BATON ROUGE - The O'Brien House has been helping people in the Baton Rouge community since 1971. One of its founders, John Camp, is an award-winning journalist who once walked the halls of WBRZ. Now, the recovery center is working to honor Camp by naming a room after him.

The room will be called the John Camp Great Room, a place where treatment meetings are held. It's used for training, teaching, and events. The O'Brien House has started a fundraiser to update the great room with new paint, flooring, technology, and furniture.

The great room could use a little TLC and work has already begun.

O'Brien House Executive Director Emily Tilley says inside the great room is where Camp comes monthly to meet with clients, tell his story, and teach them about recovery.

"He was always so kind and comforting," said Tilley.

Camp has been sober for 53 years. Transporting two men to an AA meeting in 1971 set in motion the creation of O'Brien House. While Camp is credited with being a founder of the recovery center, he's also one of its first successful clients.

"He picked up his 52-year chip in this very room on Valentine's Day of last year, that was amazing," said Tilley.

Matt Galey is Camp's son-in-law. He says it's because of Camp's influence that he serves on the Board of Directors for O'Brien House.

"This legacy means more to him than his award-winning career, the impact has the capability of spanning generations and changing lives," said Galey.

The goal is to raise $50,000 for improvements in the great room. However, The O'Brien House is always in need of funding and could use additional resources to make other improvements.

"We just want to see it get better and better as the years go by," said Galey.

"O'Brien House can be the premier recovery center in the whole south, not just in this town. With great directors and great employees, but it operates on a shoestring budget. People work here without the expectation of getting annual raises."

Galey says they want to share the hope that people have learned through the recovery programs and allow Baton Rouge to support a facility that helps others struggling to recover.

Donations can be made here.