By Heather Collins
Cindy Crowe-Layne has a mission to assist Boone County residents struggling with addiction by showing them unconditional love, acceptance and mercy while advocating for awareness. Recently, she took another step toward that goal by releasing a 15-minute online pilot of a documentary series she hopes will turn into something more.
Crowe-Layne, owner of Zionsville’s As the Crowe Flies hair salon and founder of the nonprofit Birds Be Free, hosts and narrates the series as she travels throughout the community to see what people are doing to combat addiction. In the pilot, Crowe-Layne speaks with Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen, a Boone County Jail inmate, and Scott Mitchell, a recovery activist from Freedom Church.
“If your family member has cancer you’re going to do absolutely everything in your power to support them and lift them up,” Mitchell sadi during the Birds Be Free pilot. “Well, same thing with these addicts. We have to do everything we can to lift them up and keep them excited about recovery.”
Crowe-Layne’s nonprofit organization, Birds Be Free, is hoping to raise $50,000 to help produce future episodes of the Birds Be Free series and create a full-length television series that takes the viewer on a journey down the road of addiction.
Crowe-Layne said it will take the community working together alongside law enforcement to make an impact and lower the addiction rate in Boone County, as well as implementing more programs to assist people with recovery.
“It’s going to take all of us to do this,” Crowe-Layne said.
Crowe-Layne has started several pro-recovery initiatives through the Birds Be Free organization, including a Celebrate Recovery Bible study, a book club and a pen pal program and fundraising to help women in sobriety living facilities.
To view the Birds Be Free pilot, donate or learn more, visit birdsbefree.org or call 317-733-1500.
