DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Several Miami Valley recovery organizations are coming together this weekend to pool resources together, shed light on addiction, and provide help to those struggling.
A Healthy Recovery Celebration will be held at Island MetroPark in Dayton on Saturday, September 11, from noon until 4 p.m.
“Our challenge is to let people know that we are recovering,” says Alan Walder, Founding Member of the Dayton Fellowship Club.
Groups like the Dayton Fellowship Club are tackling that challenge. Members like Walder are the faces of recovery, not addiction.
“I am a person in long term recovery going on 32 years,” admits Walder. “We are 25 million strong in this country as far as people in recovery.”
“I’m a person in long-term sobriety, over three decades,” says West Side Club representative Keith Trammell. “I’ve done everything from moonshine to crack, and I recovered from it.”
For Trammell, it’s about giving back.
“People were there for me, and they supported me, and they gave me things, and they showed me a new way of life,” says Trammell.
“Recovery and addiction, it’s every facet of our community–whether it’s the person that’s experiencing it, whether it’s the family that’s experiencing it,” says Jessica Danner, President of Dayton Recovers. “So we want an event that’s going to celebrate each person because everybody is just as important in this as the next.”
The Healthy Recovery Celebration is hosted by the Recovery Alliance of Montgomery County (RAMCO) to celebrate those in clean living and sobriety and to give hope and resources to those who are not. RAMCO is made up of groups like Alco Aides, Dayton Fellowship Club, and the West Side Club.
“I’ve had a lady that’s been with me for five years that came right off of the street. She is now–health-wise–doing very well. She is learning to be a peer mentor and she’s getting her kids back. That’s just one small example in the sea of people that are involved in recovery,” describes Terry Howson, Manager at Alco Aides.
With free food, entertainment, activities and access to resources, the celebration planned comes on the heels of the FOA rally held in August.
“The whole program is designed to energize people in recovery–to give them a sense first of security, then they get a sense of self and intention, and then they get a sense of rhythm, they get a sense of form and they get a sense of intellect,” says Phillip Miller, representing Alco Aides and Good Shepherd Ministries.
The event is an invitation for all people to come together to work towards recovery as a community.
“I’ve seen a lot of miracles right in front of me,” says Howson.
“It’s such an inspiring and hopeful feeling, and that’s what continues growth in the future for the rest of our community,” states Danner.