SANDUSKY - Two people spearheading Sandusky's addiction recovery movement received the city government's top honor.
During Monday's public meeting, commissioners presented spouses Joey and Mary Supina with a key to the city.
Officials only distribute keys to the city on rare occasions. The honor spotlights local residents who have made significant, long-lasting community contributions.
The culture created by Artisans
The Supinas established Sandusky Artisans Recovery Community Center, a place where, on average, 22,000 people receive help each year.
Those individuals, a majority living in Erie County, deal with a wide range of issues, often revolving around alcohol, drugs, overeating, depression and others.
Since its founding in 1996, Artisans - at the forefront of providing outlets for community members coping with addiction and mental health issues - sponsors meetings and offers guidance along with other resources to provide support for those suffering.
Most, if not all, of Artisans' services are free.
Staff members leading sessions, often referred to as peer supporters, are credentialed and go through an extensive education process. Joey, sober since 1974, and Mary, sober since 1988, are among two of the peer supporters.
Artisans, considered a nonprofit, is far from a standard 12-step program traditionally found in church basements.
While Artisans still does offer 12-step meetings and other support groups seven days a week, it's starkly different. For instance, Artisans' meetings occur in a facility more accurately resembling a multifaceted art exhibit, which helps people triumph over addictions. While there, people can paint, sculpt or take pictures on their individual roads to recovery.
The word "art" comes from Artisans integrating culture with the mental health community. Many paintings and other pieces line the walls, and both Joey and Mary support art as a therapeutic coping mechanism for people struggling with addiction.
Artisans representatives also educate the public about what recovery means through events such as the yearly Recovery Walk in September.
This past September, Joey and Mary unveiled a nearly $1 million renovation to their longtime center on East Market Street in downtown Sandusky. The center serves as a hub where a majority of these programs take place.
With these upgrades, Joey and Mary believe they can better fulfill their mission of getting and keeping people sober.
"When we first started the center, it was more difficult to be in recovery because it just wasn't socially acceptable," Joey said. "People looked at it more or less as a moral failing."
During the past two-plus decades, Joey and Mary have tirelessly quarterbacked a public outreach mission to end the area's drug epidemic - killing hundreds and inflicting pain on countless others, including their friends and family members.
"We helped people realize this is truly a mental health challenge," Joey said. "People turn to drugs and alcohol because they have had terrible traumas in their lives, and they choose to pick up pills or a drink, and it temporarily worked out for them to ease their pain."
He continued: "But it lied to them. It became their worst nightmares. Almost everyone who has an addiction abuse disorder suffers from some depression."
Artisans welcomes anyone and everyone to receive help.
"You are not alone. You are not a moral leper. You have a behavioral health challenge, and we are going to address that," Joey said.
Proclaiming their greatness
Because of these contributions, and others, city officials wanted to highlight Joey's and Mary's efforts to improve their hometown.
Before reading a proclamation aloud, Dennis Murray Jr., one of the seven commissioners approving each for a key designation, personally addressed both Joey and Mary:
Through Sandusky Artisans, these two people have worked tirelessly in our community in an effort to provide a path for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction.
The difference that their efforts have made can never be accurately measured. No one can really keep score of the lives that have been changed by their work - not just the lives of the addict or the alcoholic or those with mental health issues but in the lives of all the families that are impacted by their work.
You have allowed countless people to again become productive members of society. You have returned fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters back to their families and to society to live meaningful lives.
Thank you for believing that every person is capable of change, that every person deserves dignity and respect, and that every life is worth saving.
In a world where addiction can seem to be a relentless foe, thank you for being the warriors of hope.
Sandusky and its residents can never really express our gratitude. This is a small token of our city's gratitude.
Folks, if you want to know what the hands of God look like, take a look at their hands. These are examples that we find in Joey and Mary Supina.
Following the ceremony, both Joey and Mary were overcome with emotions:
• Joey: This community is just a loving community. It really has a heart of gold.
• Mary: It's very humbling, it's quite an honor, and I am proud that our community appreciates the work that we do. It truly is important to be recognized by the community.