the community, so we coach them, train them, work with the organizations and companies they work with and manage their schedules.” 

Turner added Happy Hour also runs the only recycling center in Warner Robins. 

“We pick up over 400 businesses here in the community as we pick up all of their cardboard. We also have a recycling center on our campus where people come and drop off glass, plastics, cardboard and electronics and all those kinds of things,” he said. 

According to Turner, the State of Organization Address is to publicly thank the community partners who have connected with Happy Hour over the last year, while also giving a detailed view on what Happy Hour does as an organization and where they are going in the days ahead. 

The main inspiration for the State of Organization Address stemmed from one of the sayings revolving around Happy Hour: “Happy Hour is the best kept secret in Houston County”. 

“I’ve been Executive Director of Happy Hour for 14 months at this point and, in my opinion, we’re not here to be a secret as there’s way too many awesome things that happen on our campus that our community needs to know about,” he said. “This is a good opportunity for us to use a platform, connect with our community partners and our community as a whole and let them know what we do here in ways that our community can kind of connect with us and help fulfill our mission and our goals.” 

The event will also feature special guest Clay Dyer, a professional bass fisherman and motivational speaker. Dyer was born with no legs and one partial arm. Turner said he has faced many challenges in his life and added he is the perfect embodiment of what Happy Hours strives to do every day. 

“He is on the Bass Masters tour and has won countless bass fishing tournaments as he does every bit of it without any aid,” he said. “He drives his own truck and boat, baits his own hooks, casts his own rods and reels them in. Being able to use his platform and being able to communicate that with our community is absolutely perfect. I’ve known Clay for about 10 years, and you cannot leave a conversation with him without feeling encouraged, motivated and inspired.” 

Turner is looking forward to community partners seeing a full view of what happens at Happy Hour.  

“We have eight different departments that operate here, and our community and our people all kind of come in contact in one of those eight areas. People either view Happy Hour as a recycling center or a special needs facility or a group home, and so they don’t ever get a full holistic view of what all happens here on a daily basis,” he said. “In one room, unfiltered, where we can sit down and have a conversation about everything that’s happening here on our campus where people can see it, I think is what I’m most excited about because there are some unbelievable things that happen here on a daily basis.” 

Turner also looks forward to announcing the launch of Happy Hour’s first-ever End of Year Campaign. 

“It’s allowing our community to partner with us in the fulfillment of our mission which is that we believe every single person regardless of their ability or disability deserves an opportunity to thrive in life,” he said. 

Turner’s goal for this event is to make it a yearly occurrence, and he is doing just that. He said they have already got next year’s event planned and a speaker already lined up. 

“We are super excited about it, and we want this to be an annual event for sure,” he said. 

To learn more about Happy Hour Service Center, go to happyhourservicecenter.org