just a picnic in the park

Lifer Picnic 2025

What better thing to do on a lovely early-summer day, warm temps, nice breeze, then spend a fun afternoon with 150-200 or so of your dear friends?  That’s the annual Lifer’s Picnic, which once again went off without a hitch last Saturday in Buena Park. 

Started years ago by Don “Doc” Miller and first held in his back yard, the tradition was picked up and admirably carried on by Gary Eccher, now in a park setting.  Every year is great—I’ve been to every one since 2011, a couple more than Dave, who started going in 2013, the same year he was paroled.  And this year, like every year, the reunions are amazing. 

There are pictures posted here, as well as on Lifer’s Success Association Facebook page, and if you scroll through, you’ll see the pleasure and joy of men and women having the chance to renew their connections with other lifers, people they often spent years with, and now perhaps haven’t seen in years.  The conversation is lively, though if you don’t speak CDCR fluently, you might need an interpreter. 

The food, while abundant and tasty (thanks Gary!) is only the secondary draw...the real reason so many show up, year after year, is that lifers continue to come home, restart their lives and succeed.  And the picnic is the perfect place to welcome home newly arrived returnees as well as catch up with those who blazed the trail out.

This year, for the first time, attendance was down.  Why?  Most agree—ICE.  But as always, we were easily the biggest, happiest, neatest and best-behaved group in the park. 

For those who were there, many for the first time, the sense of community was strong, the conversations positive and the smiles and happiness genuine.  Prison humor and jokes were rampant, hugs and even a few tears were the order of the day as old friendships were renewed and new ones forged, memories revisited, and new experiences shared. 

This year BPH Commissioner Michelle Minor attended, welcomed by everyone and delighted to see so many happy and successful former lifers.  Also attending, for the second year, was FAD Head Psychologist Dr. Jasmine Tehrani, speaking with as many newly released individuals as possible, inquiring how they were getting along, and offering sage advice on reintegration, beginning with take it slow.  We were gratified to welcome these two BPH individuals, and happy they could see the ultimate fruits of their work and decisions—successful people, reclaiming their lives and personas.

If you have a lifer-loved one, know that you’re welcome at the picnic too, even if he or she isn’t home yet.  Plan on coming next year, roughly the middle of June.  It’s worth the trip and the travel pass hassle.

As one attorney said, you’ll never see a group of people who treasure their freedom and friends as deeply as those at the Annual Lifer Picnic.