On November 1 I am running the TCS New York City Marathon for Partnership to End Addiction. My goal is 5,000 dollars, and every dollar goes straight to them.

If you know Shot of Art, you know what we actually sell. Not painting lessons. Two hours where a grown adult is allowed to be messy, unskilled and completely absorbed in something, the way they were at six, before anyone told them they had no talent. People walk in carrying a hard week and walk out lighter. That is the whole business.

Here is the part I hear more often than you would think. People tell me, without being asked, that they came because they needed a way to switch off. 

Partnership to End Addiction works exactly there. They help families before things go wrong, and they stay with them when things already have. A free helpline, coaching from parents who have lived it, and prevention that takes young people seriously.

I do not have an addiction story in my own family, and I am not going to borrow one. What I have is a front row seat to how badly people need somewhere healthy to put it all.