As Karlynn Fulmer currently prepares for an upcoming shindig celebrating those in recovery, she’s looking at the numbers.
According to an annual report for Carbondale recovery nonprofit A Way Out, the organization helped 861 people in 2025 — an increase of 182 individuals from 2024. It’s a positive statistic for the peer and family support supervisor, who herself has personally benefited from A Way Out’s services.
“We are in the jails, we’re in the hospitals, law enforcement is familiar with us,” Fulmer said. “But also there’s, a lot of the time, people who hear about us word of mouth.”
Soon, A Way Out will pay homage to these folks through its annual Recovery Celebration, which is slated for 11:30am-1:30pm Saturday, June 13 at Crown Mountain Park, 501 Eagle Count Drive in El Jebel. The event includes live music, burgers, hot dogs and side dishes. It also includes a bouncy house and lawn games.
According to its mission, A Way Out itself connects “individuals and families in crisis with drugs and alcohol [with] access to treatment and recovery support.” The organization’s coverage area includes residents of Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin, Summit and Lake counties, and Fulmer added that that individual has to have a “desire to get sober.”
“Is it a good fit?” Fulmer said of the process of connecting people to services. “What treatment plan is best for you? We also request scholarships and financial support.”
Of the folks A Way Out helped in 2025, 532 individuals received scholarships and connections to services, which include year-long case management, peer support services, sober housing and more. Meanwhile, 329 new family members received guidance, free counseling and online group support in 2025 alone, numbers show.
A Way Out Executive Director Becky Gordon said in a recent newsletter that “the volume of calls, assessments, and requests for treatment support surged far beyond previous years.”
“In 2025, our team expanded critical services to meet this rising demand,” she noted. “We increased access to bilingual clinical assessments, ensuring that language and cultural barriers never stood between someone and the help they needed.”
These same services helped Fulmer some time ago, she said. Fulmer, who has worked for A Way Out for the past four years, received a scholarship for sober living. After treatment she studied counseling in grad school.
Now, she’s a professional clinician.
“It really is a full-circle story,” she said.
But the Recovery Celebration isn’t just an event for the sober. Fulmer said it also honors “those we lost” to substance abuse.
“Sadly,” she said, “not all of us make it.”
Fulmer said many community partners are set to attend the Recovery Celebration. One of those partners is The Meeting Place, a local spot for 12-step meetings based out of Carbondale. Since it’s gaining more momentum, Fulmer said it is soon going to switch from monthly to weekly meditation meetings. Starting this week, the meetings take place at The Meeting Place, 981 Cowen Drive, from 5-6 pm.
In the meantime, Fulmer is looking forward to the Recovery Celebration event.
“It’s just like a cookout and it’s a lot of fun and a lot of connections are made,” she said. “It’s really cool to see the recovery community come together.”
Visit A Way Out at awayout.org or call them at 970-340-4505.