Photo by Tracy Walsh
Jason Lennox and his fundraising efforts on behalf of mental health and addiction treatment programs were well documented last fall by several local news outlets.
The Southern Minnesota native, who now lives in Hopkins, walked 15 to 25 miles every day, starting in late September and continuing through October. His 307-mile trek through Appalachia from Williamson, West Virginia to Nashville, Tennessee , helped raise money for Recovery Road, a fundraising and awareness campaign he founded this past year.
As he told WCCO-TV last fall, 307,000 is the number of “people we lost in our country alone (in 2024) to drugs, alcohol and suicide.” Lennox specifically chose the West Virginia and Tennessee region for his walk, which has been hit particularly hard by these challenges. West Virginia reportedly has the highest overdose mortality rate in the United States. As he told several TV reporters in that region, he walked in memory of lives lost and for those still fighting alcohol and drug addiction and mental health disorders.
Beyond Lennox walking his route, the campaign included others who volunteered to walk on their own wherever they lived, signed up donors to sponsor their miles, and then logged their miles online.
The mission of the campaign was to raise $307,000 to support various mental health, treatment and addiction organizations and programs. The event raised about $50,000, Lennox said.
Lennox’s day job also supports behavioral health care. He is the founder of One Arrow Group, a consulting business that specializes in advising treatment centers and other related entities on the administrative aspects of operating these organizations, helping groups navigate insurance, licensing, compliance and other issues. In addition, as One Arrow Group states in a press release, the consultancy advises organizations on how to “effectively retool their revenue and financial positions … manage funds and reclaim debt … putting money back into services that help communities thrive.”
In less than two years, One Arrow Group is flourishing. It already works with more than 25 different organizations and employs about 15 staff, Lennox said. The One Arrow Foundation, a separate, non-profit arm of the business, distributes the funds raised by the Recovery Road campaign.
Beyond the campaign and his consulting business, Lennox is a speaker and author of the book A Perfect Tragedy.
But before his business success, his creation of the Recovery Road campaign and his speaking and writing, Lennox struggled with addiction. Now aged 39 and sober for more than 15 years, he had his own personal recovery road to travel. That journey especially motivates his work these days to help others.
Walking His Own Recovery Road
Southern Minnesota’s scenic terrain includes rolling hills and fertile farm land and is dotted with various small cities such as Owatonna, Claremont, Waseca, and Albert Lea. These cities, and a few others, were where Lennox grew up and, as early as 12 years old, started drinking, drugging, smoking, and getting into trouble. Indeed, these rolling hills and farmlands of Lennox’s youth soon gave way to more interior, dismal scenes for him, especially the inside of Steele County jail cells.
“By the time I was a senior in high school, I was in and out of jail,” Lennox recalled in a recent interview with The Phoenix Spirit. “I was living on the streets, homeless, lost my father a year before, he died of cirrhosis of the liver, alcohol poisoning … his dad, my grandfather, who is actually still alive somehow, also has cirrhosis of the liver.” In other words, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
By his early 20s, he had “done a four- or five-year run” of DUIs, disorderly conduct, property damage, and, eventually, faced a felony drug charge for possession.
At age 24 and still using, he was working at a group home in Owatonna, taking care of four older men. One night he overdosed. “I just had done too many drugs,” Lennox said. “Mixing drinking, prescription medications, you know, just trying to even myself out.” That overdose landed him first in the hospital in Owatonna, and then in jail because of outstanding warrants.
He remembered “going through withdrawals, convulsing … I was suicidal at that point,” Lennox said. The day of the overdose was December 8th, 2010. The next day “absolutely felt like the worst day of my life.” That was December 9th, which Lennox now recognizes as his sobriety date.
He ended up in treatment, and just a week into his recovery, his grandmother died. He was close to his grandmother at one time, and she had once hosted an intervention, which turned out to be unsuccessful. “I had left that intervention not saying good things, and I never saw her again, so that news of her passing was a crusher. So, I finally decided, I was either going to run out of there (the treatment center) or try to do this different life for her and try to make some kind of amends.”
He completed treatment and slowly started recovery, including attending 90 meetings in 90 days, though he remembers with a smile that he probably attended more meetings than that, “Heck, I was doing 14 or 15 meetings a week.”
He also completed his probation requirements, which then cleared the felony drug charge from his record. He worked various jobs and eventually entered college, graduating in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in business management from what is now known as Minnesota State University-Mankato.
Lennox found his niche working on the administrative side of behavioral health, working for several years for various large health care systems. These jobs eventually led to independent consulting and, most recently, the formation of One Arrow Group.
I had left that intervention not saying good things, and I never saw her again, so that news of her passing was a crusher. So, I finally decided, I was either going to run out of there (the treatment center) or try to do this different life for her and try to make some kind of amends.
Gaining Interest in Our Fellows
As those in recovery know, the Big Book’s Chapter 5 covers How it Works: “Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now.”
Lennox said he used to be miserable and addicted, referencing again how he chased that phantom feeling of “just trying to even myself out.” And what happened? Well, he overdosed, which led to hospitalization and then jail. Followed, thankfully, by treatment.
And what is he like now? As mentioned, these days, Lennox leads One Arrow Group, has launched the Recovery Road campaign, and continues to be a speaker on various recovery topics, including telling his own story. He and other organizers plan to do another Recovery Road walk event next fall in Minnesota.
“I just think Jason is a superstar,” said Jeanne Stafford, a New York-based leadership coach, speaker and author. Lennox is one of her clients. Of his consulting work, Stafford said, “He is a revenue recovery expert … where there is inefficiency, Jason’s work produces efficiency, putting money back into the economy through the work he does.” She also has high praise for his work as a speaker: “The world is a better place when he has more stages to speak on and more conversations to facilitate.”
Luke Wendlandt agreed: “I’ve never seen somebody so dedicated to their personal mission, period,” said Wendlandt, CEO of Cadre, a technology-based social platform for mental health and wellness based in the Twin Cities. Wendlandt walked with Lennox last fall on the route from West Virginia to Nashville. Lennox serves on Cadre’s advisory board. He added, “In an industry that changed his life, he’s working to change the lives of many,” through his consulting, speaking and his Recovery Road campaign. Wendlandt finished with:“He’s very passionate about the recovery space … and he believes making an impact for other individuals is the paramount of his life success.”
Lennox’s work seems to be fulfilling one of the Big Book’s promises: “We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.” As Lennox explained, “I’ve had this experience, I have this life now, I’ve been given this gift of sobriety. So, it’s not about me anymore, I need to get out there and help other people get back into this world.”
